I spent so much time this week researching trams — past and present — and electricity that I’ve had little time to do much else. So I’m going to cheat and point you to some things other people have written or recorded that I think you might enjoy.   Wrasslin’Read More

Editor’s Note: This started out as an article about Don Cherry getting fired and turned into an exploration of the militarization of professional sports. You can read Part II here.   It hadn’t occurred to me to write about Don Cherry’s firing — I tend to avoid issues that areRead More

Editor’s Note: This is Part II of what started out as an article about Don Cherry getting fired and turned into an exploration of the militarization of professional sports. You can read Part I here.   Back in 2015, this relationship between the military and professional sports was the subjectRead More

Canso Spaceport Reading Joan Baxter’s account of the correspondence between Maritime Launch Services (MLS), the proponents of the Canso Spaceport, and public servants with the Municipality of the County of Guysborough (MODG) reminded me of the correspondence between Chris Skidmore, the proponent of an RV park in Big Pond, andRead More

Premier King My interest in the recent PEI election, I will admit, was largely confined to the referendum on moving from a first-past-the-post electoral system to a mixed-member-proportional (MMP) system, which islanders ultimately chose not to do. The success of the Green Party on election night also piqued my interestRead More

I was looking over some old files as I was writing the article on the fine line between reporting and enabling and I came across a list I compiled of dubious assertions by proponents of the CBRM container port project in December 2015, seven months after the CBRM signed itsRead More

Free the information CBRM Municipal Clerk Deborah Campbell Ryan got back to me Tuesday night about another FOIPOP I submitted back in April looking for information about a matter before council. Her original estimate of the fee I would be required to pay for this (public) information was $215 andRead More

Reporters are constantly deciding which stories they will chase and which they won’t. They are always sizing people up and determining whether or not they are credible; doing background research to ensure what they’re being told is true; talking to people who might have another view of an issue orRead More

Clarification: On May 8th, 2019, the Cape Breton Spectator published a column entitled “No Port News Dept: Where’s Barry? that referred to Mr. Barry Sheehy’s role as a consultant to the Sydney Harbour Investment Partners.  The article expressed  a  concern about the lack of information from the Sydney Development CorpRead More

Celtic Serenade Donnie Campbell — or “Sydney River musician,” as the online edition of the Cape Breton Post identified him — has been awarded a 2019 Stompin’ Tom Award by the East Coast Music Association (ECMA). (Full disclosure: Donnie is my first cousin once removed on my mother’s side. FullerRead More