You know that really annoying stage toddlers hit at about age two? When no matter what you tell them, they say, “Why?” I never outgrew it. So when CBRM mystery solicitor Jim Gogan appeared at Tuesday’s nominating committee meeting to discuss changes to the Articles of Association of the Port ofRead More

On Tuesday, I watched a Drewry webinar on the Ports and Terminals market. The brief (under an hour) presentation was based on Drewry’s Ports and Terminals quarterly report, in which the Maritime research and consulting firm looked at key trends in the sector. Presenter Neil Davidson, senior analyst in Drewry’sRead More

What to do this week: So now that the seeds are ordered, let’s plan those windowsills. Onions get the first rotation on the best windowsill. Best means warmth and light. You can plant onions by mid-FEBRUARY. You can also start new perennial flowers then. I tell you, compared to buyingRead More

Here we are in 2017, and all around us we see signs of turmoil, angst and politicians running afoul of basic ethical principles! I was going to write about Justin Trudeau’s marvelous tropical Christmas vacation, but I have decided to tackle that topic next month instead, since I think thatRead More

I was just a kid the first time I learned the word “scab” could be applied to something other than a rough patch of skin. I had gone with my father to visit his aunt in a nursing home up the street from our house. The staff were on strike, andRead More

“Just because we’ve made gains doesn’t mean we can’t go backwards,” says Dana Mount, co-organizer of the CBRM version of the Women’s March on Washington, “It’s up to us to be vigilant.” Mount and Pamela Johnson of the Coady Institute’s International Centre for Women’s Leadership brought together over 100 peopleRead More

Monday’s second coming berth announcement was a star-studded affair. Everyone who is anyone in Nova Scotia politics wanted to be there in person to see the CBRM’s $20 million concrete dream come true. Cape Breton-Canso MP (and Master of Ceremonies) Rodger Cuzner got laughs by warning those in attendance fromRead More

How to Choose a Cruise I was poking around the internets, looking for information about the cruise ships we’re expecting in 2017, and I stumbled on Cruise.Com, an online travel agency specializing in cruises. I found you could look up information about individual vessels so I checked out the CelebrityRead More

You may have heard that the Spectator locked horns this week with Christina Lamey, whose LinkedIn profile describes her as a “Communications Advisor at Cape Breton Regional Municipality – Mayor’s Office.” Lamey has a habit of ignoring my emails and when I confronted her about it at Saturday’s port meeting,Read More

Editor’s Note: This week marks the launch of a new feature in the Cape Breton Spectator, “Bean There,” a monthly column by Cape Breton farmer and seed-saver Michelle Smith.  It’s only right that I came to the end of the United Nation’s Year of Pulses with a visit to Agriculture Canada’sRead More