2010 grade: D
2009 grade: F
2008 grade: F
2007 grade: F
Oh, Steve Streatch. Last year I gave Streatch his first non-failing grade, a D, to reward his opposition to “tax reform”---an easy stance since his district would’ve seen taxes double, but still. And when he said sensible things about the convention centre, I was coming around to him. But then...sigh. I could take a few insensitive comments about dousing tires with gasoline to start a fire to burn off crop stubble, but when Streatch came out as a full-on global warming denier and dissed the venerable Al Gore himself, well, that was enough. We don’t need American-style anti-science, anti-environmentalist mining company shills on council.
There are a lot of issues facing District 1, which basically boil down to addressing the lack of economic opportunity. I’ve said before that I’d like to see Streatch push HRM to develop a local food strategy and farm support program to help the people in his rural district, and I think there are possibilities for municipal support of fisheries and woodlots as well. But Streatch is more inclined to resource exploitation than stewardship: He wants to open his district up to more gold mining, for example. That’s a sure way to help a handful of mining companies, but doesn’t do much for regular people.
How to improve: Ditch the anti-environment rhetoric. Hug a hippie.
