I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the spaces we move through as our days pass and our lives unfold. While we are all familiar with the concept of physical space—the space we navigate as we drive to work, or wheel our shopping carts through Sobey’s—philosophers also draw attention toRead More

Perhaps the only thing uniting the electorate of the United States in the last days before our presidential election is a sort of bemused disbelief at where we are and how we got here. Calls for imprisoning political opponents, refusals to accept election results, and unabashed jingoism are actions AmericansRead More

The election is over, the votes are counted and I lost. It’s time to move on, but I can’t, because while Mayor Clarke claims the recent mayoralty campaign was the dirtiest of his career and Rankin MacSween remains stoically baffled by Clarke’s accusations, nobody is taking responsibility for the deplorableRead More

I recall once meeting a retired teacher and asking her how she had spent her summer. Her answer: “Eating, drinking cheap wine and reading trashy novels.” Now that’s a summer! Unfortunately for me, I know someone with a subscription to The New Yorker who drops a dozen copies in frontRead More

American presidential elections are not won at the base of either party. The dichotomy of the two major American parties has historically rested on a fairly centrist pivot, where roughly 40% of both Republicans and Democrats can be found. This loose crowd in the center, unpinned by party affiliation orRead More

It’s a facet of a healthy democracy that never fails to impress me: the final handshake. Two candidates who have fought a long, hard campaign shake hands — one graciously accepting defeat, the other graciously acknowledging victory. And then there’s what happened in the CBRM on Saturday night. As reportedRead More

What were you doing when the CBRM election results were announced? I was reading an article about assisted death and ruminating on Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance). Note to self: do not contemplate serious philosophical, moral, or ethical issues while reviewing municipal election results.Read More

Cape Breton artist Onni Nordman is enjoying a growing reputation these days. His work is already popular in Nova Scotia, where it often appears in gallery shows and events like last month’s Lumière. And now Nordman is becoming known in Europe, where he recently had exhibitions in Munich and Helsinki.Read More

American presidential elections are not won at the base of either party. The dichotomy of the two major American parties has historically rested on a fairly centrist pivot, where roughly 40% of both Republicans and Democrats can be found. This loose crowd in the center, unpinned by party affiliation orRead More

Talk of “rigged elections” is rife in the United States right now, thanks to one Donald J. Trump, but Susan Dodd, a professor at the University of King’s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, worries that the shift to electronic voting here in our own province has opened the door toRead More