Home Matters So, this happened: .@HomeMattersCB asks @TimHoustonNS if he supports a container pier for CBRM. Premier says he’s willing to see a business case. #nspoli — michael gorman (@MichaelTGorman) October 21, 2021 “@HomeMattersCB” is Sydney-Membertou MLA Derek Mombourquette and I groaned out loud when I read this. Mombourquette’s ownRead More

Enquête, Radio-Canada’s investigative news show — think, Fifth Estate in French — on Friday dedicated part of its last episode of the season to a story involving a familiar face: It seems “Montreal businessman” Albert Barbusci, in addition to working tirelessly to promote the Port of Sydney (and his FloridaRead More

I’ve been bellyaching for years about how little information we were ever given about Mayor Cecil Clarke’s travel in support of the port project. His expense reports were notoriously shy on detail, as illustrated by this 2018 entry in which he doesn’t even reveal the city in which his “PortRead More

The key word heard most since the COVID-19 virus took over our lives is “together” and, in the final analysis, if we don’t overcome this “together” by strictly following all the rules that have been set out for us by competent people who struggle to make us aware of justRead More

Each week, I pick a subject and do my research and try to give some sort of coherent account of what I’ve learned but this week — I give up. I’ve been trying to make sense of the latest developments in the Sydney container port saga and I am utterlyRead More

What better way to begin 2019 than by looking back at 2018 with CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke? Clarke appeared on CBC radio’s Information Morning Cape Breton on January 3 to reflect on the year just passed and the Spectator listened with interest. In particular, it listened to the discussion ofRead More

Pity the poor former world leader. How do you follow up a first act like that? I mean, if you’re not former US President Jimmy Carter, who has dedicated himself to good causes (like Habitat for Humanity and world peace), making himself more popular in retirement than he ever was in office.Read...

Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien says the Sydney container port project promoted by Albert Barbusci of Sydney Harbour Investment Partners (SHIP) has a 90% chance of success but “sometimes you don’t succeed,” so whatever happens, his reputation as a prophet is guaranteed. Chrétien spoke to reporters on the sidelines of the ThinkRead More

Perhaps one of Charles Dickens’ most famous lines was Oliver Twist’s “Please sir, I want some more.” First published in monthly installments from February 1837 to April 1839, Oliver Twist was pretty much an attack on Britain’s Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834. As G.K. Chesterton wrote in an introductionRead More

The Cape Breton Post was very good to CBRM Mayor (and potential provincial Tory leadership candidate) Cecil Clarke this Christmas. It allowed him to “open up” about his publicly funded trip to China in back-to-back articles on December 19 and 20. It helped puzzled Cape Bretoners decide what they should buyRead More