Mary Makes a Meme How it started:     How it’s going:   On the bright side, having let it it sit empty for two years (and catch fire once), the entrepreneurs who bought the building for $225,000 are hoping to sell it for $399,000.   Mary Makes Another MemeRead...

“Charting a new course for affordable housing in Nova Scotia,” the report dropped by the Nova Scotia Affordable Housing Commission this spring, is one of the most annoying things I’ve read this year — and I read The Codfathers. The pointless graphics, large photos and needless repetition (particularly with regardRead...

Having written about guaranteed annual income (GAI) many times over the past five years, I was pleased to read Cape Breton-Canso MP Mike Kelloway’s May 10 opinion piece in the Cape Breton Post about the possibility of introducing such a plan in Canada, but rather taken aback by the bizarreRead More

I spent so much time on The Codfathers this week, I didn’t really have much left over to cover other issues but there are a few things I’d like to touch on, however briefly:   Affordable Housing I heard Catherine Leviten-Reid on CBC Information Morning Cape Breton today discussing aRead More

Yesterday’s CBRM council meeting was a relatively short (just under an hour) and swiftly moving affair. The agenda contained just six items, the first three of which were approval of minutes, approval of agenda and proclamations (CBRM will mark White Cane Week from February 7 to 13). So I willRead More

District 2 consists of most of the former town of North Sydney, plus all or part of Bras d’Or, Dalem Lake, Florence, Georges River, Groves Point, Hillside Boularderie, Little Bras d’Or, Mill Creek, Millville, Southside Boularderie, Point Aconi and Upper North Sydney. It is, like most CBRM districts, very oddlyRead More

District 6 is located almost entirely within the former city of Sydney — including the neighborhoods of Ashby and the Southend —  but also encompasses a section of Grand Lake Road. It’s shaped sort of like a single-cup coffee filter. (I’ve just realized that I’m probably telling you more aboutRead More

I moved to the Czech Republic in 1996, seven years after the Velvet Revolution (and three after the Velvet divorce, which saw the former Czechoslovakia split into its constituent Czech and Slovak parts). One of the favorite topics of conversation among ex-pats in those days was the quirkiness of CzechRead More