Reality Bites

I was on CBC radio last week along with Marilla Stephenson, to discuss the Chamber’s mayoral debate. I got up early, put a pot of coffee on, wrote up some notes for what I wanted to say. It was a phoner, and the Information Morning folks talked first to Stephenson, who went on to say […]

David Boyd is running for mayor, and not for the Halifax school board, but he has issued a press release calling for a school uniform policy in Halifax schools. No word yet if he has gotten around to reading the city’s five-year transit plan, or if someone has told him of the existence of the […]

There are about 10,000 tourists in town today, disembarking from four cruise ships. That’s a record. I don’t pretend to understand the economics of cruise ships. Perhaps more people are opting off the European vacation and taking relatively less expensive cruises closer to home instead. Maybe the cruise lines are offering fantastic deals in a […]

I received a press release today: On September 16, JUDES (Just Us! Development and Education Society), NS BALLE (the Nova Scotia Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) Oxfam Canada, TransFair Canada, and the Ecology Action Centre Food Action Committee sent a two question survey to all the candidates running for HRM council. The purpose of […]

The internet portion of the municipal election runs this Saturday through Monday, Oct 4-6. But the “real” election day, the day the polling places are open, isn’t until two weeks later, Oct 18. This unfortunate scheduling presents The Coast with a pickle—when do we publish our mayoral coverage? Many community organizations and the candidates themselves […]

One after another, councillors spent an entire hour last night facing the camera and boldly condemning speeding through neighbourhoods.

Halifax council was scheduled to vote on the controversial Waterside development Tuesday night, but earlier in the day word came that developer Ben McCrea had asked that council put off the vote until after the election and consider buying him off—in return for tax gifts, he has offered to consider reducing the building height from […]

Sure, it’s a small thing. All the same… Neal Alderson of Dartmouth was surprised Monday to receive two e-voting cards, and two separate personal identification numbers, in the mail. Just as surprising, his wife Carla also received two. While he received one for “Neal” and another for “Neil,” hers differed in the spelling of her […]

I’ll just leave this one out there with no comment… From allnovascotia.com: An associate deputy director in the Intergovernmental Affairs Department scored the largest pay raise in the Nova Scotia civil service last year. Scott Logan earned $202,822.98 in the year ending March 31, 2008. That was 19% more than the previous year, and 45% […]

I interviewed both candidates in the District 13 (Northwest Arm- South End) council contest. You can hear them both here, unedited: Sue Uteck Beverly Miller Also, Andy Murdoch, our web editor, has complied a thorough district profile that’s of much interest.

I’m curious what people think of Democracy 250. My take is that the whole thing is part tourism promotion, part get-out-the-vote, part, well, graft. But even if you don’t agree with that last part (and I’m open to persuasion), I’d like to know how we measure the first two. I called Democracy 250 and asked […]