Joe Ward, author of The Councillors’ Pledge, is running for Councillor in District 7. That’s right, the guy who wrote the councilor rule book and coerced incumbent and wannabe councilors to play by his rules has entered the political game. Is that fair? Isn’t that like the developer of PokémonRead More
I had intended to update my payday loans story when I heard back from the provincial government and the local Sydney credit union on the subject. If you read the original piece, you’ll know much of it was devoted to a consideration of pilot projects being tested by credit unionsRead More
Sadly, I had a bit of a slip and my final pledge went down the crapper, so I am changing strategy to tackle my 1000 More Implausible Elect-Me Promises. In retrospect, 1000 promises may be a bit ambitious. Rather than publish a rambling list of irrelevant promises, I will critiqueRead More
Love is in the air, folks! And all over the front page of the Saturday Cape Breton Post. If you turned off your critical brain and simply let it wash over you, you could respond with a doting smile and best wishes for the bride and…mayor. Yeah, my critical brainRead More
Did anyone else search Page 3 of the Saturday 27 August edition of the Cape Breton Post for the notice, “This message has been approved by the campaign to re-elect Cecil Clarke?” I searched in vain, assuming there could be no other explanation for the non-story that occupied most ofRead More
The Spectator has recruited some actual Americans living in the actual United States of America to provide insight into the 2016 US presidential election. We kick off this week with a recap of the conventions and a discussion of the US electoral map with our eye in Denver, Colorado, ShayRead More
Nova Scotia’s mania for public-private-partnership (P3) school construction was brief—more of an episode than an illness—but what an expensive episode it was. It started in 1997 and ended in 2000 officially, but the 39 schools built under the P3 banner were the subject of 20-year leases, so the P3 programRead More
There will be a mayoral race in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality this fall and I for one, am glad. That’s partly because acclamations are no fun—who wants to watch incumbent Cecil Clarke debate himself?—but mostly because I don’t think they’re particularly healthy for a functioning democracy. Instead, Rankin MacSween,Read More
Dr. StrangeJob has not fallen off the wagon since starting the pledge last week, so he is still hoping to catch the CBRM gravy-train. Since Joe Citizen’s CBRM Councillors’ Pledge continues to raise a stink with CBRM taxpayers, there is now talk about a new rank in council. Hence, theRead More
The Cape Breton Regional Municipality has been doing a much better job of submitting audited financial statements to the province on deadline each year. I know this because CBRM CFO Marie Walsh answered my queries — as did the spokesperson for the Nova Scotia department of municipal affairs — andRead More
