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The Macdonald Notebook is your source for exclusive Business & Inside Politics publishing every Saturday and Sunday.
Latest Issue
Exclusive: Jim Spatz Promotes His Senior Leadership Team – Six Women – At Southwest Properties
Last Weekend Editions, Below
Exclusive: Halifax Port: Why Shipping Executive Andy Abbott Will No Longer Rent His Vessel Spaces To Hapag Lloyd – ‘Slot Charter’ Agreement Ran For 39-Years
Exclusive: Why Hapag Lloyd’s Halifax Bound Container Cargo Could Become Fewer – It Is Concerning Carrier Beefing Up Calls to Port Saint John Over The Years
Jim David: My Take On Salty’s On The Waterfront – One Last Visit To Soon To Close Eatery Mainstay
MacPolitics: Nothing Free About Freedom of Info Request – Biting The Bullet & Paying Houston Gov For Houston Gov Wine Policy Documents
Lunenburg’s Blockhouse Hill Park Could Be Protected By Incoming Town Council – ‘Hopes’ Developer Thom Barclay
Lunenburg Politics: Good Riddance To Outgoing Town Councillors – Clean Slate Of Councillors Heading To Town Hall After Election In October
MacPolitics: Majority Of Canadians Would Favour Kamala Harris As Next U.S. President – Poll
MacPolitics: HRM Mayoral Race: Pam Lovelace Asks For Votes ‘To Bring Back The Passenger Trains’
MacPolitics: HRM Mayoral Contender Pam Lovelace On Her Mayoral Debate Strategy
MacPolitics: Housing the Biggest Issue In Mayoral Campaign: Andy Fillmore
MacPolitics: The Three Top Issues In HRM, According to Mayoral Contender Waye Mason
MacPolitics: Former Broadcaster Riley Murphy’s Mayoral Campaign Identifies Top Issues Facing HRM Voters
MacPolitics: Tory Turned Liberal Supporter, Rob Smith Says Dumping Trudeau As Leader Not A Good Idea – Cites Modern Political History When A Leader Is Changed Out, The Results Are Disastrous
MacPolitics: Parliament Returns Monday, Crucial By-Elections Slated
MacPolitics: Poll: Majority of Canadians Do Not Want An Early Election
Saturday Edition, Below
How The Joe Ramia Family Helped Raise $906,687 In One Day For QE2 Hospital Foundation
A Life Well Lived: ‘Tartan Hour’ Radio Host Paul Meagher Dead, Started His Broadcasting Career In 1977; Helped Found Seaside FM In 1999
Saint John & Bathurst Airport CEOs Say Pascan Aviation’s Halifax Route Transformative
MacPolitics: Iain Rankin Had A Plan To Twin To The Canso Causeway; Sadly Tim Houston Is Not Going That Far
Tim Houston Gov Actually Begins New Twinning on 103 HWY; A Bid That Carl Potter Did Not Want To Lose
MacPolitics: On Anniversary Of Lloyd Hines’ Demise — A Look Back At His Greatest Legacies
MacPolitics: Alison Strachan On Her Campaign To Win Lunenburg Town Council Seat
MacPolitics: Clan Chisholm Inc. Has Another Shot At Occupying Antigonish Town Hall
Behind The Political Force That Was Collie Herman Chisholm, There Was A Force of Her Own: Remembering Eleanor Chisholm, Who When She Died In 2018 Was My Oldest Reader At The Time – Meet Coline Morrow’s Mom
Exclusive: MacPolitics: Seaside FM Personality’s Halifax Mayoral Ambitions – Is Riley Murphy A Dark Horse Contender?
Past Issues, Below
Check Out The Notebook Archives For 8,200 stories Since Founding Year of 2017
Transportation
Halifax Port: Is Diana Dalton Long For The Port World?
Feb 29, 2020 | Politics, Transportation
Halifax Port Authority Worries Prolonged Rail Blockade Could Cause Permanent Damage
Feb 21, 2020 | Transportation
By Andrew Macdonald
The Port of Halifax is worried its international shipping reputation could be damaged because of blockades of CN Rail’s tracks in Ontario.
Lane Farguson, spokesman for the local port authority which oversees the two container terminal operations in Halifax Harbour, warns an inability to move cargo will see shipping lines divert to competing ports such as New York, perhaps permanently.
“Once cargo routes are altered, it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to restore them,” Farguson tells The Notebook.
The blockades on the main CN Rail line are a show of solidarity for the Wet’suwet’en First Nation, whose hereditary chiefs oppose the construction of a 670-kilometre natural gas pipeline through northern British Columbia.
Halifax’s port is seen as a ‘discretionary port’ because it has a smaller population catchment area than ports in New York and Montreal, both of which are closer to consumers.
Halifax Port & Blockade: Shipping CEO Andy Abbott Warns It May Take Time To Win Back Business From Competing U.S. Ports
Feb 21, 2020 | Transportation
By Andrew Macdonald
With the CN Rail blockade continuing near Belleville, Ont., the Port of Halifax over the last two weeks has been unable to process export or import cargo.
Cargo from Ontario and the U.S. Midwest has not been able to move on CN’s Eastern Canadian network because of the rail blockade, and import cargo from Southeast Asia and Europe can’t be processed in Halifax and delivered to customers.
Until now, Atlantic Container Line (ACL) has maintained calls here, but company CEO Andy Abbott told The Notebook this week that two of its ships, Atlantic Sail and Atlantic Star, will bypass Halifax on their way to Europe from New York.
HWY 103 Twinning Update On Tree Cutting & Construction
Feb 14, 2020 | Transportation
By Andrew Macdonald
A tree cutting contract valued at $171,138 on the next part of the 103 HWY to be constructed between the Ingramport interchange and Hubbards has been awarded to Wagner Forest NS Ltd.
There were a total of four bids for the tree clearing contract received.
N.R. Kenney Logging Ltd., submitted a bid of $283,800; R. Maclean Forestry Ltd., quoted $270,726; Nova Hydroseeding & Erosion Control bid $224,800.
Halifax Port: Exclusive: It Took Five Years To Resolve On Time Delivery, But ACL Shipping Line CEO Says Things Are Now Back To Normal
Feb 5, 2020 | Transportation
By Andrew Macdonald
A shipping customer in the Port of Halifax since 1970, Atlantic Container Line (ACL) has resolved its on time delivery schedule times in Halifax and other U.S. East Coast port of calls – a five year problem related to the delivery over that period of next generation container roll on/roll off vessels.
That’s the word from New York based ACL CEO, Andy Abbott.
“ACL’s schedule performance has been lousy for five years as we fixed the teething problems on our new ships”, the shipping exec tells The Notebook.
Carl Potter’s Biz Empire Successes The Result Of Hiring Staffers Who Are Even Smarter Than He Is – A Strategy That Has Led Potter To Dominate Multiple Industries
Feb 2, 2020 | Transportation
Carl Potter is lately in The Notebook news cycle.
As incredible as it seems, Potter, the founder and proprietor of the region’s largest road builder, Dexter Construction, went up against the biggest global road builders on the planet – and he bested giants with his sharper bidding pencil, leaving behemoth contractors from France & Spain in the dust, when he was awarded the lucrative $300 million 104 HWY twinning work last Thursday.
Over my lifetime, I have met many legendary road builders and also the great engineers employed with the NS Highways department.
Antigonish Chisholm Clan Has Long Dominated Road Building Over Multiple Generations – Ensuring Their Hometown Of Antigonish Is The ‘Road Building Capital Of Nova Scotia’
Feb 2, 2020 | Transportation
With third-generation road builder Donald Chisholm forming an historic partnership with once fierce rival Dexter Construction to win the $300 million 40-kilometre twinning of a real deathtrap the 104 HWY, the win for the Nova Construction owner gives credence to his native Antigonish as a community road building force.
Donald Chisholm comes from a long line of Clan Chisholm highly successful road builders.
NS Road Building Industry: A Significant ‘Big Business’ In Provincial Economy
Feb 2, 2020 | Transportation
NS Road Building Industry: A Big Business Force
To understand NS Highway minister Lloyd Hines aggressive pursuit to twin the 104, 103 & 101 HWYs, and its significant meaning on the Nova Scotia economy, I have studied an economic impact assessment on the ambitious twinning program.
Consulting firm Canmac Economics Ltd, was hired in the last few years by the Nova Scotia Roadbuilders Association boss, Grant Feltmate to study the economic benefits of the circa $800 million twinning programs now underway across the province.
MacHistory: Remembering When The Nova Scotia Road Builders Association Operated A Closed Shop – Preventing Outsiders From Bidding In The Province
Feb 2, 2020 | Transportation
For decades, the Nova Scotia Roadbuilders Association operated a closed shop across the province – preventing road builders from outside the province from bidding – back in 1949, when the association was formed, and well into the 1980s, only road builders from Nova Scotia were active in the provincial road building industry.
But, that began to change in the 1990s, when Prince Edward Island’s Chapman Brothers around 1994 nabbed a paving job in Cape Breton.
Exclusive: Highways Minister Lloyd Hines To Now Mull Over Options To Twin To Bridgewater & Canso Causeway
Feb 1, 2020 | Transportation
Exclusive: Highways Minister Lloyd Hines To Explore Twinning Options to Bridgewater & Canso Causeway
Now that the fourth and final major twinning project is soon to see a construction start, I refer to the 104 HWY from New Glasgow outskirts to Antigonish, NS Highways minister Lloyd Hines is now going to mull over options to twin the 103 HWY all the way to Bridgewater.
And, he also tells The Notebook, he will also commence a study to determine how to twin all the way to the Canso Causeway.
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