The pier, dear Premier Stephen McNeil officially opened Sydney’s new $20 million docking pier Thursday amid a gathering of politicians from all levels and stripes. McNeil said he’s confident the cruise industry will bounce back and that the new infrastructure, to be called Liberty Pier, will also help attract otherRead More

It’s toady time! I confess: I find Anthony Marlowe — CEO of MCI, savior of the Sydney Call Centre — fascinating. So much so that whenever things are slow, or I’m in need of distraction, I tune in to his Twitter stream to see what he’s been getting up to.Read More

Managing expectations Students of local municipal politics! Given that CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke seems to be pretty obviously running for a third term (despite announcing on election night in 2016 that he would do no such thing) I invite you to compare and contrast the following items: Exhibit A ARead More

Many Nova Scotians grumble about the huge subsidies the provincial government pays to keep the Yarmouth Ferry running (or not running, as the case may be), but the combined bill for that service and two others in the province  might leave those same Nova Scotians gobsmacked — over the pastRead More

Last week, PSA Halifax (formerly Halterm) took delivery of a piece of equipment that may signal the end of the Port of Sydney’s container terminal dream. The Singapore-based port operator — one of the largest in the world — received a Super Post Panamax (SPPX) crane ordered 18 months ago,Read More

The Spectator has got it hands on a message sent in early April by CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke to councilors and select CBRM staffers: Dear colleagues: I received a call from Albert Barbusci this morning with a heads-up to confirm that Novaporte has signed an agreement with a global financeRead...

The cruise industry has been hard hit by COVID-19, which is bad news for any port that has put all its eggs in that particular basket, like the Port of Sydney which counts on the industry for up to 85% of its revenues and has funneled $20 million in publicRead More

One of the best hours I spent this week was listening to my favorite podcasters dissecting the recent attempt by a ragtag group of mercenaries to overthrow the Venezuelan government — a saga that sounded like a James Ellroy novel come to life. (Seriously, if you’ve read Ellroy’s American Tabloid,Read...

I’ve speculated about it going over budget and falling behind schedule, but it never occurred to me that a virus — more specifically, a novel coronavirus called COVID-19 — would pose the biggest threat to the timely opening of the CBRM’s $20 million second cruise ship berth, but here weRead More

Ad nauseum Thanks to Tim Bousquet at the Halifax Examiner for pointing me to this article by David Roth (the one who used to write for Deadspin, not the one who sang “Jump”). It’s called “The infinite scroll” and it is an elegant though depressing exploration of the modern onlineRead More