Although he’s now apparently entertaining the idea of remaining mayor even if he wins the PC leadership race, Mayor Cecil Clarke is on record saying precisely the opposite. It happens at the 09.42 mark of this February 6 interview with Steve Sutherland of CBC’s Information Morning Cape Breton. (Clarke hadRead...
Earlier this summer, those of us living in Ontario suffered through a provincial election campaign filled with attack ads, ad hominem critiques, anger, angst and fear. Underlying the anger, angst and fear felt by a large percentage of the electorate was a queasy feeling that public services, particularly in theRead...
I wanted more information about political leadership conventions in Nova Scotia and my googling kept leading me to the same door: that of retired Acadia University political science professor Ian Stewart. Stewart and a colleague, University of Calgary political science professor David Stewart, have literally written the book on theRead More
CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke has declared his candidacy for the provincial Tory leadership, which he intends to pursue while remaining mayor. Clarke points to Nova Scotia’s Municipal Government Act (MGA) which places no restriction on municipal officials seeking other offices. (Neither, it should be noted, does the Municipal Elections Act.)Read More
One of the great advantages of citing I.F. Stone as an influence when you launch a news publication is that you never have to attend a political event — no press conferences, no port announcements, no chamber of commerce luncheons, no public meetings. Stone’s journalism was based entirely on theRead More
CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke wants to be the next leader of the provincial Progressive Conservative party and has been touring the province trying to determine whether anyone else wants to see him in that role. I’m guessing this means he is running. The alternative — that he will announce publiclyRead More
Resign to Run? Resign to run laws are pretty self-explanatory: if you hold public office and wish to run for another public office, you must first resign the office you hold. Five US states (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii and Texas) and several cities (including Dallas, Philadelphia and Phoenix) have them.Read More
Draft Cecil A “grassroots” campaign to draft CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke to run for the leadership of the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservatives has begun. The web domain “draftcecil.ca” was registered on November 14, even as the CBRM council was meeting in camera, at Clarke’s behest, to discuss the option andRead More
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
Not all political parties are equal, but it appears that candidates from each of the three main provincial parties are equal in their use of social media. The Liberal party dropped a candidate over inappropriate Twitter comments. An NDP candidate was forced to resign because of inappropriate online statements, andRead More
