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Stephen McNeil’s 20 per cent electoral victory: it was a referendum on…?

Nova Scotians, Stephen McNeil said, were “loud and clear they appreciated our handling of making sure we live within our means.” Reading the electoral tea leaves with all the self-serving wisdom of a Donald Trump tweet, McNeil added: “I believe the election was a referendum on that.” Oh dear…

June 19, 2017 By Stephen Kimber

So that didn’t take long. It will be three weeks tomorrow since Nova Scotians voted in a provincial general election. You may remember that election: the one in which Stephen McNeil’s Liberals came within a few hundred votes here or there of losing their majority status, the one in which more than six out of...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: NS election 2017, Stephen McNeil

People are fallible, and that’s why internet voting is a horrible idea: Morning File, Tuesday, June 6, 2017

June 6, 2017 By Tim Bousquet 6 Comments

News 1. Recounts Denise Peterson-Rafuse, the NDP candidate in the Chester–St. Margaret’s riding, has filed for a recount, I reported yesterday: Peterson-Rafuse, the incumbent, lost to Liberal challenger Hugh MacKay by just 90 votes, 3,112 to 3,022 total votes. PC candidate Julie Chiasson received 2,229 votes, and Green candidate Harry Ward received 413 votes. Thirty-four ballots were […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: American election, American privateers, American Revolution, Annie Leibovitz photographs, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS), Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board, Denise Peterson-Rafuse, internet voting, Johan Gregor van der Schardt, John Hanc, Jordan MacEwan, Michel Samson, Michelangelo sculptures, Mintz family donation, Museum of Vancouver, Nancy Noble, NS election 2017, Pam Berman, Paul Withers, Randy Boswell, recount, Rob Wolf, Russian government hackers, The Icarus Report June 6, Why Nova Scotia wasn't the 14th state, William Sandeson trial

Denise Peterson-Rafuse files for recount

June 5, 2017 By Tim Bousquet 2 Comments

Denise Peterson-Rafuse, the NDP candidate in the Chester–St. Margaret’s riding, has filed for a recount. Peterson-Rafuse, the incumbent, lost to Liberal challenger Hugh MacKay by just 90 votes, 3112 to 3022 total votes. PC candidate Julie Chiasson received 2,229 votes, and Green candidate Harry Ward received 413 votes. Thirty-four ballots were rejected. Chester–St. Margaret’s was one of […]

Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Denise Peterson-Rafuse, Justice James Chipman, NS election 2017, recount

Four more years… What might have been

Just as Stephen McNeil walked on to the stage to acknowledge his new minority government reality, CBC news announcer Sandy Smith cut in. There’d been yet another change in the party standings, he said, and Stephen McNeil’s Liberals were now in “majority territory.”

June 5, 2017 By Stephen Kimber

For me, the sweetest, saddest moment of last Tuesday’s election night lasted not much more than a moment. And it didn’t happen until the tail end of the first hour of Wednesday morning. Sometime after midnight, I gave up on the TV broadcast. At that point, the CBC decision desk still couldn’t say for certain...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Gary Burrill, Jamie Baillie, NS election 2017, Stephen McNeil

Since none of the above is not on the ballot…

During last week’s CTV leaders’ roundtable, Jamie Baillie issued a direct appeal to voters: “For those people who are undecided or leaning to the NDP, I am asking them to take a look at us because we share the same goal.” The same goal, yes… The same values?

May 29, 2017 By Stephen Kimber

Who would you like to see win tomorrow’s provincial general election? Who should win tomorrow’s provincial general election? If you answered none of the above to either — or both — of the above, welcome to the club. And perhaps welcome too to that more select group — the none-of-the-above-but-definitely-not-Stephen-McNeil club — which Progressive Conservative...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: Gary Burrill, Jamie Baillie, NS election 2017, Stephen McNeil

Are election campaigns places to discuss serious issues?

In theory, this election could have been an ideal opportunity to debate the kind of society we want for the future. That’s because, for perhaps the first time in 20 years, one political party appears to be offering an alternative to more of the same.

May 23, 2017 By Stephen Kimber 3 Comments

Election campaigns are no place to discuss serious issues. That’s what Kim Campbell — Canada’s now-you-see-her-now-you-don’t, first-and-only-female prime minister — infamously declared in 1993 in the middle of her one and only federal election campaign as a party leader. Though I was among those who mocked her at the time, I now believe she was […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Log in, Province House Tagged With: Gary Burrill, Jamie Baillie, Kim Campbell, neoliberalism, NS election 2017, Stephen McNeil

Havana, Halifax and the state of democracy

This ultimately may be the real problem with our democracy: It is impossible for the average voter to believe anything any politician promises.

May 1, 2017 By Stephen Kimber

I confess. I spent a quiet weekend that my Nova Scotia journalist colleagues no doubt filled to the almost end with feverish when-will-he/will-he pull the plug media speculation about the date of our next provincial election. That’s because I spent my weekend in the relatively un-suspense-filled and almost completely Nova Scotia-free world of Havana, Cuba....

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: NS election 2017, Stephen McNeil

The way politics works — and doesn’t — in Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is the only province in the country without legislation to set provincial election dates. The province’s chief electoral officer suggested such legislation in a 2015 report. Stephen McNeil even supported the idea before his Saul-like reversion to the status quo on the road to his own re-election. That’s the way these things work in Nova Scotia.

March 13, 2017 By Stephen Kimber

I got a call the other evening from an earnest young telemarketer person, urging me to pony up cash so the New Democratic Party could wage glorious, seat-re-gaining war in the coming provincial election, which he suggested — with even greater earnestness and urgency — the party is expecting to be called “any day now,...

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Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, Province House, Subscribers only Tagged With: NS election 2017, Stephen McNeil

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

Keonté Beals. Photo: Keke Beatz

Episode #21 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne is published.

The young R&B artist Keonté Beals — Tara’s former NSCC student, by the way — started out singing in church in North Preston and performing popular covers before digging into who he is an artist. On his debut album KING, he sings about love, loyalty, and authenticity. He zooms in for a chat about its creation, his children’s book, and how not even a pandemic can keep him down.

This episode is available today only for premium subscribers; to become a premium subscriber, click here, and join the select group of arts and entertainment supporters for just $5/month.

Please subscribe to The Tideline.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

About the Halifax Examiner

Examiner folk The Halifax Examiner was founded by investigative reporter Tim Bousquet, and now includes a growing collection of writers, contributors, and staff. Left to right: Joan Baxter, Stephen Kimber, Linda Pannozzo, Erica Butler, Jennifer Henderson, Iris the Amazing, Tim Bousquet, Evelyn C. White, El Jones, Philip Moscovitch More about the Examiner.

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Recent posts

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