What a night. Full disclosure: I went to bed at midnight, before everything was done and dusted but as the less interesting option — another Liberal majority — was looking very  likely. I say “less interesting” because the Danish television show Borgen has convinced me the only interesting governments areRead More

B’Spoke Apparel The most interesting “recently awarded” tender I ran across in my recent plunge into the Nova Scotia tenders page is one I almost didn’t write about, it seemed so anodyne. The CBRM has awarded a two-year contract to B’Spoke Apparel for Transit employee clothing. To be more precise, itRead More

This past week I was lucky enough to participate in a Statistics Canada webinar. (I write that in complete sincerity — Stats Canada invited me to participate in a webinar and I accepted the invitation as happily as if I’d thought there’d be cake. Full disclosure: I thought there’d be cake.)Read More

Double vision? I promised to ask when and how Dennis Campbell of Ambassatours Gray Line got the nod to develop the property formerly occupied by the Royal Cape Breton Yacht Club on Sydney’s harborfront and let you know what I found out. As you may recall, Campbell, whose firm operatesRead More

It all started with a sentence in a story about one of the men charged in the Cape Breton Regional Police’s “John Be Gone” undercover sting operation. You remember John Be Gone — initiated after complaints from downtown Sydney businesses about sex workers on Charlotte Street, it saw two femaleRead More

Confessions of a bad reporter I forgot about Ports Day — Port Days? Ports Days? — whatever it is, I forgot about it. I know, right? How does that happen? How does the most port-obsessed person in Sydney forget Port-a-palooza? I can only plead temporary sanity. This week, I was apparentlyRead More

Scratch any problem in almost any municipality in Nova Scotia and you will likely uncover the same root cause: the province’s underfunded equalization program. I see you over there, covering your ears and singing. And you, pretending you’re engrossed in that hardware store flyer you just fished out of aRead More

Inspiration Village Great news, guys! Sydney is finally going to ship a sea container to Central Canada! Okay, strictly speaking, we’re not “shipping” it. According to its press release, Destination Cape Breton Association will “transform” a sea container “into a life-size depiction of the many unforgettable experiences Cape Breton Island has toRead More

Economic development is the word on the street in the CBRM these days — CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke popped up on CBC Cape Breton’s Information Morning on May 4 to speak to host Steve Sutherland about it and CBRM Regional Council has vowed to meet once a month to discussRead More

Nova Scotia’s Capped Assessment Program (CAP) is a hot mess. The motivation behind it is laudable: no one should lose their house because its assessed value has skyrocketed and they can no longer afford the taxes. If you own a modest home along the Mira River, for example, and Ritchie McRitchfaceRead More