The Grand Parade

Matt and council are both on vacation this week, so please enjoy this interview with book club book author Thi Nguyen.

Last week was a big one down at city hall with two bombshell Auditor General audits as well as a cricket debate, and parking fare increase. All of that is in the first half of the show. In the back half of the show host Matt Stickland breaks down the story Fillmore is trying to tell about how being invesitaged by the RCMP is all a big misunderstanding. In an administrative note, there will be no p...

In this week's episode of the show host Matt Stickland breaks down what went down at last Tuesday's council meeting. Then, after an ad break, Matt explains Fillmore's upcoming office expense scandal.

Sorry for the yelling and swearing. Turn down your volume. The next book club meeting is July 12 at 2 p.m. at MacDonald House on Lawrencetown Road.

This is a research deep dive episode where host Matt Stickland goes into the weeds to explain how low property taxes make housing less affordable. Did Matt get anything wrong? Here are his sources: Oates (1969): the effects of property taxes and local public spending on property values Mieszkowski (1972): The property tax: an excise tax or a profits tax? Oats & Schwab (2009): The case for a la...

Very sorry about the lack of show notes here. Personal life being what it was this past week proper show notes will be added (maybe). No one expects show notes from analog radio. This double standard is unfair! Or I'm just tired. Enjoy the show tho.

In this episode, host Matt Stickland goes deep on property tax policies and is forced to confront the fact that two of his long-held beliefs are, in fact, wrong. And a bit about last week's community planning and economic development standing committee meeting from last week.

You can take Halifax's road safety survey right here, if you want: https://www.halifax.ca/home/surveys I can't rememeber what else I said I'd link in the show notes. I'm honestly not even sure I said I'd link this road safety survey.

A slow week at city hall, but a big week for the podcast, as the Grand Parade is now (or will be on June 20) an award-winning podcast! But you can check out the BOPC presentation referenced here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq1QnNoiTCg And you can provide feedback to them (after listening to that presenation) here: police.modernization@novascotia.ca And the book club book is this one: www.stop...

Did you know that show notes are like dinner? At first, they're super fun. You get to tell people about the show, but then it's like, eventually, you realize you have to do it, like every day, three times a day, and then it's just like 9pm on a Sunday night and you just want to go to bed? No? Me neither. Anyways, in this week's show we cover budget season starting early thanks to mayor Andy Fillmo...

If you are a subscriber, you may have noticed that this episode didn't drop early for ya on the website. This is because something that Substack does as part of it's platform is private podcast RSS feeds for subscribers. This is something Ghost does for an additional fee and that fee is set based on the amount of listeners would need a feed and there are enough of you that I would immediately get...

If this placeholder text is still here, that means something went wrong with the website swap over the weekend, and I've run out of time to fix everything.

Things referenced: This Strong Towns PDX post Councillor Mitch Green’s Motion The agenda page with links to all of the transportation utility fee reports: https://www.portland.gov/council/documents/ordinance/establish-new-transportation-utility-fee-1-2 And where to watch the meeting/keep up with this committee, if you, like me, are now invested in this sideplot: https://www.portland.gov/council/ag...

Behold the episode in which host Matt Stickland recaps the glorious week that was March 30 until April 3, 2026, and be entertained. Want to know what else is entertaining? Book club. Which is meeting May 3 at the Old Triangle in Halifax at 2:30p. We will be talking about The Score: How to Stop Playing Someone Else’s Game, by C. Thi Nguyen 

In this episode host Matt Stickland comes in hot with some big opinions on Halifax's new Integrated Mobility Plan. The audio quality in parts of the first half of the show are not the best, and this podcast's original microphone has finally bit the dust. In the second half of the show Matt goes over last Thursday's TSC meeting and even though concerns remain about the IMP there is some good news i...

I did take the week off as threatened. But I did throw this together for reasons I explain in the show. Book club May 3 at the Old Triangle in Halifax. The book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/735252/the-score-by-c-thi-nguyen/

This week is a return to normalcy which is to say clipped shows. This week starts off host Matt Stickland's opinion of this year's budget. And then after the ad break there's a recap of the the final budget debate and last week's (mostly deferred) council meeting debates. Also the book club book is The Score: How to Stop Playing Someone Else's Game by C. Thi Nguyen. Please note: there will be no s...

It's been a full week of budget committee and a full weekend of SEDMHA hockey and a birthday party or two. Our team is taking a nap instead of writing show notes. We do hope you enjoy this week's show. Enjoy? Enjoy might not be the right word, but listen to the show sounds vaguely like a threat. Listen to the show... or else.

In this episode host Matt Stickland recaps last week's council meetings, the good, the bad and the austerity. Even by our lax standards these show notes are sub standard because there's just too much on the go in real life this weekend for a more fullsome show notes. Soz.

Can't make book club today? Don't worry about it! Here's an interview with the author of Killed by a Traffic Engineer, Wes Marshall, who wrote this month's book

Man what a week that was! Mayor Andy Fillmore is on a tear during budget season and is clearly working as hard as he can to tank the city so we get a good draft pick next season. Or something. These show notes are written on Sunday, and on this particular Sunday a Canadian Hockey team lost a game so that's the end of these show notes. Bye, or whatever.

This week is a bit of an odd one, as it had five full days of council meetings and host Matt Stickland had five full days of plague in his house. The big moves by Cleary at the end of last week's budget debate, as well as the police budgets, are not in this episode. They are in the paper this week, and will be in a later episode of the show (probably), respectively. That's all for this week as Mat...

Budget season rolled on last week as councillors started debating the operational budgets of the city's various business units. Before getting into that host Matt Stickland gives a dire warning about the city's fiscal future. After the ad break, Matt recaps the Board of Police Commissioners passion for violence, and also two days of budget committee meetings. If you are a subscriber and notice thi...

Hello sportsfans, it was a busy week at city hall with a full meeting of council, and two budget committee meetings. Halifax is in dire financial straights and a win for bike lanes on Tuesday was caught an L on Friday as the just saved bike lanes are now back on the chopping block. Also in this show, city staff 💩🛏️ on the taxi bylaw update, there's a really greasy vote and Matt breaks down why co...

Budget season is back in earnest this week so RIP to all of Matt's free time and that's one of the reasons the recap part of the show is so short. But because budget season is back, we thought we'd give you a primer so y'all can get a quick reminder about how exactly past councils managed to have shot themselves in both feet, all 10 toes, the shins, knees and femurs over the past 30 years causing...