Nova Scotians will be going to the polls. Premier Darrell Dexter formally asked lieutenant governor J.J. Grant to dissolve the assembly Saturday, an action that will lead to an October 8 election.
The election will largely be a referendum on the performance of Dexter’s NDP government. That party won power in 2009, in the wake of the global financial collapse, and after the previous scandal-plagued Progressive Conservative government of Rodney MacDonald imploded. Voters in 2009 rejected the traditional PC and Liberal parties, both of which had a deserved reputation for corruption and incompetence. The NDP, which had never held power in Nova Scotia, formed a majority government.
But with four years in power, voters may be growing weary of the NDP. Opinion polls show that nearly half of potential voters are undecided, but after that block, the Liberals are polling somewhat ahead of the NDP, with the PCs a distant third.
Dexter has governed via a middling course, abandoning the party’s leftist core and continuing Nova Scotia’s long history of corporate bailouts, payroll rebates and flat-out subsidies. In particular, Dexter gave the family-owned Irving, Inc, a $260 million forgivable loan for upgrades to the Halifax shipyard. The Irvings are billionaires.
The Liberals under leader Stephen McNeil have criticized Dexter’s agreement to purchase hydro power from the Churchill Falls project in Labrador, as well as the formation of a new energy efficiency program funded by ratepayers. But it’s hard to see how Nova Scotia can meet its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets without Churchill Falls, and the efficiency program set-up is considered “best practices” in North America. The PCs’ Jamie Baillie says he’ll freeze power rates, which strikes most observers as an empty, unworkable pledge.
Health issues will also factor into the election, particularly in hotly contested rural areas.
This article appears in Sep 12-18, 2013.
Best Tory Premier since John Buchanan isn’t bad, as legacies go.
Darrell, remember Breaker Morant’s epitaph – Matthew 10, 36.
Promise to put a freeze on water rates in HRM and the leader will get my vote.
food security should be a first priority and none partisan issue. ..yet successive governments have neglected the issue and even made matters worse by refusing to take note….the sad thing is that by addressing food sovereighty and security through adequately supporting sustainable food production NS could in 14 years be a break even province…..If not enough is done…although the NS govt budget is balanced in dollars and cents on paper ..the NS economy will continue to lose by $10 billion a year. Yes the NS balance of trade deficit in 2011 has been the equivalent of $10, 000 a year per Nova Scotian…All. that loss is coming out of rural NS… How many politicians know that NS is less than 13% self sufficient in food? How many have a plan of what to do about it? How many dare to admit that the reality is we need a government in power that will do what is best for province. One that knows the difference between making the books work and being sustainable…when Nova Scotians have expenses of $4 for every $3 of income who pays for the short fall?
As a NS resident who has invested my life in NS and am being billed by the government for my efforts I think I deserve to be able to vote for a government that will do for NS as a responsible parent would for their children’s future and not a parent that will spend on none essentials to win their kids favour with no regard for their basic needs and future.
Food is a basic need…so why do the majority of politicians appear to be ignorant of the reality of this and how it affects us.
Tim your bias is showing pretty badly in your article. Not that I am against the NDP or for that matter for them, but if you’re not going to try and maintain some journalistic distance please stop pretending to be one.