Draft Cecil
A “grassroots” campaign to draft CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke to run for the leadership of the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservatives has begun.
The web domain “draftcecil.ca” was registered on November 14, even as the CBRM council was meeting in camera, at Clarke’s behest, to discuss the option and development contract with Sydney Harbour Investment Partners. (Can the Nova Scotia Legislature meet in camera? I bet it will if Clarke becomes premier!)
Clarke supporters listed on the site include two former Tory MLAs (Bill Langille and Brooke Taylor), one former Tory MP (Gerald Keddy), the president of the Lunenburg West PC Association, the secretary of the Colchester North PC Association, a “card-carrying Progressive Conservative” of no fixed address and Joyce MacDougall, the “2017 PC Campaign Coordinator for Cape Breton.”
According to the Cape Breton Post, MacDougall, “one of the organizers” of the campaign, is a “retired training co-ordinator with Business Cape Breton.” This adds just another twist to the relationship between the mayor and BCB, an organization he worked for in its earlier incarnation as the Cape Breton County Economic Development Authority. As mayor, he declared the group the CBRM’s economic development arm and ensured it received thousands of dollars in municipal funding.
To date, there is only one official candidate in the race to replace Jamie Baillie. Pictou East MLA Tim Houston announced his candidacy in front of several hundred supporters in New Glasgow on November 19; an announcement that was, according to the Chronicle Herald:
…one of great enthusiasm with guests punctuating each speech with loud applause, and even getting up to dance when the entertainment for the afternoon, the Pistol Packin’ Papas, bookended the announcement with the sounds of their rock ‘n’ roll tunes.
(Weirdly, that wasn’t the only “bookending” at the event. According to Global News, Houston was also “[b]ookended by his wife and children onstage.”)
Cecil’s strength, according to the website, is “resume over rhetoric.” Here’s the resume:
As a senior minister in Dr. John Hamm’s PC government, Cecil delivered the historic Nova Scotia Offshore Accord – and the hundreds of millions of dollars that came with it for our province. As the now twice-elected mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, he slashed the debt and attracted new jobs.
That list of municipal accomplishments seem kind of short for a mayor who got elected promising a grand total of 200 “positive changes” for the CBRM, but I will leave the nit-picking and fact-checking to provincial Progressive Conservatives. It’s their future, after all.
Eyking goes East
I just received an email notification that Sydney-Victoria MP Mark Eyking is leaving for China tomorrow with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. Here’s the full announcement:
Mark Eyking, Chair of the International Trade Committee, will travel to China tomorrow with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, returning to Ottawa on December 7.
During the trip, they will meet with Chinese government and business leaders to build on the progress that the two countries have made since the Prime Minister’s first official visit to China in September 2016.
“I’m looking forward to increasing trade, especially seafood and agriculture products, among others that we produce. A substantial tourism agreement is expected, which will give a huge boost to this vital industry in our area. We will also continue work to solidify Chinese investment for our region,” says Eyking.
China is Canada’s second-largest trading partner, largest and fastest growing source market for international students, and third-largest source of tourists.
“We will also continue to work to solidify Chinese investment for our region.”
That’s…vague
And the illustration doesn’t help — that’s Eyking watching Trudeau “thanking first responders after Thanksgiving 2016 flooding.”
I am so confused.
References
And finally, looking back over this week’s edition I realized that I have cited the report of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (CIMM), an Acadia university prof’s study into the economic impact of the cruise industry in Atlantic Canada, CBRM council minutes, the Nova Scotia Registry of Joint Stock Companies and the Expropriation Act.
My abiding love for reference material, no matter how dry, made me think of this:
[signoff]
