Cecil Clarke, incumbent mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, kicked off his campaign for re-election at the Cambridge Suites Hotel last Friday with two CBRM employees at his side (see Tom Ayers’ account in the LocalXpress). In what may be a Nova Scotian first, there were more promises inRead More

Dr. StrangeJob declared his candidacy for mayor of the CBRM on 1 April 2016—that’s right, April Fools’ Day. The Doctor is compelled to speak because of his frustration with the existing council’s apparent lack of transparency, potential misuse of municipal tax dollars, overuse of confidentiality agreements, excessive in-camera meetings, andRead More

My quest to determine what exactly is up with Business Cape Breton (BCB, formerly the Cape Breton Small Business Centre, formerly the Cape Breton County Economic Development Authority) began in June when CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke surprised his council with the news that the municipality was leaving the Cape BretonRead More

  Halifax Examiner publisher Tim Bousquet and CBC Newfoundland commentator Drew Brown are both saying things of interest to Cape Bretoners today. Bousquet’s Morning File responds to the Cape Breton Post‘s front-page love letter to our “one millionth” cruise ship passenger (an apparently nice lady from Florida who seems to haveRead More

Let me admit, up front, that whenever Mayor Cecil Clarke mentions “Business Cape Breton,” my ears perk up. BCB used to be the Cape Breton County Economic Development Authority (CBCEDA). Eileen Lannon Oldford, the CEO of BCB, was also the CEO of CBCEDA. In that capacity, in 2011, she hiredRead More

Budget Hack is a recurring series in which the author takes money from one part of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality Budget and puts it where she feels it can do more good. All attendant flak should be directed at the author, not the people whose causes she supports. InRead More

Sydney Harbour Ports Day 2016 was held in a large, windowless auditorium in the Joan Harriss Cruise Pavilion on Thursday, May 19. In nautical terms, it was the equivalent of traveling steerage. This year’s theme was “Thinking Big: A New Home on the East Coast for Ultra Large Container Vessels,”Read More

What to make of that? I just attended Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) Mayor Cecil Clarke’s special pre-budget meeting with the business community. I would estimate attendance at 40, including press, council members and “facilitators”—Mistress of Ceremonies Eileen Lannon Oldford of Business Cape Breton (BCB) and keeper-of-the-microphone Christina Lamey. TheRead More

I’ve just waded through 811 pages of documentation received as a result of an access to information request to Parks Canada on the subject of the Never Forgotten National Memorial (Mother Canada, to you) and I have two things to report: By businessman Tony Trigiani’s own account, it was CapeRead More

Big news, fellow citizens of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality – no, Rodney MacDonald has not been re-elected premier, although you could be forgiven for thinking that, given the front page of today’s Cape Breton Post (11 February 2016):   The real news is tucked into the lower left handRead More