John DeMont

6 days ago | saltwire.com | John DeMont

Skip to ContentAdvertisement 1  •   •  Article contentDowntown Halifax, despite the construction, was mostly neat and orderly when I took a stroll there Thursday. The passersby — office workers with take-out coffees, tourists taking their time, working men entering and leaving job sites — were alert and clear-eyed. The traffic moved in a well-behaved manner. The vibe was 21st-century industrious.

1 week ago | saltwire.com | John DeMont

Advertisement 1  •   •  Article contentAt some point in the next few days, Paul Jenkinson will pull his blue 2017 Subaru Forester, the one with 207,000 clicks on it, up to a curb somewhere in this provinceHe will walk over to some public place. There he will make sure his sign — announcing the You are not alone, I will listen Cross Country Journey — is visible to passersby.

1 week ago | saltwire.com | John DeMont

Skip to ContentAdvertisement 1  •   •  Article contentSummer is when this place comes alive. This one is going to be special. The planets are aligning. I can feel it in my bones. I say this because of one simple fact: In the warm months ahead, visitors are going to flock to Nova Scotia perhaps like never before. The math is easy: The Trump effect means Canadians are cancelling trips to the United States, as are Europeans uneasy about the political environment there.

1 week ago | saltwire.com | John DeMont

Advertisement 1  •   •  Article contentBy now, I bet you have seen the video. Our premier — eyes crinkling as he smiles, mood as light and buoyant as a summer Bay of Fundy breeze — on a two-minute-and-43-second journey into the soul of Nova Scotia. It’s all there: donairs and fiddle music, wooden ships and iron men, Sid, Nathan and Viola, George Dixon’s right hand and Joe Howe’s right thinking. Our endearing eccentricities.

2 weeks ago | saltwire.com | John DeMont

Skip to ContentAdvertisement 1  •  Article contentPolitics is a heartless, zero-sum business. Win and you are on top of the world; lose and your ignominious defeat is there for the entire world to see.   I have never run for anything. But I have been around elections enough to wonder if it’s like athletes say: winning isn’t as good as losing is bad.  Back in 1997, I called a Liberal MP from New Brunswick who had lost his seat as voters elected a Jean Chretien-led Grit majority.