Donkin The Donkin Mine saga took an unexpected turn last week with the sudden death of coal baron (and Kameron Collieries owner) Chris Cline in a helicopter crash. Weirdly, this was followed almost immediately by (yet another) rock fall in the mine itself. Fortunately — yet again — nobody wasRead More

What to do this week The heavy work of planting should all be done by now. Until it’s time to plant cover crops and late season greens in another month, if it’s not planted now, it’s not going to get planted. The cool weather this spring has slowed things downRead 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

You would have to be completely foolhardy to question the brain trust that has formed to support spending public money to build an airport in Inverness but foolhardy’s my middle name so — hold my beer. The group — consisting of former premiers, businesspeople, consultants and Mary Tulle — hasRead More

Editor’s Note: Given that the mayor of our municipality has spent much of his time in office — and thousands of public dollars — promoting a Port of Sydney container terminal, the Spectator feels all Nova Scotia port news is of interest to its readers. So when Halifax-based reporter RickRead More

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles about the conclusions of Canada’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) inquiry. You can read the first one here.)   Why does the MMIWG inquiry declare a “Canadian genocide”? Why raise such a storm of controversy overRead More

Believe it or not, summer is officially here and tourists, as well as former residents of our fair city, will be coming to Cape Breton. The latter group, especially if they grew up in the North End of Sydney, will definitely drive or walk around their old neighborhood during theirRead More

What to do this week By now, the bulk of the spring planting should be accomplished, or nearly so. Even with this cool weather tomatoes should be in the final stages of hardening off if not transplanted already. Squash plants should get planted in another week so you might startRead More

Complex systems Former Nova Scotia health minister Maureen MacDonald took to Facebook this week to express frustration with some of the recent criticism she’s seen leveled at the province’s healthcare system. She took particular issue with a speech given at a healthcare rally in Halifax by Paula Minnikin, a formerRead More

Note: On Friday June 21 I received a revised version of the travel expenses and have updated the totals accordingly — I have also attached the revised travel sheet at the end of the article. In the five months after losing his bid to become leader of the provincial ProgressiveRead More