[someone123]

Part of the problem in Halifax is that there are 23 councillors. They have tiny districts and it is easy for special interests or certain neighbourhoods to vote somebody in. It is common for councillors to run unopposed or win with a very small number of votes. The downtown councillor for example won with 1144 votes.

It's annoying that such uninformed opinions get so much airtime, but at the end of the day a ton of construction is happening in Halifax. There has been lots of infill over the past 10 years and the quality of new construction has gone up considerably. Halifax's urban core is also much stronger than that of most (probably all) other small Canadian cities even though locals complain about it constantly.