Four months house arrest, four months curfew and a year's probation. That was the sentence handed out Friday afternoon to disgraced former MLA Russell MacKinnon after his surprise about face on day 4 of his trial on fraud, forgery and breach of trust charges in connection with the MLA expenses scandal. MacKinnon initially pled not guilty to the charges, but Friday, after hearing the Crown's evidence, he changed his plea to guilty to breach of trust. Of course this came after 3 days of court time on the taxpayers dime. Like former Tory Richard Hurlburt, MacKinnon will not have to serve jail time for his crimes. Pity. We elected these individuals to positions of trust which they abused for their own gain. They, like ex Liberal Dave Wilson, deserved a little time behind bars to ponder their actions.
Another NDP veteran is stepping aside. Labour Minister Marilyn More says three terms as an MLA is enough and she won't be running in the next provincial election. She joins Bill Estabrooks, Graham Steele, Howard Epstein and Michele Raymond in announcing their retirement from politics. Deserting the sinking ship? Or was their time simply up?
If you've been following Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield orbiting Earth on the International Space Station, you'll be familiar with his daily Twitter photos of our planet. Now the Nova Scotia Community College Centre of Geographic Sciences in the Annapolis Valley has produced an online map featuring those photo tweets. Each photo's location is marked on the map by an icon. You simply click the icon and view the picture. There are some great shots. Check it out.
Silver for the SMU Huskies men's hockey team yesterday at the nationals and Bronze for the SMU women's basketball team at their national championships over the weekend. Congrats to both teams.
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's regular season wrapped up yesterday. The Halifax Mooseheads topped off an already spectacular year with a 5-2 win over Cape Breton at the Metro Centre in an afternoon contest. Their 58 wins ties a Q record for most wins in a season. Too bad though for Jonathan Druin. He was held scoreless yesterday and came up short in his quest for the league scoring title. The Mooseheads will now prepare for their opening round in the playoffs. It begins Friday at home to the Saint John Sea Dogs. This should be a 4 game sweep, at best a 5 game series. Will the Mooseheads make it to the Memorial Cup this year? The fun begins Friday.
Have a great day. Get involved. And if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.
Rick Howe
