You can be forgiven if you can’t keep track of who’s running for the Green party.

The party has been grappling with candidates pulling out at the last minute in many ridings. These include:

•Guysborough-Sheet Harbour. The party’s website recently listed Tony Larue as the candidate, but the official list released Tuesday by Elections Nova Scotia names Amy Florian.

• Halifax Chebucto. Jeff Herbert dropped out, and was replaced by Chris Hanlon.

•Hants East. Michael Hartlen withdrew as the candidate. Emerich Winkler appears on the official list.

•Preston. The original candidate was David Smith, replaced by Sarah Densmore.

• Richmond. John Percy has taken over from Trina MacDonald.

N.S. Green leader Ryan Watson admits that his party has a problem.

“We have to build the organizational strength and continuity so that we can hit the ground running next time.”

This time, they’re just hitting the ground.

Federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff says Rodney MacDonald and his Tories aren’t the competition in next month’s provincial election.

“It seems apparent that this is a two-way race between the Liberals and the NDP,” Mr. Ignatieff said Sunday afternoon after a rally of about 300 party faithful at the Dartmouth Sportsplex.

“So it’s perhaps not relevant to talk about the Conservatives.”

He said it is obvious provincial Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil is the one with momentum.

“You just look at the guy and you think he’s a safe pair of hands. He could be the premier of this province,” Mr. Ignatieff said. “It’s just as clear as day.”

Well, I’m convinced.

The CBC, by contrast, runs a puff piece so sycophantic that, as one commenter put it, it “sounds like it was written by Ignatieff’s mom”. The headline is enough to give it away.

Ignatieff gives N.S. Liberals much needed boost at rally

Neither news story answers the question every Nova Scotian wants to know: Did Iggy need a GPS to find his way to Dartmouth?

N.S. NDP plans to reduce rates of disease

Nova Scotia’s NDP has developed a plan it hopes would help reduce the rates of disease in the province, including cancer and diabetes.

Party leader Darrell Dexter says Nova Scotians have some of the worst chronic disease rates in the country, but he believes that trend can be stopped.

If elected on June 9th, Dexter says an NDP government would create a task force that would identify ways to help lower the rates of acute and chronic illnesses in the province.

The NDP is also promising to establish a council made up of representatives from health advocacy groups and the government that would award so-called healthy living grants.

No doubt about it: If the NDP is elected, disease in Nova Scotia will be talked to death.

We find that, around here, Atlantic Frank has the same effect.

The signs ask people to elect Mr. Morash and say in small red lettering across the bottom that Robert Stafford is his official agent.

Elections Nova Scotia said Mr. Morash is not the official candidate yet and that means he has no official agent, but what he has done does not violate the Elections Act.

Morash says he’s the only one running for the nomination and, anyway, the party’s website already shows him as their guy.

The nomination meeting will finally take place on Monday and, indeed, it looks like Morash is a shoo-in: The meeting will convene at his campaign headquarters.

Liberal leader Stephen McNeil groveled in apology, assuring everyone that such exposure of events on the public record is intolerable (or something like that).

The name of the Liberal Party worker who sent the photos to CBC has never been made public—until now. Atlantic Canada Frank has the leak news.

Fingerprints on her flapdoodles
By Dee Kupp

I have it on impeccable authority that Stephen McNeil’s liberal caucus was in complete revolt mode over the Lenore Zann Flapdoodle Scandal (Frank 557). And not over the handling of the ill-advised affair, but the fact that it even happened in the first place.
[…]
To the provincial caucus members there just didn’t seem a point to sending any images of Lenore Zann to anybody.

Why? They couldn’t see any point to it, and apparently neither could CBC-TV’s political reporter Paul Withers and his bosses.
[…]
But there was a point.

The point was, I’m told, that Dale Palmeter is still mad that they don’t raise the gay flag in Truro.

Palmeter, the 45-year-old paid political sidekick to Kings-Hants MP Scott Brison, is technicalIy the “volunteer” Stephen McNeil referred to when he said somebody had been reprimanded over the political embarrassment caused by the added exposure of Lenore’s flapdoodles.
[...]
The logic behind the flapdoodle leak, I’m told, was that if these people are too prudish to even raise the gay flag, just wait until they see Lenore Zanri removing her goodself from a communal shower full of naked women on a lesbo television show.
[…]
According to sources, the Internet images were sent to Withers by Dale with the knowledge and support of campaign chairman Chris Macinnes.

That makes more sense than the absurd claim that the photos were an attempt to “smear” Lenore Zann. According to Frank’s source, the photos were sent by a long-time, (formerly) respected Liberal operative for the purpose of impelling the Liberals to adopt his agenda—and with the connivance of high-level party apparatchiks.

If that was the intention, the scheme backfired magnificently. It sounds like Mr McNeil’s apology to Lenore Zann missed the point. Some Liberal operatives owe both her and their own party an apology for trying to use her to bolster their side in an internal party debate.

The story appears in the print edition of Atlantic Canada Frank issue 558 (dated 12 May) but not online, so there is no link to the full text.

Mr Dexter has a series of brainstorms to alleviate recurrent closures of emergency rooms at Nova Scotia hospitals:  Hire an “expert” advisor/co-ordinator to act as health-care czar, “consult” people affected by lack of medical services, and commit a potentially unlimited quantity of cash.

No government anywhere in Canada has ever tried any of that.  Dexter must be a genius.

Leader Darrell Dexter said if he becomes premier, he will hire an adviser who will work to improve access to emergency care.

“This person will actually be in charge of co-ordinating resources right across the province to help keep emergency rooms open rather than what we have done over the last four years, which is closing emergency rooms,” he told reporters at a news conference at the NDP headquarters in Halifax.

One of the chief reasons emergency rooms have been closed is staff shortages, but Mr. Dexter said the adviser would be able to “engage the pool of health care professionals that exists right across the province.”

Mr. Dexter said there are also doctors outside of Nova Scotia who may want to come here.

The man is a true visionary.

The NDP leader said it may take money and other incentives to attract doctors to the province and says that is not included in the party’s $2.3-million plan.

Inevitably, a killjoy Conservative candidate pipes up.

Tory candidate George Jordan criticized the NDP for “hiring a planner to make a plan.”

He said the province needs front-line workers more than another bureaucrat.

Mr Jordan is not foolish enough to promise anything.

When pressed for the Tory plan, the Dartmouth South-Portland Valley candidate said the province has a proven track record.

“We’ve worked very hard to get waiting times cut down. I’ve just said we’re interested in providing more medical care to the patients of this province.

The Tories may have “worked very hard” to reduce waiting times, but there is no evidence they’ve had any success.  And if “interest” were enough to provide medical services, we wouldn’t need politicians making promises that everyone knows they can’t keep.

We’ve created more positions at the Dalhousie medical schools.”

On the other hand, creating more places in medical school is the only policy mentioned in the entire news story that affords a reasonable hope of improving health care.  The problem for the politicians is that any improvement it brings will not be seen during the life of the next government.

I THINK THIS IS HORRIBLE!! im infected to but no one knows

Just hilarious.

StatCounter provides more information on the joker’s identity. (Click on image below for larger view.) He’s using a computer at the Canadian Department of Education, Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, and he found my site by entering these search words at Google: “swine kids names in kings edge hill infected with swine flu”.

Canada has no department of education, although Nova Scotia does, so that’s a bit of a puzzle. Be that as it may, some inquisitive jerk with spelling problems who appears to work for a government education bureaucracy is trying to find out the names of students at a private school who came down with swine flu. Doesn’t he have any real work to do?

Joe Seagram, headmaster of King’s Edgehill private school in Windsor, provided the update Monday, a day after the four cases were confirmed.

Seagram said some parents were keeping their children home and attendance was lower than normal, though he didn’t give any numbers.
[…]
Seagram said three of the students who had the virus no longer have symptoms. They, and a number of others who had flu symptoms, have been cleared to return to class.

One of the four students went to Mexico on a school trip earlier this month.

When the students first became ill, no one suspected swine flu initially because the school trip was to a part of Mexico unaffected by the disease and they became sick after the incubation period was supposedly over. Medical tests were needed to confirm that it was indeed swine flu.

Nova Scotia’s chief public health officer, Dr. Robert Strang, said Sunday the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg confirmed late Saturday that four young people in the province are recovering from “relatively mild” cases of the disease.

Strang said the four are between the ages of 12 and 18 and all attend a private school in the Windsor area of Nova Scotia.

They had been part of a group of students who were on a school trip to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula in early April, Dr. Gaynor Watson-Creed, medical officer of health for Capital Health, told reporters.

CBC doesn’t name the school, but how many private schools are there in Windsor?

The Globe and Mail names the school, but sends readers off in the wrong direction to find it.

Health officials said the infected students all attend King’s-Edgehill School in Windsor, about an hour southwest of Halifax. It teaches students from Grades 7-12.

Windsor is northwest of Halifax. Hello!

King’s-Edgehill School Canada’s oldest independent school, founded c. 1788, is closely associated with my parish, Christ Church (Anglican), Windsor.

A letter to parents and guardians signed by Joseph Seagram, Headmaster, has been posted at the school’s website. The letter states that students and staff who have been sick and students who have been in prolonged and close contact with those who have been sick should be isolated for 7 days from the onset of their symptoms or until they are symptom free (whichever is longest). All other students and staff may come and go as they wish. The school has been advised that, while off-campus activities should be limited, classes and Chapel and sports practices may be carried on as usual. Also, Nova Scotia public health officials are on site.

A swine flu FAQ from Nova Scotia Health Promotion and Prevention has also been posted at King’s-Edgehill’s website.

UPDATE: The Globe has already updated their story and removed the erroneous direction to Windsor that I quoted above. (Fortunately, I took a screen shot of the error before it disappeared.)

Already this year, the city has spent $400,000 filling the holes, twice as much as usual for the spring.

The sponsorship proposal calls for company logos or names to be put on the vehicles used for the repairs. [Winnipeg Mayor Sam] Katz believes companies would like it because their name would be associated with “a good thing.”

About the only time the ads would be seen is when motorists are backed up waiting to get past pothole-filling crews at work. Businesses might not see that as good publicity.

What next: Corporate logos on street signs and traffic lights?  “This green light has been brought to you by …”

Katz said city administrators are also looking into how other municipalities deal with pothole repair and whether there are better methods or materials to do the job.

If I may suggest: Don’t bother coming to Nova Scotia. Never in my life have I seen so many gaping potholes. Streets around here are obstacle courses. If Mayor Katz hears any worthwhile suggestions for improving pothole repair, please send them here.

A United Nations employee was caught with child pornography as he entered the country last week at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

Jose Antonio Ortega Osona, 40, a Spanish citizen who lives in New York, pleaded guilty Friday in Dartmouth provincial court to a Criminal Code charge of possessing child pornography and a Customs Act charge of smuggling prohibited goods.
[…]
Portable memory devices found in his backpack contained more than 800 images of hard-core child pornography, some involving a girl who appeared to be about five years old.

Associate Chief Judge Brian Gibson sentenced Mr Ortega Orsona to only 90 days!  With double credit for time spent in remand since his arrest on 9 April, he has 72 days left to serve.

The scumbag’s lawyer said his client expects to lose his job with the UN. The news story doesn’t say, but I hope he will be deported upon his release and ordered not to enter Canada again.

Kings RCMP uncovered a small marijuana growing operation and a moonshine still when executing a search warrant Wednesday, April 15 at a Centreville area residence on Highway 221.

Charges are pending.

In researching this item, I discovered that Nova Scotia has five Centrevilles, but only one in Kings County.

Superstore change is in bag
Grocer to alter checkout routine, charge for plastic bags, offer array of reusable sacks

Shoppers may notice a slight change to the bagging procedure in Superstores as of April 22.

Rather than placing groceries in bags as they are scanned, cashiers will scan all items first, move them to the end of the checkout, and then sort and pack them there, parent company Loblaw’s said in an email.
[...]
April 22 is also the day Superstores will begin charging customers five cents for each plastic bag used, in an effort to entice shoppers to use reusable bags instead. It’s part of Loblaw’s national plastic bag reduction program.

A commenter points out that Loblaw’s Atlantic Wholesale Club sells the bags for $23 per 1000—less than 2.5 cents apiece. Superstore is using customers’ environmental concerns to pocket an outrageous profit.

The big winner from Loblaw’s rip-off won’t be the environment, but arch-rival Sobeys.

With apologies to President Obama, and for that matter most politicians, the Resurrection is change you can believe in.

Read the whole thing.

Every spring since 2001, Gaston Soucy of Hartlen Point, Nova Scotia, has been cleaning up wind-blown litter from a vacant lot near his home.  About ten days ago, he did his annual chore, bagged the trash, and placed it at the curb for pick-up.  The next garbage pick-up wasn’t for almost two weeks, however, so Halifax Regional Municipality threatened him with a $200 fine and clean-up charges.

Sunday, March 29, was a beautiful day. Mr. Soucy headed out to get rid of the winter’s collection of rubbish [on the vacant lot]. When he finished, he placed a couple of garbage bags and a couple of fish bins full of trash at the curb even though it was nearly two weeks before his regular HRM garbage pickup.

A day or two later he found a note from the municipality on his door warning him that he had a day to move the trash or he would be fined.

He called the city.

“Not one bit of that garbage was ours,” he said he told a city bylaw officer.

It turns out it was.

“Once you touch that garbage, it becomes your property,” Mr. Soucy said he was told.

Once you touch it, it’s yours.  The pompous bureaucrat makes it up as he goes along.

Another petty tyrant official told a reporter that no one is permitted to place anyone else’s trash at the curb.

Needless to say, the Liberals are falling over themselves apologising.

Nova Scotia’s Liberal leader is apologizing to actress and NDP candidate Lenore Zann after a campaign worker circulated a photo of her with her top off.

Stephen McNeil said it was a mistake to send out the photo, and he hopes to tell that to Zann in person.

“I would say to her, I apologize to her on behalf of the party in Nova Scotia for the way she’s been treated and the way this information was put out,” McNeil told reporters Thursday in Halifax.

“It was not authorized by me, it is not endorsed by me and it will not be tolerated by me as leader of this party.”

That is away over the top. I agree that leaking the photo was underhanded, but Ms Zann’s on-screen nudity is a matter of public record.

The shorter letter, signed “Anonymous”, misunderstands the role of free speech in Canadian society.

[T]he right to free expression is necessary to address the struggles of marginalized populations by allowing for dissidence and challenges to the often oppressive norm.

Anonymous needs to read Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which says nothing about that.  Moreover, given that Canada has no law restricting abortion, and that prime ministers for the past quarter-century have adamantly opposed introducing any such law, it’s clear that the “marginalised” group subjected to an “oppressive norm” is the pro-life movement.

[T]he Canadian Association of University Teachers concedes in their policy statement on Civil Liberties that “Today, we recognize that academic freedom can only be exercised when basic civil liberties are protected and respected”. Their Anti-harassment Statement indicates that “Harassment is any behaviour that demeans, humiliates or embarrasses a person, and that a reasonable person should have known would be unwelcome. It includes actions, comments or displays”.

It was made explicitly clear to the organizers of the event, the university administration and the presenter himself that a number of students felt demeaned and humiliated by the presentation, and that such harassing behaviour was unwelcome.

The CAUT statement provides an objective definition of harassment, but then Anonymous appeals to feelings. Not very conclusive, to say the least. Moreover, by that same definition, the actions of the anti-free speech hooligans certainly constituted harassment against Mr Ruba, his supporters, and everyone else who wanted to hear what he had to say.

So, by Anonymous’s logic, it’s OK to fight harassment with harassment.

In any case, I doubt the CAUT envisioned small groups with hurt feelings acting as judge, jury, and executioner in interpreting and applying its anti-harassment statement. I suspect the CAUT has more respect for democracy and due process than the Anonymous letter-writer.

The other, much-longer letter, attributed to Melannie Burke, is one of the worst cases of verbal diarrhoea I have seen since I was a university student eons ago. She rambles hither and yon in a barely coherent fashion, taking bizarre pot shots at Mark Mercer, more than once calling him a “totalitarian” who wants to subvert our freedom of speech. Clearly, Ms Burke has no idea what she’s talking about.

Burke thinks interrupting people who are speaking is quite acceptable because, well, “most people do interrupt if they feel it is necessary”. I kid you not.

Let me remind Professor Mercer of the most famous example in London, Speaker’s Corner. Yes, anyone can stand on the soapbox and speak on any topic; however the audience can also heckle and protest all of those who they do not agree with or whom they feel are promoting views that have no place there. This model is at the cornerstone of our democracy and shows aptly how all people have the right to speak, at the same time, whether you agree with them or not.

If this represents the considered knowledge and wisdom of one of Canada’s future leaders, God help my country.

Earth to Melannie Burke: Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park is most certainly not the “model … at the cornerstone of our democracy”. Try the House of Commons. Heckling, laughter, and cross-talk happen in the House all the time, but the Speaker maintains the level of order necessary to ensure that the rules of the chamber are followed. The person who has the floor is allowed to finish what he or she has to say. No one else may take the floor until and unless the Speaker says so.

Speakers’ Corner is anarchy. You’re welcome to it. As a civilised person, I prefer the House of Commons—the real model at the cornerstone of our democracy.

The complete current issue of the SMU Journal can be downloaded here (pdf).

Call of duty: Nova Scotia MPs guide beaver to Ottawa River
[…]
Mark Eyking and Rodger Cuzner, both Liberal MPs, were on their way to a shared apartment Wednesday night when they saw something standing on its hind legs in the middle of Spark [sic] Street.

“We thought it was a dog at first and we came closer, and lo and behold it was a beaver,” said Eyking, MP for Sydney-Victoria.

They decided they couldn’t leave the misguided animal there, so they called 911, but were told to call animal control. That’s when they took matters into their own hands.

They guided the beaver across all six lanes of Wellington Street and on to the Ottawa River.  Then they called the press.

Yesterday, Mr Clarke finally realised that he is the minister responsible and did the right thing.  He tried to, anyway, but Conservative Premier Rodney MacDonald wouldn’t let him.

Embattled Justice Minister Cecil Clarke, reeling from a string of mistakenly released prisoners under his watch, including two in the last 10 days, offered to quit Wednesday evening.

Premier Rodney MacDonald turned him down.

Mr. Clarke said Thursday that the buck stops with him as minister.

Bizarrely, Premier MacDonald refused to confirm that Mr Clarke had indeed offered to resign.

In any case, according to Halifax Chronicle-Herald cartoonist Bruce MacKinnon, at least one Canadian imprisoned in a foreign country wants a transfer to Nova Scotia.
Click here for a rundown of the NS Justice Department screw-ups.