Why Cape Breton shakes in the echo of this distant boom

As young adults from the East race to high-paying jobs in the West, they leave behind hollowed-out towns worried for the future.

NEW WATERFORD, N.S.


The problem is, Mr. Morrison was making hay in Alberta while he was employed as the town councillor for New Waterford, a small community perched on the eastern tip of Cape Breton Island, near the mouth of Sydney Harbour. The local media discovered his side-act and pointed out he was still receiving a weekly travel stipend from the government (he paid the money back, saying it was an oversight).

Mr. Morrison was scarred enough by the experience that he doesn’t plan to return to Alberta any time soon, but his constituents are showing no such reluctance