CBRM council met for almost four hours Tuesday evening and I thought I’d try to do a general round-up of the meeting but the very first item I began to research sent me down a rabbit hole from which I’ve just emerged, so I’ll have to continue my coverage inRead More

Among the many unknowns about life under Nova Scotia’s new majority Progressive Conservative government is the fate of our access to information system. While it seems unlikely things could get any worse, there is no guarantee they will get better. But even as I write, the CBC’s Michael Gorman isRead More

In the days leading up to the provincial election, all the usual suspects sharpened their pencils, marshaled their tired little troop of “facts” and wrote the editor of the Cape Breton Post in support of Albert Barbusci’s Novaporte project. Port Fest ’21 was kicked off at the end of JulyRead More

Welcome back, Bettens It’s taken me weeks to confirm this item, but Mark Bettens, formerly CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke’s executive assistant, has returned to the CBRM Fire and Emergency Services Department from whence he came. As you will recall, when Cecil Clarke became mayor in 2012, he created two newRead More

Editor’s Note: We’re dipping into Michelle Smith’s archive for gardening tips that remain timely. This column first appeared on 22 August 2018.   What to do this week It is all about harvesting this time of year, and how to keep up — just don’t sleep, and you will doRead More

In 2018, Nova Scotia appointed a committee which created a commission to review the province’s electoral boundaries — a process that must, by law, take place every 10 years. The electoral boundaries commission, chaired by Dr. J Colin Dodds submitted its final report to Attorney General Mark Furey in AprilRead More

Cape Breton East was formerly known as Sydney River-Mira-Louisbourg and before that as Cape Breton West (seriously — West has become East, please don’t ask me how). The district has gone back and forth between the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives but has been held by the Tories since 2006, whenRead More

Cape Breton Centre-Whitney Pier was previously just Cape Breton Centre and, you will no doubt be surprised to learn, contained much less of the Sydney neighborhood known as Whitney Pier than it now does. Cape Breton Centre has been all over the map, politically, having elected New Democrats, Liberals, ToriesRead More

Wikipedia informs me that in 1933, “the district of Cape Breton was divided into five electoral districts, one of which was named Cape Breton East. In 2001, the district name was changed to Glace Bay. In 2003, the district lost a small area at its southern tip to Cape BretonRead More

Northside-Westmount — formerly Cape Breton North — has mostly gone back and forth between the Liberals and Tories with the exception of the 1978 general election when Len Arsenault briefly turned it NDP orange. The riding produced a Liberal Premier, Russell MacLellan, before turning into what I think I canRead More