It's been a stormy start to the new year with several blizzard and freezing rain storms. And the ongoing love-hate relationship continues with the province's power provider. People love to hate Nova Scotia Power, especially when the lights go out. The company has applied to increase its rates by ten percent over the next three years. And that has once again ignited the debate about how the utility is managed and regulated. Claudia Chender is the NDP House Leader and the Natural Resources and Renewables spokesperson for the party. Earlier this week, she released a statement calling on ratepayers to "tell the Utility and Review Board and Tim Houston’s government that Nova Scotia Power’s plan needs to be more about protecting people, not protecting corporate profits.”

As a law student, Angela Simmonds started work on helping people in her community gain legal title to land their families had lived on for generations. That continued as she was given the opportunity and funding from the Province to help right the historical wrong dating back to the 1700's. And last year, she decided to continue to support her home community from inside of Province House. She ran for, and was successful in winning as the MLA for the seat of Preston. She has now become the first candidate in the race to replace Iain Rankin as the leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party. She discusses her path to this decision, some of the barriers and how she feels about the support she's seen from all members of the House of Assembly.

Nova Scotia's government has taken steps in the past to deal with potential protests over public health measures. An injunction was granted by the courts at the direction of former Premier Iain Rankin last year to head off a protest on Citadel Hill. Last week, Premier Tim Houston announced an order prohibiting protesters from blockading or disrupting traffic on any road, street or highway in Nova Scotia. And those two things are different under law according to McInnes Cooper's David Fraser. The privacy and internet specialist discusses the charter, the law, mandates and how we ease back out of these measures after the pandemic ends.

It was described as a slow-rolling convoy protest in downtown Halifax over the weekend. And there were also counter-protests happening at the same time with some people choosing to make clear their support of the public health mandates and rules. The owner of a popular website and Facebook group ended up with a lot of comments over a stand he took. Ralph Pickart wrote: "For those who want to follow the activities near Pier 21 on our webcam today: We do not support this protest in any shape or form and will stop our camera from showing this area this afternoon. Enough is enough." He explains why he's taken this stand, and what it says about the inability for some people to take a step back and see the bigger picture.

In the end, they backed off on making people with solar panels pay to access the grid. But Nova Scotia Power is still looking for a ten percent increase in rates over the next three years as they transition away from reliance on coal-fired power generation. But the greening of the grid doesn't have to be adversarial. Gurprasad Gurumurthy is an Energy Coordinator with the Ecology Action Centre. And he says there are lessons to be learned as we move to more renewables. And the lessons are for the utility and for the elected representatives in Halifax.

Erin O'Toole's ride as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada has come to an abrupt end. And some of the blame might come down to the same sentiment that's fuelling the trucker's protest in Ottawa. How does this affect the Conservatism movement in Canada? And what is the likelihood that the next leader will be even more "right" of the political centre? Dr. Robert Huish is an associate professor at Dalhousie University. Along with International Development, he also speaks to politics. And he says there's a big job ahead for governments with the unravelling of the pandemic politics of the past two years.

Researchers with Dalhousie University's School of Social Work has been looking at the homelessness issue for years. And with the arrival of the global pandemic, they wanted to find out how that impacted those people who were already in a vulnerable situation. A paper on the subject looking into the issue affecting people in Halifax and Cape Breton Municipality was released last fall. And this week, a video animation about that research was completed and posted. Doctor Jeff Karabanow is the associate director of the program at Dalhousie. And he was also involved in co-authoring the paper, and narrating the new animated short. He's hoping it helps spread the message about ways to address isolation, mental health, and affordable housing.

The group representing truck drivers has been clear it wants the public health mandates to end. And they say their convoy will stay in Ottawa until their demands are met. Another group of Canadians has also put forward their case to have the public health measures ended. Or at least challenged. A prominent Nova Scotia lawyer says the government needs to prove the State of Emergency should be kept in place and that it's not an overreach, almost 23 months after it was enacted. And those issues were raised with Constitutional Law Expert and Professor Emeritus of the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie, Doctor Wayne MacKay.

A recent survey commissioned by the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) reveals 77% of Atlantic Canadians who consume alcohol say reducing their risk of developing cancer is an important health benefit. But the challenge is that only one in three Canadians are aware of the link between alcohol and cancer. That's a pretty good reason to consider going "dry" and to abstain from alcohol this February. Kelly Wilson Cull is with the Canadian Cancer Society in Nova Scotia. She outlines some of the research explaining the risks and the rewards with signing up for this month long promotion and public health exercise.

For 19-year old Logan Prosper of We'koqma'q First Nation, it was a gift that had special meaning for several reasons. The Saint Mary's University student was behind the Red Tape Movement. That was a way of shining a light on descrimination in hockey by wrapping sticks in red tape to encourage players to take personal responsibility to end it. And the program made it all the way to the NHL's Brad Marchand. A few weeks ago, Logan received a gift from the Boston Bruin star, his favourite player on his favourite team. And the former minor hockey player is still blown away by the personal message Marchand wrote to him in Mi'kmaw.