N.S. Tories seek ‘fresh’ mandate in Tuesday’s election to negotiate with Ottawa

HALIFAX — Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston says if he’s given a second mandate in Tuesday’s election, it will strengthen his position to fight Ottawa on key issues impacting the province, including carbon pricing.

But his opponents say his reasons for calling the snap election were insincere, and that the main issues in voters’ minds are housing, affordability and health care — not negotiations with Ottawa.

On Monday, during Houston’s final media conference for the election campaign, he told reporters if voters return the Tories to office with another majority, “Ottawa will have to take us seriously.”

He repeated his grievances with the federal government on such things as carbon pricing, which he says makes life less affordable, and Ottawa’s refusal to pay the entire cost of the expensive work needed to protect the Chignecto Isthmus, the land link between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia that is increasingly at risk of severe flooding.

“We will have a new, fresh mandate,” Houston said about his party’s election hopes. The federal government would have no choice but to acknowledge that “we are the voice of Nova Scotians.”

Houston called the snap election on Oct. 27, ignoring his government’s election law, which for the first time in Nova Scotia set a fixed election date — July 15, 2025. Polls, meanwhile, point toward a return to power for the Progressive Conservatives.

Monday morning, a buoyant NDP Leader Claudia Chender appeared at a local produce market in north-end Halifax with several candidates from the area. She rejected Houston’s assertion that the election is about standing up to Ottawa.

“The idea that this government needs a mandate to bicker with Ottawa is absurd,” she told reporters.

“This government called an election because they want more power and the power that this government has had, has not made a lick of a difference in the life of almost every Nova Scotian we talk to.”

The NDP, which has languished in third place since losing power in the 2013 provincial election, is bullish on its chances of becoming the official Opposition. Polls put the party, which had six seats at dissolution, in a close struggle with the Liberals for second.

Chender says the main ballot box issues are housing, health care and the cost of living. “This is an election about who you trust to make decisions in your best interest,” she said.

“There are lots of other issues that are very important to Nova Scotians, but those are the three they agree on and the question is who can deliver change?”

Chender, about to complete her first campaign as NDP leader, said she’s been encouraged by the reception she’s received on voter’s doorsteps.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how willing Nova Scotians are to have a conversation … it’s such an amazing opportunity and it’s always wonderful to be reminded how small we are (as a province) and how connected we are.”

Also in Halifax, Liberal Leader Zach Churchill revisited his party’s promises on making life more affordable for renters.

Churchill cited a local news report confirming that one of the biggest landlords in Halifax — Killam Apartment REIT — recorded its “largest rental gains” in the Halifax company’s history. The company reported an average monthly rent of $1,443 in Halifax as of Sept. 30, which represented an annual increase of 8.4 per cent — nearly double the increase reported last year.

“This is happening because Tim Houston and his (Progressive Conservative) government have let it happen,” Churchill said. “They have not taken sufficient action to protect renters.”

The Liberal leader said the Tory government’s five per cent rent cap has done nothing to keep rents from skyrocketing, mainly because landlords have been using fixed-term leases as a loophole to raise rents far beyond the cap.

He repeated his party’s pledge to establish a residential tenancies enforcement unit and a “rent bank” program, which would provide quick-turnaround, zero-interest loans to renters who can’t make monthly payments.

Polls across Nova Scotia close at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Elections Nova Scotia says early voting is down compared with the last provincial vote, with more than 147,000 early ballots cast as of Saturday. That’s compared with 166,400 at the same point in the 2021 election.

At dissolution, the Progressive Conservatives held 34 seats in the 55-seat legislature. The Liberals held 14 seats, the NDP had six and there was one Independent.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25, 2024.

— With files from Keith Doucette and Michael MacDonald, in Halifax.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press