RESERVE MINES - After three years at Province House, Cape Breton's lone New Democrat MLA is still upbeat about her ability to represent her constituents and make a difference on the local and provincial level. 

Kendra Coombes was first elected to the riding of Cape Breton Centre in a 2020 by-election and was re-elected nearly seventeen months later when the riding expanded to become Cape Breton Centre-Whitney Pier in the 2021 provincial election. Today, as the Progressive Conservative government run by Premier Tim Houston reaches the halfway point of its four-year term, while provincial NDP Leader Claudia Chender marks her first anniversary of being acclaimed to the post, Coombes is hopeful for her riding and its working-class constituents. 

"I'm a New Democrat - I'm always going to be optimistic and hopeful," Coombes told Telile LJI journalist Adam Cooke during her latest appearance on the station's weekly series Roundtable.

"The moment you stop being optimistic, the moment you start becoming too jaded, it's time to get out of politics, I think. Because if you don't ever see the potential of what could be, then what's the sense - why are you even there?"

The remainder of this week's Roundtable episode focuses on the 2023 Cape Breton Business Dinner held at Centre La Picasse in Petit de Grat by the independent economic-development organization known as the Cape Breton Partnership. Funded by all five Cape Breton municipal units, the partnership welcomed municipal, indigenous and business leaders from across the island to the June 22 event, including Richmond Warden Amanda Mombourquette, who welcomed the estimated 90 people in attendance. 

The dinner's keynote address came courtesy of former Alberta cabinet minister Doug Griffiths, who gave a run-down of the main topics in his book "Thirteen Ways To Kill Your Community." Griffiths warned his Cape Breton audience against complacency, isolationism and alienation of their youth and senior populations, while lauding the spirit of development and scenic beauty to be found in the Strait of Canso and across Cape Breton.