I'm from Shubie (Shubenacadie), and used to work in Debert up behind Specialty Steel on Dakota Rd, if he parked up where our program used to be, no one would have seen him at all at night, it's trees and blueberries and deer and not much else. The old "Deiffenbunker" is there in Debert somewhere (I've never seen it), as is what used to be the military base, a few houses, some businesses but not a lot. The shooting range is part of the old base I think.
Nova Scotia's a sparsely populated rural area and Colchester and Hants Countys are pretty large and spread out. This shooting spree was simply insane...it scares us in a way we've never been afraid before. We're friendly, we're Maritimers, we always stop for the cops. We answer doors, and we rarely lock doors! (We do now.)
Stewiacke used to have an RCMP detachment in my day, but it moved to Enfield some years ago. GW would have known it, as he was from NB, getting from his places in Portapique back to the city, he no doubt knew the short cuts we all knew, where cops would and wouldn't be. He would have known he was relatively safe to drive from Truro to Shubie on the old highway.
I didn't know this guy, but he ran through my stomping grounds, drove back roads we locals took, the old highway from Hilden to Shubie...we're lucky he got stopped in Enfield, because I sense if he'd made it to either the airport or HRM the death count would have been magnified further.