Contributors

Letter from Oklahoma: Not Entirely Thankful

Letter from Oklahoma: Not Entirely Thankful

November 23, 2022 at 2:19 pm

Editor’s Note: I heard from my old friend Willy Howell out of the blue this week, and realized his message was actually pretty timely, given it’s almost American Thanksgiving and Willy, an enrolled member of the Olgala Sioux Tribe, has not always had reason to be thankful to the UnitedRead More

Embracing Winter: The Cold Club

Embracing Winter: The Cold Club

November 23, 2022 at 2:17 pm

Editor’s Note: I caught myself looking rather bleakly at the snow yesterday and decided I needed a timely reminder about embracing winter, so I re-read Paul MacDougall’s 25 November 2020 piece on coping with the cold and I thought you might like to too.   There is probably as muchRead More

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

Fast & Curious: Short Takes on Random Things

November 18, 2022 at 9:00 am

McKenna & Co I was going to call Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) a many-headed hydra but that’s the wrong metaphor, it is decidedly more of an octopus, with tentacles everywhere in everything—railroads, ports, real estate, nuclear power—but just one head, as the Southern Investigative Reporting Foundation reported back in 2013:Read More

Holding the Line?

Holding the Line?

November 16, 2022 at 12:34 pm

Genesee & Wyoming (G&W) Canada Inc, owner of the Cape Breton & Central Nova Railway (CBNS), is restructuring its Nova Scotia holdings. In September, G&W Canada established a wholly-owned subsidiary called the Nova Scotia & Eastern Railway (NSERL). On October 17, G&W Canada President Rick McLellan—who also serves as presidentRead...

Having Fun, Wish You Were (Paid to Be) Here!

Having Fun, Wish You Were (Paid to Be) Here!

November 16, 2022 at 12:32 pm

Before we look at Tourism Nova Scotia’s “influencer” program—which involves paying social media personalities to visit and write about us—I thought I’d have a look at some tourism statistics and, as it happens, Tourism Nova Scotia provides stats going back to 2010 on its website. I focused on just threeRead...

The CFIB and the Disgruntled 2%

The CFIB and the Disgruntled 2%

November 16, 2022 at 12:30 pm

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has done a survey right here in the little old CBRM. The CBRM Business Environment Survey was conducted between December 2021 and February 2022 and published in April 2022. I missed it but a reader was kind enough to send it along, knowingRead More

CBRM Council: Waterfront Development

CBRM Council: Waterfront Development

November 9, 2022 at 12:53 pm

I watched Westmount native Doug Doucet, founder of Bedford-based Doucet Developments—and a suite of related companies—present his plans for waterfront development to CBRM council last night. Much of the presentation (which also featured Chris Baldwin, his chief financial officer) focused on Doucet himself and his companies and why it’s aRead More

Centre 200, Sydney, Nova Scotia

CBRM Council: We’re Not Selling Centre 200

November 9, 2022 at 12:51 pm

Back in May of this year, District 8 Councilor James Edwards moved that council call for a staff Issue Paper on the pros and cons of selling Centre 200 and the Mayor and 10 councilors present that night (Councilors Paruch and O’Quinn were not there) approved it unanimously. Writing thisRead More

December 1984: Now We’re Arguing About the Canada Games

December 1984: Now We’re Arguing About the Canada Games

November 9, 2022 at 12:49 pm

Editor’s Note: This is Part IV of a series that will continue until I find some answers or give up, whichever comes first. You’ll find Part I here and Part II here and Part III here.   I spent my Sunday afternoon looking at microfilm at the CBU library. IRead More

"The Coming of the Loyalists," Henry Sandham (1842-1910), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

That Time We Were All United Empire Loyalists

November 9, 2022 at 12:47 pm

As noted elsewhere, I spent far too many hours this weekend reading issues of the Cape Breton Post from December 1984, in which I found very little of relevance to my ongoing series on our failure, that year, to bury the power lines on Charlotte Street, but a great dealRead More