Growing up in South Bar, wedged between the larger centers of Sydney and New Waterford, you quickly learn that to get anything done for “The Bar” you have to work hard, organize and make a lot of noise to get any kind of action from local politicians who focus onRead...

Editor’s Note: I received my copy of this open letter, released by the Health for All Network on 12 October 2022, from Dr. Monika Dutt, a public health physician in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland & Labrador whom I’ve interviewed in these pages previously and who stated, in an accompanying pressRead More

Why do we in Sydney have to settle for second best? We have consultations on projects but recommendations are ignored without much, if any, published analysis. Outrageously exaggerated costs are often quoted to justify inaction. Take the costs of installing buried power lines on Charlotte Street. I have not seenRead More

With the highest child poverty in the country, the highest unemployment ever, the highest property taxes in the country, infrastructure that is falling apart, our healthcare in a crisis, roads that are unsafe to drive on, cost of living the highest in 30 years, home ownership that is completely outRead More

Editor’s Note: Joe Noseworthy’s high school graduation photo popped up in his social media feed last month as his own daughter was graduating from high school prompting this delightful reflection on New Waterford in the ’80s.   Thirty years this week since this pic was taken! It amazes me, theRead More

Dear Editor, You know what’s wrong with Cape Breton Island? It’s not the seniors, who have been accused of not wanting economic development and jobs here. It’s not the unions, who have been accused of wanting their unions on every construction development. It’s not the high residential taxes or highRead More

One of my first memories is walking hand in hand with a giant down the South Bar sandbar road to the ocean. He wasn’t really a giant, he was my great grandfather, a veteran of the First and Second World Wars and a retired miner who didn’t say much andRead More

You claim that the Cape Breton Spectator has ambitious goals. Yet, you publish articles like this week’s “Where’s Cecil?,” which strikes me as the kind of gossipy story that one might find in a supermarket rag. Despite his status as a former mayor, Cecil Clarke is now a private citizenRead More

Over the last two years, Nova Scotians of all ages have been impacted by unprecedented grief and loss. The COVID-19 pandemic and public health restrictions have prevented people from coming together, supporting one another, or participating in many traditional rituals of mourning and celebration. Individuals have suffered physical, emotional, orRead More

Finally we are seeing common sense being applied in the Council Chambers of City Hall. Darren Bruckschwaiger, Earlene MacMullin, Cyril MacDonald and Gordon MacDonald are using the God-given common sense that the CBRM taxpayers cannot afford higher taxes whether in the form of raising taxes or lifting the CAP. NowRead More