![Decorative watering can. (Photo by By Simon Q from United Kingdom (Decorative Watering CanUploaded by tm) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons, cropped)](https://capebretonspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/watering_can_square-520x475.png)
I don’t know if it’s really necessary to “disclose” that I attended journalism school with reporter and author Janice Landry but I am going to do so (and yes, I am well aware that there is a fine line between “disclosing” something and “boasting about it;” I promise to walkRead More
The smiling faces on the sold-out crowd leaving the Highland Arts Theatre (HAT) last Friday night were proof positive they had been part of something truly wonderful. The HAT’s Tribute to The Rotary Show was an energetic and enthusiastic look back at the Rotary productions that were musical staples in SydneyRead More
As I write this column, I am struggling to make ethical sense of current events. How can politicians like Donald Trump shamelessly tell lie after lie, and still have a significant number of people willing to support them? How can men who make or act in sensitive and enlightened filmsRead...
“No leasing land to China even for one day” I heard this story on Democracy Now as I was drifting off to sleep the other night and woke up the next morning thinking I’d dreamt it, but I looked it up and it was real. Here’s the Voice of AmericaRead More
‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,’ is a line from Alexander Pope’s 1711 poem, “An Essay on Criticism,” although I first heard it as a line in a Johnny Mercer song recorded by Frank Sinatra. Perhaps I risk identifying myself as a fool by discussing a topic likeRead More
As I write this column, I am struggling to make ethical sense of current events. How can politicians like Donald Trump shamelessly tell lie after lie, and still have a significant number of people willing to support them? How can men who make or act in sensitive and enlightened filmsRead...
Fifteen years ago, my first assignment for The Cape Bretoner (a magazine that unfortunately ceased publication in 2006) was a story on homelessness in Cape Breton. I don’t recall if the 2003 winter was as severe as the past few weeks have been, but there were signs of hope andRead More
CBRM councilors pushing for information on the progress of the second cruise ship berth ran into a wall during Tuesday’s regular monthly meeting (held on an irregular day and at an irregular time). District 10 Councilor Darren Bruckschwaiger tried his best to get Public Works Manager Wayne MacDonald to admit,Read...
Sydney-Victoria figured in a Canadian Top-10 list this week but it’s nothing to celebrate: we’re one of the 10 federal ridings with the highest levels of child poverty in the country. The list is found in the latest report from Campaign 2000, a Canadian anti-poverty group that takes its nameRead More
‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread,’ is a line from Alexander Pope’s 1711 poem, “An Essay on Criticism,” although I first heard it as a line in a Johnny Mercer song recorded by Frank Sinatra. Perhaps I risk identifying myself as a fool by discussing a topic likeRead More
Last summer, I dutifully produced a regular edition of the Spectator every Wednesday throughout July and August which many of you…didn’t read. Don’t worry! I don’t blame you! It was summer. The eight weeks a year we KNOW we can leave the house without a ski jacket (knock wood). TheRead More
Welcome to this week’s installment of “Where’s Cecil?,” my ongoing effort to keep track of Mayor Cecil Clarke’s campaign appearances to judge just how much time he’s taking from his day job to travel the province in pursuit of the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia. AsRead...
![Top: Tomato seedlings by Dwight Sipler from Stow, MA, USA (Tomato seedlingsUploaded by Jacopo Werther) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons) Bottom: Potato plants by fir0002 | flagstaffotos.com.au [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html)], from Wikimedia Commons](https://capebretonspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/potato_tomato_plants-200x150.png)
What to do this week Summer is here and we begin the frantic time of planting all the warm-weather crops as quickly as possible before too much of our very short season passes us by. Every year is different, but there are some general rules of thumb about what toRead More
Makerspace update Remember I told you we were getting a Makerspace? It’s part of something called the Momentum Initiative — a cooperative effort between Innovacorp and a number of other organizations and entities, including New Dawn, Cape Breton Partnership, CBU, Navigate Start-Up House, NSCC, the National Research Council of CanadaRead More
In a speech at the University of Geneva on May 24, UN Secretary-General (SG) António Guterres launched a new ‘Agenda for Disarmament’ – Securing Our Common Future – designed to revitalize and refocus efforts to achieve the core objective the UN Charter to “save succeeding generations from the scourge ofRead More
Sydney-Victoria figured in a Canadian Top-10 list this week but it’s nothing to celebrate: we’re one of the 10 federal ridings with the highest levels of child poverty in the country. The list is found in the latest report from Campaign 2000, a Canadian anti-poverty group that takes its nameRead More
Is there no editor at the Cape Breton Post? Has the Saltwire Network, which owns the paper, instituted some sort of buggy, beta, artificial intelligence app to vet its stories? How else to explain a front-page Father’s Day feature that began like this: Just in time for Father’s Day, five setsRead More
As I write this column, I am struggling to make ethical sense of current events. How can politicians like Donald Trump shamelessly tell lie after lie, and still have a significant number of people willing to support them? How can men who make or act in sensitive and enlightened filmsRead...
Welcome to this week’s installment of “Where’s Cecil?,” my ongoing effort to keep track of Mayor Cecil Clarke’s campaign appearances to judge just how much time he’s taking from his day job to travel the province in pursuit of the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia. AsRead...
