Nova Scotia Election is Officially Underway
The unofficial election campaign is over as the official Nova Scotia election began today.
Premier Iain Rankin and his wife, Mary Chisholm, walked to Government House in Halifax this morning to ask Lieutenant Governor Arthur J. LeBlanc to dissolve the current legislature and call the 41st general election for Tuesday, August 17th.
Rankin and his cabinet colleagues have been scurrying about the province for the last many weeks announcing numerous and expensive spending programs—none in Cumberland County— all the while suggesting the campaign of promises had nothing to do with an impending election.
Nova Scotia’s opposition parties were not surprised. The NDP have a campaign launch event at noon and the Tories prepared a rally for 2:00 o’clock. Meanwhile, the Liberals will start their campaign at 6:30. All of today’s events are in Halifax.
Nova Scotia’s last election set the bar the lowest it has even been for voter turnout. With no apparent “ballot question” issues, the 41st campaign may be a quiet event—except in Cumberland County.
Long considered Tory country, this year’s race has a huge twist in Cumberland North where the incumbent Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin is running as an independent.
The MLA was ejected from the PC party and rejected as a party candidate when she prompted closure of the Trans Canada Highway in protest of issues created by Premier Iain Rankin’s indecision on policies at the New Brunswick border.
Without any advance warning to her party, Smith-McCrossin threatened to close the highway, then led a group protest near exit 7 on Highway 104. A subsequent group gathered at the border effecting a true blockade that backed traffic in both provinces, in many cases holding up critical and valuable commercial traffic while forcing cancellation of services, including more than 100 appointments at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre.
While Smith-McCrossin declared she would run as an independent, the PC party has yet to name a candidate.
The search has been made more difficult with the announcement that Bill Casey would carry the party flag for the Liberals. Casey, a twenty year veteran of federal politics, has been a formidable candidate, with repeated election as a Conservative, an independent, and more recently as a Liberal in the Trudeau government.
A wrinkle for Casey is the perception that the Rankin/McNeil Liberals intentionally ignored Cumberland as punishment for electing Tories to both county seats. He is already on record as saying that the rest of the province does not understand why Cumberland feels left out, a song that Smith-McCrossin and others have been singing for a very long time.
Photo (Communications Nova Scotia) Lieutenant Governor Arthur LeBlanc signs the writ to launch the 41st Nova Scotia General Election.
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