On the campaign trail Monday, Liberal Leader Mark Carney pledged to help the Canadian defence industry grow and diversify its markets through international exports.  N-D-P Leader Jagmeet Singh promised to tie health-care funding to improvements in nurse-to-patient ratios and working conditions. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wants to use the notwithstanding clause to override a Supreme Court decision that sentencing people to consecutive life sentences is unconstitutional.

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Students at more than 100 universities and colleges across Canada can cast their ballots for the upcoming federal election on campus. Elections Canada says campus polling stations opened Sunday, and will operate from 9 a-m to 9 p-m through Wednesday.  It says on-campus voting is open to all Canadians, not just students.  Polls are open at St FX at the Main Campus in Antigonish in Rooms 2003, 2007 and 2008 on the 2nd Floor.

 

 

The Nova Scotia government says it’s offering a reward of 150-thousand dollars for information leading to the conviction of the person or people responsible for a 2024 homicide.   On January 16th of last year, police began investigating the disappearance of 23-year-old Zachery Vaughan Kellock of Truro.  His body has not been found, and police say there’s reason to believe that criminality was involved, leading them to investigate his disappearance as a homicide.  The Justice Minister says someone may have the missing piece of evidence that police need, and she’s urging anyone with information to reach out to police or the provincial major unsolved crimes program.

 

 

The regional director of a national charity that provides free flights for people requiring medical care is attending meetings in Nova Scotia this week to learn more about needs in the province.  Hope Air often partners with Halifax hospitals like the I-W-K Health Centre and Q-E 2 to provide assistance to patients, many of whom are lower income.  Jaclyn Sullivan says she’ll be meeting with I-W-K and the province’s deputy minister today and Wednesday to discuss what can be done to support Nova Scotia patients who require help with health-care travel.  The charity says that 65 per cent of people who’ve been supported by the group have avoided going into debt to pay their travel expenses.

 

 

Nova Scotia’s government says it wants to build on the success of last year’s inaugural stampede by putting 150-thousand dollars towards the 2025 event.  It will also put 550-thousand dollars towards new portable bleachers at the Nova Scotia Provincial Exhibition grounds in Bible Hill.  The first Nova Scotia Stampede combined professional rodeo, live entertainment and local vendors last September.  The stampede generated some 2.2-million dollars in economic activity for the province.