Cape Breton Centre-Whitney Pier was previously just Cape Breton Centre and, you will no doubt be surprised to learn, contained much less of the Sydney neighborhood known as Whitney Pier than it now does. Cape Breton Centre has been all over the map, politically, having elected New Democrats, Liberals, ToriesRead More

Wikipedia informs me that in 1933, “the district of Cape Breton was divided into five electoral districts, one of which was named Cape Breton East. In 2001, the district name was changed to Glace Bay. In 2003, the district lost a small area at its southern tip to Cape BretonRead More

Northside-Westmount — formerly Cape Breton North — has mostly gone back and forth between the Liberals and Tories with the exception of the 1978 general election when Len Arsenault briefly turned it NDP orange. The riding produced a Liberal Premier, Russell MacLellan, before turning into what I think I canRead More

In 2012, the provincial electoral boundaries commission took 79% of Cape Breton Nova and 59% of Cape Breton South and created Sydney-Whitney Pier. The 2019 commission lopped off the Pier and added some Sydney River-Mira-Louisbourg territory and — voila! — Sydney-Membertou was born. I’m going to do some electoral genealogyRead More

Victoria-The Lakes was created in 1867 (you better not be lying to me, Wikipedia) as simply “Victoria” and comprised all of Victoria County. It apparently remained like this until 1993, when it “gained the area north of the southern border of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.” In  2003, it Read More

I could not understand why our surroundings had changed so greatly in one instant. I thought it might have been something which had nothing to do with the war, the collapse of the earth which it was said would take place at the end of the world, and which IRead More

Headhunters hired to solve our physician shortage? Give me a break! In 2019, The Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine published a ” systematic review of recruitment and retention of healthcare professionals in rural Canada.” The review explored “a pertinent issue for healthcare professionals and recruiters alike: which factors are mostRead More

Election Fever? As I write, I am in the process of missing a Cape Breton appearance by NDP leader Gary Burrill, who is in Glace Bay this (Monday) morning. This past weekend, I pulled into a parking lot in St. Peter’s next to Tim Houston’s campaign bus and rather thanRead More

Barry Sheehy — “author, historian, businessman and veteran” — barged into my summer on Tuesday, via one of his trademark screeds for the Cape Breton Post. Although his bio acknowledges he is “involved with Sydney Harbour Investment Partners, which is marketing the port [of Sydney] for development,” he writes theRead More

Editor’s Note: Spectator contributor Paul Strome sent along this open letter to candidates in the upcoming provincial elections, presented as a list of his chief concerns.   Reconciliation and the 94 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission are not just federal issues. Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and GirlsRead More