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Though they’re not actually going to scribble Anthony LeBlanc’s name on a cheque for $20 million, Halifax councillors can surely smell perception from as much as 10 months away.

Which is to say, the date of the next municipal election.

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So, with a $20-million ask from LeBlanc and his partners at Schooners Sports and Entertainment on the table, and with local and national media on hand for Tuesday’s meeting at Halifax City Hall, some playbooks were open to the well-thumbed chapter on needs versus wants.

And as all 16 councillors and Mayor Mike Savage spoke to the funding recommendation, some repeatedly invoked the infrastructure equivalents of motherhood and apple pie; a library, police station, an aquatic centre, and sidewalks. So many sidewalks.

These are items that their constituents need, or perhaps want, far more than a 24,000-seat stadium that would be home to the expansion Atlantic Schooners of the Canadian Football League, provided LeBlanc et al can leverage the $20 million they were pledged by Halifax Regional Municipality into many more millions from the provincial government and a lending institution.