This is kind of cute. When the Liberals were demanding an election earlier this year (you remember the whole Tanker affair?), the Premier was adamant that the election would be in the Fall of 2007. The esteemed editor of the…
Continue ReadingOn taxes, TJ missing the point
The Telegraph-Journal ran an editorial this morning lauding the idea of the province’s being able to collect more taxes in their local markets rather than relying on Ottawa to send them money via transfers. As they say:Provincial services would be…
Continue ReadingOn Golden Pond
Billy Ray: A canoe! Just like the Indians used.Norman: Actually, the Indians used a different grade of aluminum.Quote from On Golden Pond (1981) I ran into Gerry Pond, former President & CEO of NBTel, this week and had the opportunity…
Continue ReadingLarry’s Gulch back in the news
The Ottawa Citizen ran a story over the weekend called “The Lure of the Lodge” which talks about all the power brokers that converge on the Restigouche River to fish and do deals. According to the article, at Larry’s Gulch…
Continue ReadingMorbid optimism
You have got to appreciate the widespread optimism you see in New Brunswick papers about our economy. I remember not that long ago former Premier Frank McKenna lamenting how negative the local newspapers were on the economy. That was then,…
Continue ReadingAh, to be a politician in Alberta
Apparently Alberta’s financial largess has extended itself to municipal politicians. It’s my understanding that a municipal politician in Moncton gets virtually nothing – a few measily bucks for dedicating a lot of time and effort to the public good. Not…
Continue ReadingLife short Call now
Bruce Cockburn is back with an interesting new recording – Life short Call now. It’s classic post 1985 Cockburn. He manages to hammer Osama, Dubya, big pharma, scientology – and that’s just the obvious targets. I guess I have become…
Continue ReadingJune labour force data
As you know, I always chuckle in this corner every month when the labour force survey comes out. Mostly, the news tends to be fair to bad for New Brunswick and the overall trends are among the worst among Canada’s…
Continue ReadingSocial capital – Does it apply here?
I keep reading articles about this thing people are calling ‘social capital’ and trying to figure out where it fits in my quest to see a strong and economically prosperous New Brunswick. A general Google search gives me 9 million…
Continue ReadingAtlantica Party
It is almost impossible to actually start and nurture to success a new political party in New Brunswick or for the most part in all of Atlantic Canada (although the NDP is making good inroads provincially in Nova Scotia). I…
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