Rants & Raves

Rave: For a fitting honour. Sydney senior Don Gushue has written a couple of well-reasoned letters to the editor over the last few years, lauding the Sydney tar ponds cleanup and suggesting that the late Don DeLeskie, who “made international news when he walked out in the sludge and started to load barrels of the goo with a shovel,” be memorialized at the remediated site.

Well, that became a reality on Nov. 22 when the new bike park at Open Hearth Park was officially named the Don and Ron DeLeskie Bike Park — complete with a plaque — in honour of Don and his late twin brother Ron, who was also active in promoting a cleanup.

Rant: For continued distracted driving. On Saturday, we reported that the annual Operation Christmas campaign was launched locally. The object of the campaign is to reduce impaired driving and encourage motorists to drive safely over the holiday season. The main emphasis is on reducing vehicle crashes caused by alcohol and drug impairment.

“Despite everything that we’ve done in the last few years, it still remains the number one criminal cause of death in our country,” said Susan MacAskill, director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Atlantic.

But there’s another dangerous practice that seems to be growing and that we see evidence of every day on local roads — talking on cellphones and texting while driving.

Drivers with phone to ear go blithely through red lights, and others obviously have their eyes on their laps when they should be on the road. To make matters worse, these culprits are usually younger and relatively inexperienced.

The mix of distracted driving, driver inexperience and winter conditions is a potentially fatal one.

Rave: For another Cape Bretoner heading to the Golden Globes. Lower Washabuck native Jill (MacLean) Franklin, now of Halifax, will be the latest in a growing list of Cape Bretoners whose products have been featured at the Golden Globes gifting suites.

Franklin, who owns Jill’s Chocolates — a 10-yearold company specializing in handmade chocolates — will be heading to Hollywood, Jan. 9-11, to invite the rich and famous to try some of Jill’s Chocolates’ creations, including one made in memory of her grandfather, respected Washabuck fiddler Michael Anthony MacLean.

But as Franklin told the Cape Breton Post, the really good news is that her invitation to Hollywood is creating buzz in Nova Scotia, and ideally that will result in increased business here at home.