Late Friday afternoon, councillor Jim Smith announced that he was dropping his reelection bid. Smith currently represents the existing District 9, which stretches from the Burnside business park all the way south to Thistle Street, including the new Bridge Terminal. In the newly re-jigged council districts, however, Smith found himself with a difficult choice. Burnside […]
Jim Smith
Posted inNews + Opinion
Jim Smith
2010 grade: C+ 2009 grade: C- 2008 grade: D 2007 grade: C+ North Dartmouth would be well-represented by one of those Highfield Park community activists the King’s College journalism class wrote about in a recent issue of The Coast. Or by a blue-collar working stiff with a mortgage on an Albro Lake Road bungalow and […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Jim Smith
2010 grade: C+ 2009 grade: C- 2008 grade: D 2007 grade: C+ Last year, Jim Smith tried to escape council by throwing his hat in the NDP’s North Dartmouth riding contest for the provincial MLA seat, and got soundly trounced by the sitting MLA, Trevor Zinck, who was subsequently tossed out of the NDP caucus […]
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Tax politics heat up
Last week, Dartmouth area councillors took an unprecedented public stand against the so-called “tax reform” proposal, which will likely come before the full Halifax council this Tuesday, January 26. The Harbour East Community Council—which consists of Dartmouth councillors Gloria McCluskey, Jim Smith, Bill Karsten and Darren Fisher, Cole Harbour councillor Lorelei Nicoll and Eastern Passage […]
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Dartmouth councillors reject “tax reform”
Dartmouth councillor Gloria McCluskey tells me that the Harbour East Community Council will unanimously vote tonight to express its opposition to the “tax reform” proposal. The Harbour East Community Council consists of all the Dartmouth, Eastern Passage and Cole Harbour councillors: McCluskey, Darren Fisher, Jim Smith, Bill Karsten, Lorelei Nicoll and Jackie Barkhouse. McCluskey says […]
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Council notes: “tax reform” dead in the water
[Note: Tuesday’s 10-hour council meeting covered a lot of ground. I wrote about much of it, here and here, but should probably add a few notes. This post is about the tax reform issue; I’ll follow it up with a post further exploring the sewage issue.] “Tax reform” Council spent fully two hours debating whether […]
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Jim Smith, MLA Wannabe
Cell: 229-8887 Grade this year: C- Grade last year: C- Smith surprised me this past year. During discussion of the Clairmont Report on violence, he pointed out that everyone was ignoring Clairmont’s suggestion that brothels and prostitution stroll areas be legalized. And, through the transit tax debates, he solidly protected his low-income constituency. He remains […]
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District 09 – Jim Smith
Jim Smith opted not to talk with me or fill out the council questionnaire, saying he was disappointed with his C+ grade from last year. He also confused The Coast’s report card with The Coast’s Best of Halifax readers’ poll, and suggested that “one councillor” (i.e., Dawn Sloane) had stuffed the electronic voting box to […]