The Progressive Conservatives are back in charge of Nova Scotia for the first time since 2009. Tim Houston is the premier-designate, the first PC premier since Rodney MacDonald, who won in 2006.
Houston and his party ran on concerns over health care.
The anecdote of the 86-year-old Nova Scotia man made an impact. The man was in his driveway after breaking his hip waiting for an ambulance for more than 3 hours. A police officer took the man to hospital after what was supposed to be another 2-hour wait. The gentleman lived 5 km from Dartmouth General Hospital yet the ambulance was dispatched from 175 kilometres.
Houston might have the label of Progressive Conservatives but doesn't share some views with his fellow conservative premiers or the federal party.
The PCs won 31 seats compared to 17 for the Liberals, 6 for the NDP, and a single Independent (all numbers preliminary). The majority mark was 28 for the 55-seat legislature.
The general concession was that the race might be close, certainly not this kind of a flip for the PCs away from the Liberals.
Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin, who took office back in February, had a rough start to the campaign for the Liberal Party.
The Liberals picked Lesley MacKay to replace Robyn Ingraham, who ran into issues over “boudoir photos,” in Dartmouth South. Ingraham cited mental health issues for withdrawing but later said the party told her to lie about why she left. NDP incumbent Claudia Chender won the riding.
NDP leader Gary Burrill, the only veteran leader of the campaign, boosted his party's total at Province House in Halifax.
The NDP campaigned on affordable housing, especially permanent rent control.
Rankin pulled a classless move by starting his speech while Burrill was giving his speech. Every time a politician gets interrupted, they never run the whole speech. CBC News did an interview with Burrill to try and make up for that, something they don't usually do.
2021 Nova Scotia election preview
Nova Scotia has a significant Black presence in the province, something that hasn't been reflected in the legislature. Bringing back the Preston riding was designated to increase the likelihood of Black representation. All the major parties ran a Black candidate. Liberal Angela Simmonds will be the MLA from Preston.
Only 5 Black MLAs have ever been elected in Nova Scotia. Looks like 4 of the new MLAs will be Black.
There were 11 Black candidates, 3 of them from Preston.
The preliminary numbers have 15 women in the new legislature, up from 12 (with 4 new seats). The PCs had an increase of 4 women plus the new female independent while the Liberals lost 2 women in the election.
Shining a light on our Indigenous coverage
Some of the backlash against the Liberals was tied to the lobster fishing rights with the settlers and the Mi’kmaw. There were 2 Mi’kmaw candidates who ran in the election. Bryson Syliboy (NDP) ran in the Richmond riding in Cape Breton. Nadine Bernard from the We’koqma’q First Nation (Liberal) ran in the Victoria-The Lakes riding in Cape Breton. Neither of them won.
What did we learn from pandemic elections in Canada?
2021 Canadian politics preview
The turnout at the end of the night was given at 50.5%, down 2.9 percentage points from the 2017 election. The advance ballots still to be counted will boost that a bit.
The turnout was strong early in the contest. Elections Nova Scotia said a total of 75,367 early votes were cast compared to 32,935 at the same point during the 2017 election.
CanadianCrossing.com Nova Scotia coverage
Canadian politics coverage on CanadianCrossing.com
Those looking for a trend will note that this is the first pandemic election in Canada where the government changed parties. Perhaps this wasn't too much of a pandemic election after all. Nova Scotia reported 9 new COVID-19 cases on Monday with 24 active cases in the province.
The Liberals in Nova Scotia ran a poor campaign after being in power for 8 years. The PCs and NDP ran targeted campaigns.
photos credit: CBC News
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