The Inverness Oran

Columns and Letters

Column: The elusive art of winterizing

Details: Last Updated: Tuesday, 07 October 2025 15:41

Occtober 8, 2025

-by Frank Macdonald
The article was titled The Lost Satisfaction of Manual Competence.
I wonder if I ever possessed manual competence. It seems to be a question I ask myself every autumn, just before beginning to winterize the house.
Oh, I am not without experience. I did work as a carpenter’s helper on several construction jobs from Edmonton to Boston without ever getting fired. Of course, on these jobs, due to union regulations, I was not allowed to hammer a nail. If I did, the result would be the entire crew walking off the job in a strike action, a non-carpenter doing a carpenter’s job.

Letter: A line is being crossed

Details: Last Updated: Tuesday, 07 October 2025 16:04

October 8, 2025

Dear Editor,

This is a letter about Cabot’s designs on the West Mabou Beach Provincial Park. To start off, I’m one of those against a golf course being built there. I think a line is being crossed.
I was on a local committee in 2022 when a group of Mabou organizations were offered money privately by Cabot. At that time, we were told that it was only if we publicly supported the golf course. This was before their plans where they called it “annual funding” were released publicly. I remember it as a very uncomfortable proposition, and organizations turned it down on principle, but that was just the start.
The last time Cabot did this, they did it by approaching the community in this way – informally. Throwing their weight around. They never submitted an actual proposal to the provincial government, but they let their intentions be known. My guess is that they were hoping that unilateral community support would force the government to hand over protected land, but that is not what happened.