N.S. Liberals, NDP criticize PC Leader Tim Houston for snubbing fixed election date
'The premier thinks he’s above the law and above the rules,' says N.S. Liberal Leader Zach Churchill
PC Leader Tim Houston's political rivals are hoping to convince voters he doesn't deserve a second term because he can't be trusted to live up to his promises and only cares about himself and his friends.
On the first full day of the Nova Scotia election campaign, Liberal Leader Zach Churchill and NDP Leader Claudia Chender both took aim at Houston's integrity and trustworthiness.
They asserted his decision to call a snap election rather than respect the fixed election date he enshrined in law three years ago is further proof he does not live up to his promises.
"Tim Houston is a guy who, I believe, will prioritize his own ambition over the needs of Nova Scotians," Liberal Leader Zach Churchill said Monday. "He's called an election because he knows he hasn't delivered on what he promised.
"It seems that the premier thinks he's above the law and above the rules and no premier should ever feel that way."
Chender used a Hogan Court building in West Bedford that was conceived as a hotel, bought by the province and transferred to a long-term care provider as a backdrop for her condemnation of the Houston government. She called the series of transactions, worth millions of dollars, a boondoggle.
"This unfinished building might be the best example of Tim Houston's failure to fix health care and was recently the subject of a scathing report from the auditor general," said Chender, who characterized the Houston government's first term as rife with "backroom deals" and handouts to "wealthy friends and donors."
"Maybe someday this unfinished building will be put to use, but we won't get back the tens of millions of dollars that Tim Houston wasted in the meantime by choosing politics over health care and putting his friends over the needs of Nova Scotians."
Houston once again defended his decision to turn his back on the fixed election date, reiterating his claim that he needs a strong new mandate in order to get the federal government to take the province more seriously in federal-provincial dealings.
"My word is important to me, like that's really important to me, but the thing that's more important to me is Nova Scotia and Nova Scotians," said Houston. "I will always put Nova Scotians above myself and above my political party.
"There's not a lot of leaders in this province that can say that."
Responding to the criticism levelled at the Hogan Court development, Houston called it a big, new initiative that was "challenging" but said the investment was "well placed."
To try to bring "integrity and accountability to the premier's office," the Liberals are promising to hire an ethics commissioner, give order-making power to the province's information and privacy commissioner, boost the budget of the auditor general's office, and impose a $250,000 fine on any government that defies future election dates.
Churchill was a member of Stephen McNeil's Liberal government that failed to deliver on the promise to give order-making power to the information and privacy commissioner during its 7½ years in office.
Churchill said the Liberal government "should have" lived up to that promise and that he will.
Green Party Leader Anthony Edmonds also expressed concern the early election could affect turnout.
"I fear that the snap election will see many voters stay home, which is disheartening in this era of record-low turnouts at the polls," Edmonds wrote in a news release.
Former PC caucus member Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin also took a swipe at her former leader, saying in a release that the election call was "a betrayal of Nova Scotians' trust."
The Independent candidate for Cumberland North was first elected in 2017 as a PC candidate, but Houston kicked her out of caucus in 2021 for taking part in a blockade.
"This snap election is a continuation of a troubling pattern of behaviour, where commitments to Nova Scotians are broken in favour of personal and political gain," said Smith-McCrossin, who accused Houston of "bullying and intimidation tactics."
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