It wouldn’t be an election without Irvine Carvery.
The community activist and former president of the Africville Genealogy Society is running in next month’s municipal election for the open seat in District 8: Halifax Peninsula North. Carvery made his campaign announcement Monday morning in a Facebook post, just one day before the application deadline for candidates.
“People in District 8 deserve a strong voice to deal with the issues of development, homelessness, affordable housing, lack of resources for our senior population and hope and opportunity for our young people,” Carvery writes. “As a lifelong resident I have witnessed and experienced changes for the better in race relations in our city, but this is only the beginning, real institutional change must come about to make it sustainable.”
He joins four other candidates looking to replace Jennifer Watts at City Hall. They are: Brenden Sommerhalder, Lindell Smith, Anthony Kawalski and Chris Poole.
Metro Regional housing officer Virginia Hinch had declared her intention to run, but recently dropped out to throw her support behind Smith.
Carvery is no stranger to running for office. He previously made an unsuccessful bid in 2008 for the NDP nomination to replace MP Alexa McDonough, losing out to an up-and-coming Megan Leslie. In 2013, Carvery ran provincially for the Progressive Conservatives in Halifax Needham Armdale. He also put his name on the ballot last fall, running federally for the Conservatives against incumbent MP Leslie and eventual-winner, Liberal MP Andy Fillmore.
Carvery last ran municipally in the 2004 election in the former District 12: Halifax Downtown, which he lost to Dawn Marie Sloane.
You can read his full campaign announcement below.