I think I made the Annual Report of the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) of Nova Scotia for 2016-2017. I can’t say for sure, but one of the cases described by the commissioner, Catherine Tully, sounds like an entry from my 2016 diary: I think the publicRead More

Farewell, Pastor Mansbridge Peter Mansbridge is retiring as anchor of The National and I…really don’t care. I don’t watch The National. In fact, I don’t watch CBC television. I’m an enthusiastic CBC radio listener but I probably won’t be able to tune in again until Mansbridge is gone because I’ve alreadyRead More

Lasso of Truth The box office success of Wonder Woman reminded me of the connection between her creator, William Marston, and the lie detector which reminded me that I’ve never received an answer from the Cape Breton Regional Police as to what sort of work their two “polygraph technicians” perform. ByRead More

Dean Beeby is a former Canadian Press (CP) reporter who now works for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). I have never met him — in fact, the photos that now accompany his CBC articles are the first I’ve ever seen of him — but I’ve long admired his work: heRead...

I was confused from the moment I read the subject line (which you can click to enlarge):   My best guess was that “Portege” was a typo and what Business Cape Breton had actually launched was an Entrepreneurial PORTAGE/Vanguard Program. This, I decided, would either involve entrepreneurs carrying canoes on their headsRead 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

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

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

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