(written by Terry MacNeil, on December 18, 2025 and January 2, 2026)

For “old/geriatric” Millennials (and anyone older than Millennials) in Nova Scotia, you all know what Live at 5 is – the ATV News show that would air before the ATV Evening News. The ATV Evening News was considered “the REAL news going on in Nova Scotia”, though I’ve often said they should’ve been ashamed of the amount of shitty CNN footage they used. As for Live at 5, that was considered “soft news” (though when I was young, I’d watch the show to ogle Nancy Regan). To be perfectly frank, it’s probably been more than 25 years since I watched an entire episode of Live at 5. If someone I know appears on the show – I’ll watch the segment (but definitely NOT the entire episode) online.

I don’t know Kate Beaton – though I certainly know of her. For her recent appearance on Live at 5, she was briefly interviewed about the Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands postage stamp she designed for Canada Post! And since this is Live at 5, they forced Beaton to be filmed at times – while acting as though she was unaware she was being filmed. Like I said, I don’t know Beaton – but my guess is, she thought “This is good publicity for the stamp and Canada Post – even though this staged shit is stupid.”

I recall my uncle – a Catholic priest, who died a few years ago. My theory, is that the stress from the heavy workload of being a priest running multiple churches (and doing near-constant funerals and hospital visits) was fatal. There was some controversy near the end of his life – because he flew the LGBTQIA+ Pride Flag at one (if memory serves me correctly) of his churches. I remember him as an overall very humane man (and socialist), who admired Che Guevara – and who was also FUCKING HILARIOUS. If you were someone he had no respect for – he probably said hilarious shit about you, behind closed doors. But, like I said – he’s dead. So as far as I’m concerned, there’s no harm in making that info public. When it comes to the dead – I like to think that THE REAL PERSON should be made MORE public, even if it makes some (living) people uncomfortable. And my uncle had THE LEAST RESPECT for the bible-thumpers. Shortly after the Pride Flag event occurred, the CTV News Atlantic wanted to do a story on my uncle. They filmed him giving a statement (speaking directly to the camera) on why he did what he did, which, in my opinion, was fine/appropriate – there was no silly “staged shit”.

I’m also 99% certain my uncle appeared on Live at 5 many years earlier – though I can’t remember the reason they did a story on him. That was an appearance I found… unintentionally hilarious. If memory serves me correctly, my uncle (later) told us Live at 5 told him (paraphrased) “We’ll film you delivering your statement directly to the camera. AND we are ALSO going to film you in your church – but you need to pretend we’re not there. And make sure you wear your priest robes, and pretend you’re doing ‘religious shit’ in your church (as we film you).” And I remember my uncle had a wide smirk on his face as they filmed those staged scenes. From what I knew of him – he was clearly thinking “This staged shit is fucking stupid. Oh well…”

Though I must add, some of my fondest memories that myself (and my brother) have of our uncle – was when he’d be slamming beers (with a high alcohol content). We never drank with our uncle – though I wish we had. That said, I suspect he wouldn’t have been comfortable, if he were drinking with me and my brother. But I must say, he was a character – the good kind. RIP. Ⓐ