Huddle Presents: Home Office

Alejandro Riquelme and Anne You just wanted some empanadas. Now, they're the owners of Buena Pie Co., sharing authentic Chilean flavours with all of Halifax. Huddle's Trevor Nichols tells the story. 

The local poet and playwright was bothered by a series of murals in the city centre that featured eight historical figures – all white. It inspired him to produce “We Were Here”, the stories of eight black Canadians brought to life on the stage in partnership with the Saint John Theatre Company.   On this week’s episode, Clyde chats with host Mark Leger about historical figures like Cornelius Sparrow, an escaped slave from Virginia who owned a barbershop and saloon in the mid-19th century, and Lena O’Ree, a housekeeper at a local hotel who took a stand and walked through the front door when even black celebrities like Louis Armstrong had to use the back door.

For 35 years, the owners of Chenpapa have been known, not only for their great Asian cuisine but for their kindness and generosity. On Saturday, February 6, Yi Chiao Chen and Pi Yeng Chen served the last of their customers before retiring. But, true to their nature, the couple did one last act of generosity by donating $5,000 of the money they made on their last day to IWK. Huddle staff writer Derek Montague tells the story. 

In this edition of "The Quick Huddle", editor Mark Leger reflects on how residential construction is booming across the region despite Covid-19. He's happy about that even though it's costing him the waterfront in front of his house.

On this edition of The Quick Huddle, staff writer Derek Montegue reads his piece A Happy Ending For Sydelle’s Fish and Chips In Bedford, about a popular Halifax-area restaurant that burned to the ground last August, but through community support and hard work, rebuilt bigger and better in a new location.

Host Mark Leger has always wanted to connect with Mario Thériault for a chat about his wide-ranging career. Mario was a broadcast journalist in the early days, a published poet and short story writer, a communications adviser to his brother and one-time premier of New Brunswick, Camille Thériault, and for the last 20 years, the founder and CEO of the Moncton market intelligence firm ShiftCentral. Mario sold the company to U.S.-based LAC Group in 2019 and stayed on as Chief Business Development Officer. Mark finally caught up with Mario after he was recently named chair of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. They talked about politics, writing, and building a business that reaches global markets from the Maritimes.

The UNB economics professor accepted his job to come here from Alberta just as MacLean’s was publishing its much-loathed article, “Can anything save New Brunswick?”, about whether the province’s economy was in permanent decline. On this week’s episode, Herb tells host Mark Leger he arrived here to find that all was not lost. We just need to understand that the foundations of our manufacturing economy are strong and that traditional businesses need to be appreciated and nurtured, not cast off as “sunset” industries dominated by big players unfairly labelled as “monopolies.”