PPC Leader Maxime Bernier Brings Maritime Tour To Cape Breton

STRAIT AREA - Municipal, provincial, federal and international politics collide on a single episode of TELILE 24/7. 

We open at 2:19 with a look at the return of District Two representative Michael Diggdon to the Richmond Municipal Council table for Monday's Committee of the Whole meeting, the first public council gathering since the end of Diggdon's one-month suspension from council activities for breaching the Richmond Municipal Code of Conduct. During a member statement on the May 9 meeting, Diggdon questioned whether council had the power to suspend one of its members but expressed remorse for sending suggestive text messages to a member of the public that had contacted Diggdon about affordable housing possibilities in Richmond County. He also apologized to his fellow councillors for the "hurt" he had caused them.

The scene shifts to federal politics at the 8:30 mark as we interview the leader of the People's Party of Canada, Maxime Bernier, during a stop at Port Hawkesbury's Harbourview Cafe that marked the first of two Cape Breton appearances during his current Maritime tour. 

Also on the federal side, at 11:44, the head of Nova Scotia's Federal Boundaries Commission - Supreme Court Justice Cindy Bourgeois - joins host Adam Cooke to review several changes proposed for the Nova Scotia election map. These include the renaming of Cape Breton-Canso to Cape Breton-Antigonish, which would cede most of its territory within the Cape Breton Regional Municipality and add the entire town and county of Antigonish should the proposed changes be approved in time for the next federal election.

At 33:25, Telile general manager Becky Bourinot sits down with Kate Chisholm of the "Nova For Ukraine" campaign that's designed to raise funds for families displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This effort includes a major fundraiser this coming Saturday, May 14, at Centre La Picasse in Petit de Grat. 

And we wrap things up at 50:21 by interviewing the Nova Scotia Liberal Party's Acadian Affairs Critic, Clare MLA Ronnie LeBlanc, who introduced a bill that hopes to enshrine French-language education rights for all Francophone Nova Scotians. The bill,, co-authored by the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (CSAP) and the Liberal Party, will come up for discussion next week when CSAP executive director Michel Collette, Acadian Affairs Minister Colton LeBlanc and Education Minister Becky Druhan meet this coming Thursday.