For the last regular edition of the Cape Breton Spectator before Monday’s federal election, I decided to ask each of my regular contributors to submit a question I could pose — along with one of my own — to all the candidates in the Sydney-Victoria and Cape Breton-Canso ridings. SomeRead...

Dolores Campbell, the Spectator‘s commentator on social justice issues, asked this question of federal candidates in Cape Breton-Canso and Sydney Victoria: Would your party or, in the case of the independents, you consider establishing a Guaranteed Annual Income for all Canadians that would provide them with at least the basicsRead...

Michelle Smith, the Spectator‘s resident gardener and expert on all things agricultural, asked this question of federal candidates in Cape Breton Canso and Sydney-Victoria: Increasingly extreme weather events due to climate change are challenging agricultural producers. Clearly, decisive action needs to be taken to slow or stop the process ofRead...

Sean Howard, the Spectator‘s war and peace commentator, asked this question of federal candidates in Cape Breton-Canso and Sydney Victoria: In the 1990s Canada was a leader on international disarmament, receiving plaudits for its role in negotiating the ‘Ottawa Convention’ banning landmines, and earning the nickname ‘the nuclear nag’ forRead...

Rachel Haliburton, the Spectator’s Ethicist, who has written frequently about the necessity of taxes, asked this question of federal candidates in Cape Breton-Canso and Sydney Victoria: Given deficits are rising and healthcare in trouble, would you (or your party) consider raising the GST back to where it was before formerRead...

Mary Campbell (me), the editor/publisher of the Spectator, who has complained frequently about the state of the country’s access to information (ATI) system, asked this question of federal candidates in Cape Breton-Canso and Sydney Victoria: A 2017 audit of the federal access to information system (led by Fred Vallance-Jones ofRead...

Chief Paul responds… The press release Albert Barbusci issued last week announcing his plan to establish a waste plastic-to-fuels plant in his “logistics park” in Edwardsville included the following quote from Membertou Chief Terry Paul: As active partners in SHIP, the reduced carbon footprint of our facilities is key toRead More

I’ve been paying pretty close attention to this drama I think of as the The Albert Barbusci Show, but I must have missed the episode where we asked Barbusci, our port promoter and the CEO of Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP), to identify a company with an untested method ofRead More

Do you ever hear about a subject for the first time and think it must be a brand new thing and then do some googling and realize that, actually, people have been on about it for years? That’s what happened to me with port promoter Albert Barbusci’s scheme to establishRead More

A more telling or ironic snapshot of endangered Mother Earth in the 21st century could scarcely be imagined: a naval war game by a nuclear-armed alliance delayed by a storm that drew its force from the human-caused warming of the oceans. The hurricane, of course, was Dorian, and the warRead More