In the news

Yesterday I came across this story about our local grocery store and their decision to stop selling certain seafoods. This is rather unfortunate on a personal front because shark happens to be one of my favourite fish, and more generally in that it suggests a lack of understanding on the part of the grocery store when it comes to the sourcing of some of their foods. One would also think that this ban/change should also be applied to tuna and many of the other large fish that have come under significant pressure in recent years.

It seems that more of the names associated with the Nova Scotia MLA constituency allowance spending scandal have been released. The more I think about it I think that the Auditor General did the public and politicians a disservice by not including more information, including names in his report. The more I have been thinking about the contents of his report the more it becomes clear to me that from the details available it is really hard to get a sense of what was going on. For instance, he doesn't show us how common it was for MLAs to use all of their discretionary (unreceiptable) funds, or for that matter any other type of allowance. He doesn't show us what the trends have been for the past number of years regarding allowance use. If most MLAs aren't maxing out their allowances, something that we just don't know, that it seems somewhat unfair to paint them all with the same brush. If the opposite is the case, and most of their are taking full advantage of these allowances, making this clear to the public would also be nice. This was a missed opportunity to allow the public to really get a good sense of exactly how this funds are used, and by whom.

It seems that the uncle of a friend of mine, and former RNC spokesperson, is considering a run for the House of Assembly to replace the newly appointed Newfoundland Senator, Elizabeth Marshall.

Blog-off Score

Neil: 0
Cameron: 18