News
Views
Government
On campus
Noticed
In the harbour
Footnotes
News
1. Jordi Morgan
Jordi Morgan started his career with the CBC, but moved over to politics in 2000, when he ran unsuccessfully as the Canadian Alliance candidate for the Dartmouth federal riding, losing to Wendy Lill. He then went on to work for Stockwell Day, and after that as manager of caucus services for Conservative leader Stephen Harper. He’s also worked as campaign manager for several federal Conservative candidates locally.
But in 2010 Morgan went back to broadcasting as a talk show host at News 95.7. That’s where I met him. He’s a likeable guy, a principled Conservative who hasn’t lost his humanity. We agree about more things than you would imagine, and take our disagreements in stride. We’ve had beers together, and I’m sure we will again.
Morgan lost his News 95.7 gig in 2013 and went on to become the vice-president for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.
Yesterday, as spokesperson for the CFIB, Morgan announced that the organization is happy, happy, happy with Stephen Harper’s latest budget. “CFIB doesn’t use the word thrilled very often around budgets, especially federal budgets, but this one we’re giving it an ‘A’,” he said, according to CBC reporter Melissa Oakley.
That’s all well and good — it’s a free country, and the CFIB and Morgan are entitled their opinion and can tell the world about it if they want. Oakley, on the other hand, has a professional duty as a reporter to tell her readers that Morgan used to work directly for Harper and the Conservatives, but that part of the story seems to have been left out of the article.
2. Money
A police release from yesterday:
At approximately 11:30 a.m., a woman who was out for a walk came upon a sum of money scattered on the street at the intersection of Laurier Street and Woodland Avenue. She picked up the bills and contacted police. Officers have not been able to identify or locate the owner.
The owner or anyone with information regarding the owner is asked to contact Halifax Regional Police at 902-490-5016. In order to claim the money, the person must be able to specify the amount of money, what denominations and any other useful information to determine ownership.
3. Bullshitter of the Day
“NSBI is here to support Nova Scotia business, explore and enhance opportunities, including opportunities for our vibrant film and creative industries,” says Laurel Broten.
4. Romcom
Ben Affleck went to Cape Breton to kidnap a relative of a mob boss, but along the way found a dead dude’s thumb and the crew from Baywatch playing volleyball on the beach and because he’s such a hot stud, he got Jennifer Lopez to delesbianize. The two ran off together to Cheticamp, where they lived happily ever after. The end.
Views
1. Brunswick Street
“In late April 1966,” explains Stephen Archibald, “I walked over to Brunswick Street and took a couple of photos of old houses. In the photo above, a boy looks back at the camera (a fixed focus Kodak) suddenly evoking the final shot in Truffaut’s touching, drama 400 Blows (Les Quatre Cents Coups). From the beginning that was the miracle of photography; to frame a view or preserve a moment. Later you might discover what it meant.”
Nearly 50 years later, the Heritage Trust is trying to bring attention to the historic character of Brunswick Street, so Archibald has dug out his photos from that day.
2. Wong watch
Kids should go to school in the summer and have the winter off, says Jan Wong:
You might ask what students would do for jobs. Well, this past winter, snowfall records were smashed across New Brunswick; students could provide seasonal reinforcements for municipal teams plowing streets and strewing salt.
3. Cranky letter of the day
Am I the only one who notices that when you call 311 to report a pothole and they do eventually come to fix it, it’s the only one they fix?
There might be 12 more holes only a few hundred feet away, but they ignore those potholes until someone else reports them. Considering the time spent getting there with all their equipment and the time driving somewhere else, wouldn’t it be more efficient to do all the potholes on any given street, instead of going back a second or third time?
Ron O’Reilly, Dartmouth
Government
City
Heritage Advisory Committee (2pm, City Hall)—the committee will recommend approvals that will allow the owner of the building at 1533 Barrington Street to collect a $96,878 grant and a tax credit of $124,701 for work to the facade of the building. This is the former Freemasons Lodge building, former home of Locas Billiards and, perhaps most famously, stage for the White Stripes. Shouldn’t the White Stripes get a plaque?
St. Margaret’s Bay Coastal Planning Advisory Committee (6:30pm, Tantallon Public Library)—the committee is still trying to woo the Tantallon Crossroads horse back to the barn, that is, to retain the rural character of the area with strict planning rules. But the owners of the properties at 5434 and 5444 St. Margarets Bay Road want nothing to do with it, so staff notes that:
Since this project was initiated, the owners of these properties have requested that these properties be removed from consideration in this project. After discussions with the local Councillor and the owners, staff will consider issues related to this property as a separate initiative.
Here’s a picture of 5434 St. Margarets Bay Road:
The property in question is the stretch of houses across from the Bike and Bean. I gotta say, the owners have a point. Why should their modest homes be subject to planning guidelines when just a few years ago acres and acres of forest a kilometre down the road were bulldozed to make way for the suburban wasteland of the Superstore/Canadian Tire/Shoppers (or is it a Lawton’s?) complex?
Like I said, the horse is out of the barn. Just rename the place Cole Harbour West and be done with it.
Province
Legislature sits (1–5:30pm, Province House)
On Campus
Noticed
Gus Reed has analyzed all 8,810 Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency grants and contributions over $25,000 issued since 2006. This was a badly needed meta analysis of ACOA.
Comments Reed:
This was entertaining; Energy, Tech, Women — all pretty obvious. Others were more problematic, and I ended up just classifying the 368 transactions of $1 million or more. That accounts for 54% of the money. Here’s how I categorized the awards. The lesson is to be a university or mention the word “technology”:
(I’m showing just the Nova Scotian portion of the graphic)
Reed also lists the top 100 recipients of ACOA largesse since 2006. Top of the list is Memorial University, with a whopping $73,257,906. Second? The Atlantic Wallboard Limited Partnership, receiving $42,405,000, every nickel of it outright grants.
The Atlantic Wallboard Limited Partnership is a gypsum wallboard manufacturing plant in Saint John. It’s remarkably hard to find out who actually owns the Atlantic Wallboard Limited Partnership, or whom the partnership is between. I spent 12 bucks this morning on a futile search of the company via the New Brunswick Registry of Joint Stock Companies (the Nova Scotian Liberal government is talking about privatizing this province’s joint stocks registry in the same manner, with the inevitable result of having people like me conducting fewer searches), but I did find a Saint John city council report from 2007, which lists the president of the Atlantic Wallboard Limited Partnership as, yep, J.D. Irving.
Go figure.
ZIM Constanza, container ship, Valencia, Spain to Pier 42
Oakland Express, container ship, New York to Fairview Cove West
NYK Diana, container ship, Rotterdam to Fairview Cove West
Footnotes
I’ll be on the Sheldon MacLeod Show, News 95.7, at 4pm.
the wallboard plant is on the site of the old St Johns Shipbuilding.
the previous federal liberals paid Irving to shut it down as shipbuilding was a sunset industry and do something else with the land.
I read through the St Mags stuff, can’t see what they were trying to foist on those old houses. Organic paint colours? bmws required? Are they trying for restrictive covenants. Will certainly dampen my house searching around there.
I’d like to point out that the potholes on Brunswick St. are also quite historic. They look at least 100 years old.
Phew. White on yellow, white on lime. That is one sweet lifesaver coloured graphic that hurts the eyes “:o)