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

Acting on a tip from a reader, who seemed to think that CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke, his executive assistant Mark Bettens and (the now former) economic development manager John Phelan were doing an unusual amount of traveling on the public dime last fall, I sent a request under Section XXRead More

When CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke began mulling a run for the leadership of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party back in December 2017, he appeared on the CBC’s Information Morning Cape Breton and was asked by host Steve Sutherland if a win would put progress on the Port of Sydney containerRead More

There are two ways to look at CBRM Council’s decision, taken during Monday’s General Committee meeting, to increase the mayor and councilors’ salaries to compensate for the federal government’s decision (contained in that gripping bestseller Budget 2017: Building a Strong Middle Class) to eliminate a tax break that allowed themRead More

Respect to District 2 Councilor Earlene MacMullin for trying to get some accountability and transparency on the Port of Sydney file during last night’s general committee meeting. On one level, she succeeded: I’ve been puzzled as to when, exactly, council tapped Mayor Cecil Clarke to head that file and lastRead More

Out of Order As an armchair political scientist (we’re almost indistinguishable from the real thing until we open our mouths), I was quite happy to read what an actual political scientist, CBU’s Tom Urbaniak, had to say about the go-ahead at last Tuesday’s CBRM council meeting. In case you went to BostonRead More