John Dale
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johndalerural.bsky.social
John Dale
@johndalerural.bsky.social
PhD Student, Rural Studies
MSc, Rural Planning & Development

Maritimer in exile and darling child of @longestballot.bsky.social.
Proportional Representation Advocate and former Independent Candidate for a whole lot of places.
Obviously bsky isn't great at getting into the granular details here on that last part, but its a conversation to have.
October 17, 2025 at 3:59 PM
At the very least, unlike suburban / exurban development (whose North American style, flavour and history is grounded in racism) rural and urban are interdependent among multiple lines, which should be taken into consideration when we consider taxation and spending equitably.
October 17, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Regardless, rural and urban Halifax have unique needs that one-size-fits all policy cannot address. Amalgamation rarely seems to work out in canada without stripping people of local control around policy stewardship.
October 17, 2025 at 3:56 PM
We also have a lot of racialized communities in rural Nova Scotia with their own rich histories of care and reciprocity. Upper Hammonds Plains Community Land Trust working on tons of units of targeted co-op housing is one great recent example.
October 17, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reactionary politics absolutely exist in rural, but simply chalking everything up to an innate backward-ness that isn't worth dealing with is intellectually lazy and dishonest. We also have kind, well-organized people concerned with social justice and looking out for others.
October 17, 2025 at 3:49 PM
"So far as the left was urban, secularist, and both contemptuous of rural ‘backwardness’ and unappreciative of country problems, the peasantry might be full of suspicion and hostility towards it.”

-Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital, 1848-1875
October 17, 2025 at 3:46 PM
A couple w's got removed! Full URL: www.ipolitics.ca/2025/10/05/c...
October 6, 2025 at 11:38 AM
Good luck! I am sure you'll have proactive points.
October 3, 2025 at 2:36 AM
tim horton subway next thank u
October 3, 2025 at 2:30 AM
I'm not sure if this really 'adds' to your comment, but foreign credential recognition and barriers to settlement are huge parts of that. Immigrants are also 1.5x more likely to be entrepreneurs in Canada, which might partially be birthed from that. too.
October 2, 2025 at 5:33 PM
"proportional representation advocacy is partisan" is not a take I thought I'd ever live to hear, and yet here we are. We definitely have conservative leaning people on a ballot of 200 independent candidates lol. Watching the mental gymnastics made me wince.
September 30, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by John Dale
Kind people want a just world. Nice people want a calm world. These are fundamentally incompatible positions in an unjust system, and results in the latter trying to stomp down any fuss over getting to the former.
September 29, 2025 at 8:21 PM
I feel like the chance of a potential job or opportunity dying because I speak 5 degrees more casually with people I know is low and probably a decent filter for a healthy work environment anyway.
September 29, 2025 at 7:35 PM
So glad I found this-- cackling.
September 25, 2025 at 2:24 AM
Reposted by John Dale
Perfect to measure your children's height year after year ! "You can have a cellphone when you reach John Dale, and not a candidate before!"
September 18, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Honestly with the state of Guelph driving culture I think I'd be a little nervous using the turnbox!
September 22, 2025 at 1:35 PM
I saw the program schedule IMMEDIATELY after my reply and thread lol. Super excited-- good luck!!! Ten minutes until I set off.
September 22, 2025 at 11:20 AM
We can't even get public housing apparently without it being a sloppy AI-fueled 'public-private partnership' these days, so my hopes aren't exceptionally high in meaningful strides in data policy and related tech coming from the top: thewalrus.ca/the-tech-eli... and betakit.com/minister-of-...
Canada’s Tech Bros Have a Plan for the Country. Too Bad a Chatbot Wrote It | The Walrus
It’s ambitious, visionary, and almost entirely indistinguishable from Silicon Valley clichés
thewalrus.ca
September 21, 2025 at 4:54 PM