Booze News The Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation (NSLC) reported a 4.2% increase in earnings for the year ended 31 March 2020 — earnings were up $9.9 million at $247.3 million. I’ve been curious about the effect of the pandemic on liquor sales and was fascinated (although I have to admit,…Read...

Daily briefing Premier Stephen McNeil and Dr. Robert Strang began by offering their condolences to the families of the Northwood resident who died on Saturday. Strang announced one new case of COVID-19 today which, added to the seven new cases announced Sunday and three announced Saturday brings total cases inRead More

I needed three electronic devices and one notebook to follow last night’s CBRM council proceedings from home. I tuned into the livestream on my phone and cast it to my television, but the image was flickering so badly I was afraid it might trigger a light-induced seizure, so I openedRead More

For-profit prisons This has to be the most unfortunate story pairing of the month — the journalistic equivalent of steak and white wine. Or Dr. Pepper. Or motor oil. First, on 11 October, the Chronicle Herald‘s John DeMont (whose writing I frequently enjoy) wrote a puff-piece about Geoffrey Rubin, theRead More

Equalization Nation Estimates put turnout for an equalization protest in front of the Provincial Building in Sydney on Wednesday at upwards of 600. Protest organizers, members of the advocacy group Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness, have to be happy with those numbers — their message is finally starting to resonateRead More

Equalize this Developments on the equalization front this week must be gratifying to the stalwart members of Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness (NSEF), a CBRM-based advocacy group that has been meeting monthly to discuss the issue of municipal financing for 15 long years. Against the backdrop of budget discussions, whichRead More

Resign to Run? Resign to run laws are pretty self-explanatory: if you hold public office and wish to run for another public office, you must first resign the office you hold.  Five US states (Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii and Texas) and several cities (including Dallas, Philadelphia and Phoenix) have them.Read More

Editor’s Note: In a shining example of cooperation between independent news sources, the Spectator is pleased to present a story from this week’s Victoria Standard. If you like what you read, consider subscribing — you can even get a paper version.   With federal legalization of recreational cannabis less thanRead More

I’ve got to start going to the CBRM board of police commissioners meetings. Thanks to Tom Ayers’ LocalExpress report, I got to experience Tuesday’s meeting secondhand and it was almost as good as being there — I could just about hear the excitement in Police Chief Peter McIsaac’s voice asRead More