Let's Talk Antigonish Podcast

Let's Talk Antigonish
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Let’s Talk Antigonish brings you thoughtful conversations as we unpack the questions, stories, and decisions shaping everyday life in our community. letstalkantigonish.substack.com

  1. 6D AGO

    Who Are The Sisters of St. Martha?

    There’s a good chance you’ve benefited from the work of the Sisters of St. Martha without ever knowing it. If you’ve been treated at St. Martha’s Regional Hospital, used community transit, found support through SAFE or the Friendship Corner, or simply walked through the Bethany Centennial Garden behind the hospital on a difficult day — the Marthas are somewhere in that story. This year marks 125 years since the congregation was founded, and Justin and Anuj sat down with Sister Joanne O’Regan, General Secretary of the congregation’s leadership team, and Marielle Assad, Coordinator of Charism Ministry and longtime Martha associate, for a wide-ranging conversation about where the Sisters came from, how they’ve shaped Antigonish, and what they’re planning for the future. What Is Gospel Hospitality — And What Is Charism? For the uninitiated, this episode starts with a little vocabulary. Charism, as Marielle Assad explains it, is the spiritual gift or inner spark you’re born with that gives you your purpose in the world — the thing that, once you tap into it, sets you on fire with meaning. Different religious communities have their own charism: healing, education, creativity. For the Sisters of St. Martha, that charism is gospel hospitality. Not hospitality in the hotel-concierge sense. Gospel hospitality is rooted in the example of Jesus of Nazareth, who ate with criminals, taught women, and healed people on the margins of society. It’s a radical, inclusive welcome that says no one is too broken, too poor, or too different to be worthy of care and dignity. That spirit has been at the core of everything the Marthas have done since 1900 — even before they had a name for it. An Origin Story Worth Knowing The Sisters of St. Martha were founded in Antigonish in 1900 at the call of the local Bishop, who needed someone to take over the domestic and care operations of St. Francis Xavier University. What became the Coady Administrative Building was their original mother house; they lived on campus, cared for sick students, fed people, and kept the institution running — for two dollars a month. The founding group of 15 women is itself a remarkable story. They volunteered without knowing who else had volunteered — their habits gave them no peripheral vision, and they weren’t permitted to speak to one another beforehand. They simply stood up. That act of standing together as a collective became a symbolic touchstone for the congregation. To this day, when the Marthas make a major decision — like the gut-wrenching choice to deconstruct their Bethany mother house in 2019 — they mark it by standing together. Within a year of their founding, the sisters had already been called out to do healthcare work in Glace Bay, and they immediately began raising money — door to door — to build Antigonish its first hospital. They could only afford one good pair of shoes, so they shared them. St. Martha’s Hospital opened in 1906. 125 Years of Impact — Much of It Invisible One of the recurring themes of this conversation is how little credit the Marthas have historically sought. Sister Joanne describes the discomfort of even sitting for this interview — talking about themselves doesn’t come naturally to a congregation whose mission statement centers on responding to the needs of others, not celebrating their own accomplishments. But the list of things they’ve been part of is extraordinary. Beyond founding and running the hospital for nearly a century, the Sisters were deeply involved in the social work and community development movements that grew out of the Antigonish Movement — the cooperative and adult education tradition associated with StFX that influenced community organizing around the world. The Coady Institute bears the name of a priest who worked alongside them. The library at the Coady bears the name of Sister Marie Michael, who ran it and helped connect the community to a global conversation about poverty, dignity, and development. More recently, in the early 2000s, a conversation between two Martha-connected people and community organizer Lucille Harper gave birth to the Antigonish Poverty Reduction Coalition — out of which came community transit and the Affordable Housing Society. The Marthas stood publicly with the Women’s Resource Centre during a women’s march. They’ve been consistent supporters of SAFE and the Friendship Corner program. Most of this happened quietly, without press releases or self-congratulation. That’s partly by design. The Hospital, the Habits, and the Transition The Sisters sold St. Martha’s Hospital to the government in the mid-1990s, when changes to the Canada Health Act made it the right move. They left StFX’s campus in 1994. They deconstructed Bethany — the grand mother house that had stood since 1921 — in 2019, having moved their elder sisters into Parkland Antigonish, a care facility built partly on land the congregation sold for that purpose. The sisters are still close to the property they’ve always called home; their cemetery is there, their offices are there, and the Bethany Centennial Garden — designed with community input, featuring a steeple, a reflecting pool, ruins of the original foundation, and storyboards about the congregation’s history — is there for anyone to walk through. The habits came off in 1967, after the Second Vatican Council opened the door to change across religious life. Sister Joanne is careful not to frame this as better or worse than congregations that kept their distinctive dress — just different. For the Marthas, moving through the community without a visible marker of religious identity felt more consistent with who they were trying to be. What Comes Next: Opening the Door, Not Closing It The Sisters of St. Martha are a smaller congregation than they once were. That’s not unique to them — it’s the reality for most women’s religious congregations in North America. But Sister Joanne pushes back gently on the narrative that declining numbers mean something went wrong. Vatican II asked the Church to “read the signs of the times,” and reading those signs honestly means recognizing that the state now provides many of the services the Marthas once filled the gap on. That’s not failure — that’s mission accomplished, in a way. What the congregation is actively discerning now is what their evolving role looks like. Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si — which calls for an “integral ecology” that holds together the spiritual, social, economic, cultural, and environmental dimensions of life — has become the lens through which they’re making decisions. That means the Martha Justice Ministry is focused not just on human poverty but on the cry of the earth, listening to the land, and incorporating indigenous ways of knowing. Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall visited to speak about Two-Eyed Seeing. Carrie Prosper and Clifford Paul came to help them listen to the land they steward. That land — a significant property that includes old-growth forest, farm space, contemplative hermitages, and the Centennial Garden — is not for sale and will not be subdivided. Plans are still being discerned, but the direction is clear: it will serve community, contemplation, and ecological care. Young farmers are already learning to grow food and market it on the property. This summer, as part of the 125th anniversary celebrations, playwright Laura Teasdale has written eight short plays about gospel hospitality to be performed in the Centennial Gardens in late July. A Gift to the Town Sister Joanne’s closing words to the people of Antigonish are worth sitting with. She says the Martha spirit — the impulse toward radical hospitality, toward making room for others, toward ensuring no one is left behind — already lives in this community. The congregation’s greatest wish for their 125th year is not recognition but continuation. “Standing together in undaunted hope,” reads the inscription at the base of the steeple at the Centennial Garden — and Sister Joanne is clear: that’s not just the Marthas standing together. That’s all of us. Get full access to Let's Talk Antigonish at letstalkantigonish.substack.com/subscribe

    56 min

  2. APR 4

    The provincial budget with Professor Jim Bickerton

    We sat down with Jim Bickerton, professor of political science at StFX since 1984, to talk about what the recently approved (and highly contentious) provincial budget means for Antigonish. Jim is a long-time voice in Atlantic Canadian media on matters of provincial politics, and a fellow Antigonisher. What follows is a calm, analytical, and occasionally blunt conversation, full of useful context for anyone trying to understand what just happened and why. Why Cuts Had to Happen at All The starting point is the deficit. Nova Scotia is facing a record shortfall of roughly $1.25 billion this year, with the province projecting continued annual deficits through to at least 2030, declining only gradually to around $810 million. For a small, relatively undiversified economy, that’s not a trivial position to be in. Bickerton explains the mechanics clearly. Credit rating agencies scrutinize every provincial budget and assess whether a government is serious about fiscal restraint. A downgrade could significantly increase the interest the province pays to borrow money — and Nova Scotia borrows a lot. So even if the cuts themselves don’t dramatically reduce the deficit, showing a willingness to cut matters symbolically to external lenders. Ontario ran a $14 billion deficit this year with no equivalent anxiety, but Ontario’s economy can absorb that in ways Nova Scotia’s cannot. The original $130 million in cuts was eventually walked back to around $76 million after about $50 million was reinstated — a partial retreat driven by the scale of public backlash. Bickerton is direct: that kind of reversal, under that kind of pressure, suggests the government miscalculated both the political and economic significance of what it had done. Why Arts and Culture? This is the question everyone has been asking, and Bickerton’s answer is characteristically honest: he doesn’t fully know, and he suspects nobody outside a very tight circle around the premier does either. What he does know is that the big-ticket budget lines — health care, education, infrastructure, long-term care — were never realistically on the chopping block. Health care alone is consuming enormous new investment: $250 million for a province-wide patient record system, $1.3 billion to renovate the VG hospital. These are the Houston government’s core commitments. Education spending is rising with enrollment. Long-term care needs new spaces. Those areas were always going to be protected. That left the government looking for cuts elsewhere, and arts and culture — representing less than 1% of an $18.9 billion total budget — apparently looked like an easy target. Bickerton’s pointed observation: the Minister of Finance was asked repeatedly by journalists whether any economic analysis had been done of the impact of these cuts. He kept ducking the question. That, Bickerton says, tells you all you need to know. No economic analysis was done. And apparently, no real political analysis either. Justin floats an intriguing theory; that cutting arts and culture might have been a deliberate signal to resource extraction industries like oil and gas that Nova Scotia was their kind of province. Bickerton gently dismisses it. He finds it hard to imagine that a company contemplating billions in investment would factor in a $130 million arts cut. What’s more plausible, he suggests, is simpler: the Houston government appears primarily oriented toward resource-based economic growth, and arts and culture just wasn’t on their radar as something worth protecting. A Political Miscalculation Bickerton calls it clearly: the government took a significant political hit for a relatively small deficit reduction. The arts community, he notes, is articulate, vocal, and good at public speaking — and the general public rallied around them in ways the government didn’t anticipate. Even the opposition parties, he observes, were caught off guard by the scale of the response and had to scramble to catch up. The government’s attempt to frame the protests as NDP-organized events was, in Justin’s direct experience as someone who was there, simply wrong. And the failure to communicate proactively — to prepare the public for difficult choices while simultaneously highlighting significant new spending in health care, education, and long-term care — was a strategic blunder that Bickerton finds hard to explain. His conclusion: the government showed arrogance in the process, a lack of communication strategy, and insufficient empathy for the people who would be most directly harmed. And because power is so heavily centralized in the Premier’s office under the Westminster system, the accountability for that lands squarely on Tim Houston. What About Our MLA? Justin and Anuj circle the Michelle Thompson question carefully, and Bickerton is helpful here. As Minister of Health — whose portfolio was actually one of the beneficiaries of this budget — Thompson would likely not have been deeply involved in the decisions around arts and culture cuts. Perhaps, as Bickerton speculates was true for other MLAs, she was taken by surprise by the proposed cuts. But she is bound by cabinet solidarity. Under the Westminster system, ministers don’t publicly dissent, don’t break ranks, and don’t express frustration with decisions made by the Premier’s office. Even if there is vigorous debate within caucus behind the scenes (as Thompson noted on a previous episode is sometimes the case). That’s not unique to this government Bickerton noted; it’s how the system works. It perhaps explains why Thompson didn’t make media appearances during the budget debates and protests, even as her constituents in Antigonish were among the most vocally upset in the province. But this, everyone concedes, is pure speculation. We hope to get Michelle Thompson back on the podcast soon to help clarify! The Future: More Cuts Are Coming The episode ends on a sobering note. The government has signaled its intention to reduce the size of the civil service — carefully distinguishing, Bickerton notes, between “cuts to the civil service” and “cuts to services,” the implication being that bureaucratic fat can be trimmed without hurting anyone. He’s skeptical. The projections point to continued restraint over several years, and those projections themselves could shift for the worse depending on global variables — energy crises, geopolitical instability, and the ongoing uncertainty of Canada-US trade relations. A brief and fascinating coda: Bickerton and colleague Doug Brown( previous podcast guest) are planning a public event at the Mulroney Institute this fall on Alberta separatism and the referendum scheduled there — a conversation that, he suggests, is going to be very interesting to watch for those interested in Canadian politics. Get full access to Let's Talk Antigonish at letstalkantigonish.substack.com/subscribe

    44 min
  3. The challenges and rewards of running a small business in Antigonish

    MAR 28

    The challenges and rewards of running a small business in Antigonish

    We sat down with Paul Curry, President of the Antigonish Chamber of Commerce to talk honestly about what it takes to run a small business in Antigonish; the red tape, the razor-thin margins, the trouble finding workers, the fallout from the recent construction traffic that crippled a few Main Street businesses. But it was not a conversation filled with doom and gloom; quite the opposite in fact. Paul came with genuine enthusiasm for this town and what its business community is quietly pulling off. Curry runs the Claymore Inn, a hotel his father operated for 40 years before Paul took over in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic, and the Justamere Café & Bakery, an Antigonish institution popular for breakfast. He’s also the current president of the Antigonish Chamber of Commerce, which gives him a bird’s-eye view of what’s working and what isn’t across the local business landscape. The Immigration Problem Is Real — and It’s Getting Worse The conversation started where Curry wanted it to start: the broken immigration process for foreign workers. He reached out to the podcast after a previous episode on immigration, wanting to speak from the employer’s side. What he described is a system that is slow, opaque, arbitrary, and increasingly punishing to both workers and the businesses that rely on them. His current example: he’s been trying to hire a chef who is already running a kitchen in Alberta. The candidate scores at the required level in four of the five categories of the Atlantic Immigration Pilot language test — and one point below in reading comprehension. The application is effectively stalled. Meanwhile, Curry has other current employees on temporary permits who have been waiting for movement on their permanent residency applications for so long that it feels, in his words, like they’re simply being slow-played until their permits expire and they’re asked to leave. “The real victims,” he’s clear to point out, “are the people whose lives are on hold.” They’re trying to decide whether to start families, settle down, build a life here, and nobody will give them a straight answer. From the business owner’s side, a lot of the administrative burden falls on employers, who are spending hours on paperwork and thousands of dollars on applications with no guarantee of an outcome and no feedback from the system. This is not, Curry emphasizes, about preferring foreign workers over Canadians. Employers are legally obligated to hire permanent residents and citizens first. The issue is simply that for certain skilled roles like cooks, chefs, and head bakers, local applicants often aren’t there. An LMIA application costs $1,000 and may not succeed. Nobody is doing this because it’s easy or cheap. How The Chamber of Commerce can help The Antigonish Chamber of Commerce offers a number of services to local business, including pointing budding business owners in the right direction when it comes time to seek startup advice, and advocating for existing businesses. The construction disruption on Main Street last year was a case study in how the Chamber can help. The Chamber mobilized members to show up at an emergency council meeting and successfully pushed to pause the work through Christmas. It was a tangible, practical example of what the Chamber is actually for: collective advocacy that an individual business owner couldn’t pull off alone. What Antigonish Has Going for It Curry is not pessimistic about the town as a place to do business; he’s just clear-eyed. He points to a genuine culture of cooperation among local businesses that is unique to this town and that he doesn’t take for granted. Hotels share overflow guests through text groups. Restaurants lend each other ingredients when supply runs short. Nobody wants their neighbours to fail, because a healthy business community serves everyone. He’s also struck by the quality and creativity of what’s being built here. The Curious Cat bookstore, which many assumed couldn’t survive in a small town, is thriving. The Clayfire Cafe, which moved into the former Curious Cat space, is full and buzzing. Lochaber Lake Lodges is doing cool things out in the county. A world-famous chocolate business, a salt company, a seasoning shop on James Street. These are people betting on Antigonish and winning. Anuj noted that over 70% of businesses in Antigonish have women as owners or co-owners, which is remarkable. The Chamber board itself is currently about 80% women, and Curry expects the next president will be too. The Support Ecosystem — and Its Gaps For anyone thinking about starting a business, Curry points to a network of supports that exist but aren’t always easy to find. ACOA, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, funds regional development and can provide grants or low-interest loans for businesses looking to grow or export. CBDC — Community Business Development Corporation — offers small business loans and free training in areas like accounting software, management, and leadership. Nova Scotia Works and NOBL are also in the mix. The Chamber itself functions as a navigator: not the place to start a business, but the place to figure out where to go. The gap, as Curry sees it, is clarity. The ecosystem exists but isn’t visible enough, especially to first-time entrepreneurs. He’d like to see the Chamber play a stronger role in mapping those pathways. He’d also like to see the town and county develop something closer to a strategic vision for its business community; not telling entrepreneurs what to build, but creating conditions and direction. The Coady Institute’s asset-based community development model is one he finds instructive: start with what you have, and build from there. New efforts are emerging too. The Leap Innovation Hub, a peer-to-peer business coaching initiative that includes Curry’s wife Renee, is helping early-stage businesses get off the ground — they’ve worked closely with Elvira’s Table, among others. And IGNITE, out of New Glasgow, provides networking and coaching support across the region. The Bottom Line Curry’s closing message is characteristically direct: entrepreneurship is hard, it matters enormously to this community, and Antigonish needs more of it. If you have an idea, talk to the Chamber, talk to NOBL, talk to Nova Scotia Works. Don’t wait for a perfect moment — there isn’t one. And don’t let the challenges discourage you. The people who bet on this town and pour their passion into it, he says, have a habit of surprising everyone, including themselves. The Chamber has an office at the Antigonish Public Library, with a new executive director starting in the coming months. You can find membership information and more at antigonishchamber.ca. Nova Scotia Works: https://novascotiaworks.ca/nsdc/ CBDC-NOBL: https://noblbusinessskills.ca/ IGNITE: https://igniteatlantic.com/ LEAP: https://www.facebook.com/theleaphub/ ACOA: https://www.canada.ca/en/atlantic-canada-opportunities.html Get full access to Let's Talk Antigonish at letstalkantigonish.substack.com/subscribe

    37 min

  4. MAR 21

    Why So Many StFX Students Are Struggling With Loneliness and Mental Health

    Mack Murphy and Haley Qualizza are back. The two StFX Student Union Vice Presidents — Mack for Campus Affairs, Haley for External Affairs — were such compelling guests in their first appearance on the podcast that Justin and Anuj made them the show’s first-ever returning guests. Last time they covered student life in Antigonish broadly. This time there was unfinished business: at the end of that first episode, the topic of mental health came up just as time ran out. Mack mentioned it was basically her whole area. So they came back to do it justice. What follows is an honest, data-grounded, and personally revealing conversation about student mental health. The Unique Problem of Getting Help in Antigonish The conversation opens with a structural issue that many residents may not be aware of: students at StFX who have learning disabilities or mental health conditions that require formal accommodations — like extra time on exams through the Tramble Centre — need a clinical diagnosis to access those supports. And you cannot always get that diagnosis in Antigonish. If you suspect you have ADHD, dysgraphia, autism, or any number of other conditions, you have to travel to Halifax or Sydney, pay out of pocket, potentially book a hotel for multi-day assessments, and navigate all of it alone — often in your first year of university, the first time you’ve ever managed your own healthcare without a parent. Mack knows this from personal experience: her own dysgraphia diagnosis cost roughly $1,700 out of pocket and required a four-hour assessment in Cape Breton. For students already under financial stress, this is simply out of reach. The result is that students who are struggling — who are doing the work but have nothing to show for it in a system that requires documentation — fall through the cracks entirely. The Numbers Are Stark A recent study found that only 36% of college students are thriving — reporting high levels of success in relationships, self-esteem, purpose, and optimism. That means roughly 64% are not. More striking still: 52% of students report experiencing loneliness. That’s one in two people on any given campus, at a rate significantly higher than the general population — one in six of whom experience this level of loneliness globally. And loneliness is not just uncomfortable. Chronic loneliness increases the risk of premature death by 25% — higher than smoking. This is not a wellness talking point. It is a public health issue. Why Is It Getting Worse? Both Mack and Haley point to the pandemic as a formative event that shaped the socialization habits of an entire generation. Students who were 14 or 15 years old when lockdowns hit learned to equate being social with being online — physically alone but digitally connected. That pattern never fully reversed. And social media has compounded it by creating a culture in which asking someone to hang out, showing up somewhere new, or doing anything visible feels like a potential source of public humiliation. The “fear of cringe” is real and it is paralyzing. It stops students from making the small, awkward moves that human connection actually requires. The shift away from group work in university classrooms — driven partly by concerns about AI-assisted writing — has quietly removed one of the most reliable engines of peer connection. Hayley notes that her first group project of second year didn’t happen until her second semester. The structured, low-stakes opportunity to be thrown together with strangers and figure things out has quietly disappeared from many students’ university experience. What Can Actually Be Done? The practical suggestions in this episode are worth writing down, whether you’re a professor, a community event organizer, or just someone who lives here. For professors, the advice is direct: force interaction. Assigned groups, seminar-style presentations, case studies discussed together — these aren’t just pedagogically sound, they’re a mental health intervention. Students will not, on their own, reach across the room to someone they don’t know. But if a professor puts them in a group and gives them a problem to solve, connections form. The initial cringe passes. People laugh together. It works. For community organizers, their message is equally clear: students want to be at your events. They are not unapproachable. When they show up in a huddle in the corner, it’s not because they’re too cool — it’s because they are just as unsure about approaching the adults in the room as those adults are about approaching them. The fix is simple: go talk to them. The language of your invitation matters too. “All are welcome” and “we want you there” are very different things, and students feel the difference. On reaching students in the first place: skip Facebook entirely. Use Instagram. Email works too — and if you contact Mack or the student union directly, they can help get the word out to society presidents and student groups with real reach on campus. The Bigger Picture There’s a broader point threading through this episode, one that connects to themes the podcast has returned to again and again: Antigonish is a small town, and that smallness is both the problem and the solution. Students come here from all over the country and the world, often for the first time living away from their families, into a place without many of the urban supports — clinical, social, commercial — they may have taken for granted. The town cannot easily fix the diagnostic gap or the broader loneliness epidemic. But it can close the distance between the university and the community. It can make events that feel genuinely welcoming to students. It can have conversations like this one. Hayely’s final word to Antigonish residents: “Talk to students when you see them at events. We want to talk to you.” Mack’s: “Keep standing up for what you believe in, and you’ll find the people you need to be around.” Get full access to Let's Talk Antigonish at letstalkantigonish.substack.com/subscribe

    34 min

  5. MAR 14

    Heather MacIsaac, JUNO-Nominated Musician and Antigonish's Best-Kept Musical Secret

    Justin and Anuj sat down with Heather MacIsaac—a pharmacist by day, and as of this year, a JUNO-nominated composer—to talk about her debut album The Moon’s Daughter, her long and winding road through competitive piping, performance anxiety, and the kitchen ceilidh culture that makes Antigonish’s music scene unlike anywhere else. What Even Is Trad Music? If you’re not already in the scene, MacIsaac is a patient and generous guide. Traditional music, she explains, is simply the folk music of your people — and in Antigonish, that means a rich, layered mix of Scottish Highland, Irish, Acadian, and increasingly global influences that have been blending together for centuries. The instruments skew old-fashioned by design: fiddle, bagpipes, whistle, bodhran, accordion. Simple holes in a stick, as Justin puts it. The point was never complexity — it was the melody, the room, and the people around you. What’s striking is how porous the tradition actually is. The Cape Breton fiddle style that most people recognize didn’t come from one culture — it evolved from Acadian, Irish, Scottish, and Newfoundland influences all swirling together over generations. First Nations fiddler Morgan Toney has carved out his own genre he calls Mi’kmaltic. The bouzouki, now considered a staple of Irish trad, arrived from Greece in the 1960s. The tradition, MacIsaac argues, has always been about absorbing and adapting — not gatekeeping. From the Living Room to the JUNOs MacIsaac’s path to a JUNO nomination is not a straight line. She started with classical piano, fell hard for competitive piping as a teenager, and was soon travelling to Scotland and Ontario to compete at an elite level — playing alongside some of the best pipers in the world, including composers whose work she was performing every week. The experience was exhilarating and suffocating in equal measure. The little tunes she was quietly writing on the side never seemed worth sharing. Why would they, when she was surrounded by giants? Performance anxiety eventually made the whole enterprise feel more like dread than joy. She stepped back from the competitive world, but the music never really left her. It just went deeper underground. The turning point came through a low-key Irish session started by Susie Murphy — whose family runs Big Barn Little Farm — at a local pub. Murphy had encountered the Irish session culture firsthand while studying farming in Ireland, where anyone could walk into a pub, sit down, and play tunes that were common to the culture. No audition. No pressure. No perfection required. When her sister opened a pub in Antigonish, Susie brought the format with her. For MacIsaac, it was a slow but genuine transformation. She arrived at those early sessions deeply anxious. But the format — learning by ear, playing along even when you didn’t quite have it yet, valuing the melody over the technique — gradually helped her unlearn decades of classical perfectionism. Music stopped being something to be judged and started being something to share. The Album: A Legacy Project in the Best Sense The album itself grew out of something even more personal than musical ambition. The loss of her mother prompted MacIsaac to reckon with everything her mom had invested in her musical education — every lesson, every competition, every long drive — and how little of it the world had ever seen. Around the same time, she was navigating a divorce and coming to terms with not having children. She found herself thinking about legacy. About what she would leave behind. “I don’t want this to just end up in the landfill someday,” she said of the decades of tunes she’d written and kept almost entirely to herself. Where fiddlers in this tradition have long had a culture of debut albums — Natalie MacMaster, Ashley MacIsaac, both did them young — pipers traditionally waited until they’d won every major competition going. MacIsaac decided that was a rule worth breaking. The Moon’s Daughter was recorded at Lakewind Sound in Cape Breton with engineer Mike Shepard, Cape Breton piano legend Mac Morin, and Antigonish’s own trad musical genius Mary Beth Carty, and every note of it MacIsaac’s own composition. Every tune, every song, written by a woman who spent years convinced her work wasn’t worth sharing. The JUNO nomination suggests otherwise. MacIsaac credits Carty in particular with helping her find her footing as a performer, gradually coaxing her onto stages by having her accompany Carty’s own shows on whistle and pipes until performing stopped feeling impossible. Antigonish’s dual JUNOs presence In a remarkable footnote, MacIsaac isn’t the only Antigonish-connected act nominated in the Traditional Roots Recording category this year. Cassie and Maggie — whose grandfather played fiddle at the same kitchen parties as MacIsaac’s grandparents — are also nominated. Their family roots run deep in the same local music tradition, even if they grew up in Halifax. For a town this size, that’s not a coincidence. It’s a testament to something real that has been quietly happening here for a very long time. The winner will be announced at the JUNO Gala on March 28th, broadcast on CBC Gem. MacIsaac is going — and she’s given her extra ticket to Shepard, whose studio also worked on Morgan Toney’s album, which is nominated in the same category. A Scene Worth Finding — and Supporting MacIsaac’s larger message is an invitation, and it comes with some urgency given the current climate of arts funding cuts across Nova Scotia. She’s measured but clear about the stakes: a place without culture is a place without a reason to visit. The music, the language, the traditions — these aren’t decoration on top of the tourism economy. They are the economy, and they’re also something much more than that. She’d love to see traditional music integrated into school curricula the way it has been in Ireland, where kids can learn pipes in school and pursue degrees in the music and history of their own people’s culture. That hasn’t happened here yet, but she thinks Antigonish — with StFX, the Coady Institute, and the depth of musical tradition already present — is better positioned than almost anywhere to try. In the meantime, the scene is alive and genuinely welcoming. The Maples hosts sessions. The local museum has shows. Rebecca Wilde teaches strings from classical through Celtic. And the sessions themselves — the informal, social, anyone-can-play gatherings that are the beating heart of trad culture — are open to all comers, whatever your instrument, whatever your background. “You don’t have to be from that background to enjoy it,” MacIsaac said simply. “It should be celebrated and enjoyed by everyone.” If you’ve been curious but felt like an outsider looking in, this episode is the best possible place to start. Listen to The Moon’s Daughter here: Get full access to Let's Talk Antigonish at letstalkantigonish.substack.com/subscribe

    45 min

  6. MAR 7

    Immigration in Antigonish: What's Changing, Who's Affected, and What Comes Next

    Immigration is a subject that almost every resident of Antigonish has bumped into in some way. Walk into a local Tim Hortons, visit Parkland or the RK, or stroll through the StFX campus, and the town’s growing diversity is immediately visible. But behind that visible change is a complex and increasingly uncertain legal and policy landscape that is affecting real people in our community right now. Justin and Anuj (freshly returned from travels in Kenya and India) sat down with Peter Goldie, a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) and Antigonish neighbour, to untangle what’s going on. What Changed and Why To understand the current situation, Goldie says, you have to go back to COVID. When the pandemic created widespread labor shortages, the federal government loosened immigration policies to bring more workers into the country. Pathways that allowed temporary residents to become permanent residents were expanded, and the result was a significant influx of people. Then came the backlash. With housing costs soaring and healthcare wait times growing across the country, the government began pointing to the elevated number of temporary residents — currently around 6.5% of the total population, against a stated target of 5% — as a contributing factor. The response has been a steady tightening of immigration programs over the past two years. “What we’re seeing is a restriction on immigration programs,” Goldie explained. “They’re reducing the number of foreign nationals that can access these programs... and restricting the options for them to renew their immigration status.” The implicit goal, he said, is that as temporary status expires and renewal becomes harder, people will return home. It’s a policy direction that Goldie — and many in his field — finds troubling. The Local Labor Paradox For a community like Antigonish, the consequences of tighter immigration policy are particularly pointed. The county has an aging population, which means a shrinking tax base alongside growing demand for services — elder care, continuing care attendants, healthcare workers. That workforce has to come from somewhere, and increasingly, it has been coming from abroad. “Even with younger Canadians stepping up to fill these roles, there still is a genuine shortage,” Goldie said. The frustrating irony is that the jobs most in need of workers in a service-oriented community like Antigonish — retail, hospitality, continuing care — are precisely the ones the government has deprioritized for immigration purposes. For nearly two years, workers in hospitality and accommodation have been unable to use those jobs as a pathway toward permanent residency through Nova Scotia’s provincial nominee program. The government’s focus, Goldie noted, has shifted toward resource extraction and industrial sectors — jobs that don’t yet exist here in meaningful numbers. “Right now, the people that are currently here and are currently working are filling labor needs, but they’re not being given access to permanent residency,” he said. Nova Scotia’s PR Programs: Fewer Options Overnight Adding to the uncertainty, changes to immigration programs can happen with little or no warning. As a stark example, Goldie noted that just recently, Nova Scotia condensed its ten provincial nominee program streams down to four — without publicly announcing the change in advance. “It can happen at any time and it can create a real problem for a lot of people,” he said. For the foreign nationals affected — international students on post-graduate work permits, Ukrainians who came here fleeing conflict, temporary workers who have built lives here — that uncertainty is deeply stressful. Many arrived with the reasonable expectation that a clear pathway to permanent residency existed. For a growing number, that path has narrowed or disappeared entirely. “I see a lot of stress,” Goldie said of his clients. “There was a lot of young people that have come to Canada from other countries. It’s been a long-term family decision oftentimes to come here, to expend a lot of resources.” The Credential Recognition Problem One issue that runs alongside the immigration question is the broader challenge of credential recognition. Goldie pointed out that many foreign nationals working in relatively low-wage positions here are significantly overqualified for those roles. Canada’s difficulty recognizing foreign education and professional credentials keeps highly trained people in roles well beneath their qualifications. The example discussed most personally in the conversation was dentistry: Goldie noted that his own fiancée, a trained dentist from abroad, is currently unable to practice in Canada, and that the pathway to doing so — or even to working in a supporting dental role in the interim — is filled with regulatory roadblocks. “There is a huge shortage of dental professionals,” he said. “Very hard if you’re a foreign-trained dentist to become licensed in Canada.” What Antigonish Can Do While federal and provincial immigration policy is largely out of local hands, the conversation surfaced several practical ways the community can respond constructively. For employers facing labor shortages — particularly in healthcare and social services — Goldie emphasized that many of the workers they need are already here, ready and willing. The barrier is often simply a lack of awareness about how immigration programs work and how employers can support their workers’ long-term residency goals. Businesses that actively help employees navigate these processes are far better positioned to retain good workers. More broadly, Goldie called for greater communication between the various groups navigating this moment — employers, newcomers, and long-established residents alike. He noted that Antigonish has a proud history of welcoming people from around the world, from its deep roots as a university town to the international work of the Coady Institute. That tradition of openness is a community asset worth building on. On the policy front, his recommendation was clear: rather than focusing on reducing the number of temporary residents by pushing people out, the government should be creating more pathways for people already here — who are already paying taxes, already embedded in communities — to stay permanently. “If people are here and they’re paying taxes, they should have a better chance,” he said. By June of this year, an estimated 1.5 million temporary residents in Canada may face an uncertain immigration status. As Anuj put it during the episode, “This is showing up in our town and county in real time.” Getting Help — and Staying Informed For those with immigration questions, Goldie is also considering offering a free public information seminar in collaboration with the Antigonish library and ACALA — a space where community members could come to better understand how the system works without needing to retain a consultant. His parting advice for anyone navigating immigration questions on their own: go to the official IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) website for accurate information, and be cautious about unverified sources. Peter Goldie has been a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant in good standing since 2021. His practice focuses on Economic Immigration pathways both temporary and permanent. Get full access to Let's Talk Antigonish at letstalkantigonish.substack.com/subscribe

    32 min

  7. FEB 28

    Antigonish's Growing Tourism Ambitions

    Lynne DeLorey, who recently became the first-ever Director of Tourism for the Antigonish Tourism Association (ATA), is on a mission to change the face of Antigonish tourism. Justin and Anuj sat down with DeLorey for a wide-ranging conversation about what the town has going for it, what it’s missing, and what the Antigonish Tourism Association is doing to put Antigonish firmly on the tourism map. Who Is Lynne DeLorey and What Is the Antigonish Tourism Association? DeLorey is not new to the hospitality world. She got her start at the front desk of the Claymore Inn while attending StFX in the late 1980s, later purchased and ran the Evergreen Inn — growing it into the number one rated place to stay in Nova Scotia on TripAdvisor through a focus on customer service and savvy marketing — and then spent six years working in the president’s office at StFX. When the newly formed ATA posted the director role, she jumped at it. The Antigonish Tourism Association itself is a young organization, formed in 2021. It is not a government body, but functions independently, with a mandate to increase overnight visitation, improve visitor services, and make Antigonish a genuine destination rather than a rest stop. “We’re not a drive-through,” DeLorey said plainly. “We have lots of assets here to be your destination.” What Does Antigonish Actually Have to Offer? Quite a lot, as it turns out. DeLorey ran through a long list of destinations and events, and it’s unlikely that even lifelong residents of Antigonish have done everything on it: StFX University itself — its heritage buildings, the Cathedral, and the chapel — draws visitors on its own. The town’s beaches are a significant summer draw, as is Chez Deslauriers. There are multiple breweries, beautiful coastal drives, and the Keppoch outdoor recreation area. The Highland Games remain one of the marquee annual events, alongside the Jazz Festival, Festival Antigonish, Riverside, The Exhibition, the list goes on! Beyond entertainment, the town’s institutional assets are also tourism draws in their own right. The Coady International Institute, the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government, and Peace by Chocolate — nationally known and a genuine point of pride — all bring people to town who want to see them in person. And StFX draws a steady stream of parents visiting students, conference attendees, and prospective students, all of whom need accommodation, food, and things to do. “We cross-promote,” DeLorey explained. “We work with St. FX and their tour office. We work with the hospital. We can supply their conferences with maps of Antigonish and help them engage with attendees.” Four Seasons, Not Just Summer One of DeLorey’s central goals is to move Antigonish beyond its reliance on summer as the only peak season. The conversation was recorded mid-winter, with the town buried in snow — and even then, DeLorey pointed to real winter tourism offerings: groomed trails at the golf course and Keppoch for cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and fat biking, plus Snow Dogs snowmobile trails that connect all the way to Amherst. “We want people from away coming here, booking their night stay, and hitting our groomed trails,” she said, noting that a social media campaign promoting exactly that was about to go live. Her vision for summer is even more ambitious. She’d love to see live music happening nearly every night during peak season, more outdoor restaurant patios, stores staying open later on the main street, and a more connected sense of a town that’s alive and happening. Mi’kmaq Heritage and Inclusive Tourism One area DeLorey is actively working to develop is showcasing the Mi’kmaq heritage of the region. Prompted by a mention of a previous podcast conversation with local advocate Trevor Gould, who had spoken about the desire for more visible recognition of Mi’kmaq history in town, DeLorey confirmed that Paqtnkek is already part of new tours the ATA is planning. On the accessibility front, the ATA is working to have an accessibility champion review their upcoming Antigonish guide and map before they go to print, with the goal of clearly marking accessible venues and attractions. And in collaboration with Coastal Nova Scotia, the ATA is also developing a Coastal Kids Guide — a new family-focused resource launching this year. The Budget Cuts Question The conversation couldn’t avoid the elephant in the room: the Nova Scotia provincial budget, which has seen significant cuts to Community, Cultures, Tourism, and Heritage funding, including the closure of provincially funded Visitor Information Centres across the province. The good news for Antigonish is that the local Visitor Information Centre, run by the ATA, is locally operated and not directly affected by the provincial cuts. It receives some funding through Coastal Nova Scotia, a regional destination marketing organization covering Pictou County, Antigonish, and Guysborough County, and that funding stream currently remains intact. A meeting to assess the full impact on the region was planned for March 10th. The closure of the provincial VIC at Port Hastings — the welcome gateway at the Cape Breton causeway — is, however, a genuine loss. “We will miss that one,” DeLorey said. But she also sees an opportunity: with that gateway point gone, Antigonish can step up as the information hub for travelers heading to Cape Breton. The ATA has already reached out to Paqtnkek to explore expanding their tourism info already in place at the Bayside Travel Centre. Meanwhile, the Antigonish Visitor Information Centre recently received approval for a New Horizons grant to fund a 55-plus Ambassador Program, which will train volunteers to serve as informed, welcoming guides throughout the community — in restaurants, at gas stations, and anywhere visitors are likely to ask for help. If this sounds like something that might interest you, please contact Lynne at info@antigonishtourism.ca to discuss! Tourism Is for Locals Too Perhaps the most useful reminder DeLorey offered was this: the Antigonish Tourism Association and its Visitor Information Centre are not just for people from away. Locals regularly walk into the VIC asking what’s happening in town that week. “We are more than just for the visitor,” she said. “We are for locals as well.” The ATA website at antigonishtourism.ca features an events calendar that anyone can submit to. If you’re running an event and want it listed, you can add it yourself — or simply send it to the ATA and they’ll take care of it. In an era when people increasingly Google “what’s on in Antigonish” before making plans, having events listed in one central, easily searchable place matters more than ever. DeLorey’s main message was as much for longtime residents as for potential visitors: “We have it all here and we can make Antigonish a destination!” More info on the Antigonish Tourism Association: https://antigonishtourism.ca/ And their local events page - please feel free to submit an event: https://antigonishtourism.ca/events/ Get full access to Let's Talk Antigonish at letstalkantigonish.substack.com/subscribe

    27 min

  8. FEB 21

    Pharmacies in Antigonish now offer LOTS of new medical services

    If you haven’t been to a pharmacy lately for anything beyond picking up a prescription, you might be missing out. As of February 1, 2026, the Nova Scotia government has rolled out province-wide funding for a broad range of minor ailment treatments at pharmacies across the province — and it’s a bigger deal than most people realize. On our latest episode, Justin sat down with Miranda Teasdale, owner and pharmacist at Teasdale Apothecary, and Marcel van den Berg, a relief pharmacist and newly appointed member of the Nova Scotia Pharmacy Regulator, to break down what’s changed and what it means for people living here in town. From Pilot to Province-Wide The new funding didn’t come out of nowhere. For nearly three years, a select group of pharmacies (including Teasdale Apothecary here in Antigonish) participated in a provincial pilot program called the Community Pharmacy Primary Care Pilot (CPPCC), which allowed pharmacists to assess and treat a range of minor ailments and be reimbursed for those services. The results were compelling enough that the province has now extended the program to every pharmacy in Nova Scotia. “It has shown based on the results of the pilot that we have kept a significant amount of people out of emergency rooms,” said Miranda Teasdale. Early data from the pilot suggested a reduction of more than 10% in emergency room visits — and van den Berg noted that figure came from only the first phase of the study, with roughly half of participating clinics reporting. The real impact, he suggested, is likely considerably higher. What Can a Pharmacist Actually Treat? The list of conditions pharmacists can now assess and prescribe for — fully covered by the province with a valid Nova Scotia health card — is longer than many people might expect. It includes a wide range of common ailments including allergies, pink eye, dry eyes, cold sores, canker sores, oral thrush, mild acne, mild to moderate eczema, skin rashes and dermatitis, impetigo, fungal skin infections, insect bites, hives, heartburn and reflux, nausea, diarrhea, hemorrhoids, threadworms and pinworms, urinary tract infections , yeast infections, shingles assessment and treatment, Lyme disease prevention and early treatment, COVID-19-related cough (for those 18+ with a positive test), emergency contraception, menstrual cramps, mild headaches, mild joint pain, muscle aches, and minor sleep disorders. Some additional conditions — such as calluses and corns, dandruff, nail fungal infections, and warts — are within a pharmacist’s scope of practice but are not yet government-funded and may be offered for a fee. It’s worth calling your pharmacy to ask about those. Going Beyond Minor Ailments The scope of what pharmacists can do in Nova Scotia has grown considerably beyond treating a seasonal rash or a bout of heartburn. Pharmacists can now also renew existing prescriptions; not just as a temporary loan until you see your doctor, but as a full prescription renewal following a proper assessment. “The way it works is we fully become the prescriber,” explained Teasdale. “So we would do an assessment... we’d check your blood pressure, we’d ask questions about side effects.” Depending on the situation, a pharmacist can renew a prescription for three months, six months, or even a year. And if you have a family doctor or nurse practitioner, your pharmacist will send them a record of everything done, keeping your care file complete. At clinics like Teasdale Apothecary, pharmacists with additional training can go further still — ordering blood work, assessing and helping manage chronic conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes, and treating ear infections and strep throat. Van den Berg emphasized that these expanded services are available to any pharmacist in Nova Scotia who has completed the required competency training, though not all pharmacists will have completed every course. That’s why calling ahead matters. No Conflict of Interest One question that naturally comes up: if a pharmacist prescribes something, aren’t they drumming up business for their own store? The short answer is no. As Teasdale explained, when her clinic prescribes a medication, they ask the patient which pharmacy they want it sent to — and it can be any pharmacy in the province. “We do that all the time,” she said. The prescribing role is kept separate from the dispensary, functioning much the same way a family doctor’s office does. Travel Clinic Now Open For Antigonish residents planning international travel, Teasdale Apothecary has also launched a dedicated travel clinic. Miranda Teasdale recently completed a global travel health exam, becoming a certified travel health educator. The clinic offers comprehensive travel consultations covering vaccinations, malaria prevention, traveler’s diarrhea, food and waterborne illness risks, and country-specific healthcare information. It is also a certified yellow fever vaccine site. Notably, Teasdale’s is currently the only travel clinic in Antigonish, following the closure of a previous clinic more than a year ago. Appointments can be booked by calling the pharmacy or through their website. Injections Now Covered Too As part of the expanded funding, certain injections administered at pharmacies are now also covered. This includes vitamin B12 injections and the Depo-Provera contraceptive injections. Filling the Pharmacist Gap Van den Berg, speaking from his perspective on the Nova Scotia Pharmacy Regulator, also highlighted efforts to address pharmacist shortages across the province. Nova Scotia is one of the few provinces in Canada that recognizes pharmacy licenses from countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, allowing pharmacists from those countries to transfer their credentials relatively quickly. More than 100 pharmacists have now registered through that pathway. A newer initiative involves a cohort of Jordanian pharmacists, many of them holders of a PharmD degree, who are coming to Nova Scotia through a partnership between the regulator and Dalhousie University. The first group of 17 has arrived and is completing an accelerated internship program before receiving their Nova Scotia licenses. “It not only helps to bring in more good qualified pharmacists, but also gives some people, some refugees, a better life here in Nova Scotia,” said van den Berg. How to Access These Services The key takeaway from the conversation: call your pharmacy first. While pharmacies strive to offer same-day or next-day appointments for many conditions, they cannot always guarantee immediate walk-in service. If you’re unsure whether your pharmacy offers a specific service, or whether their pharmacists have the training for a particular condition, a quick phone call will save you a wasted trip. Alternatively, you can call 811, where health navigators can help triage your situation and even assist with booking a pharmacy appointment. More info on Community Pharmacy Primary Care Clinics (CPPCC): https://pans.ns.ca/cppcc/ and here: https://novascotia.ca/dhw/pharmacare/healthcare-services.asp Get full access to Let's Talk Antigonish at letstalkantigonish.substack.com/subscribe

    30 min
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5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Let’s Talk Antigonish brings you thoughtful conversations as we unpack the questions, stories, and decisions shaping everyday life in our community. letstalkantigonish.substack.com

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  • Creator
    Let's Talk Antigonish
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    48
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Let's Talk Antigonish
  • Show Website
    Let's Talk Antigonish Podcast

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