Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston has called an election for Nov. 26, well ahead of the fixed election date of July 15, 2025.
Houston visited the official residence of Lt.-Gov. Arthur Joseph LeBlanc in Halifax on Oct. 27 to dissolve the legislature and call the election.
At dissolution, the Nova Scotia legislature had 34 Progressive Conservative MLAs, 14 Liberal MLAs, 6 NDP MLAs, and one Independent MLA.
The PCs won the 2021 election against the formerly governing Liberals to form a majority government.
Houston, who previously worked as a chartered accountant in Canada and abroad, first became an MLA in 2013, and became PC leader in 2017.
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill, a former student organizer and policy analyst, was first elected as an MLA in 2010 at the age of 26. He became the Liberal leader in 2022.
NDP Leader Claudia Chender, a lawyer, first became an MLA in 2017, and became leader in 2022.
On cost-of-living issues, the governing PCs are promising to lower the HST from 15 percent to 14 percent, while they have also brought in a school lunch program. The Liberals have said a two percent cut in the HST is needed, while calling for free public transit. The NDP wants to bring in rent control and provide tax credits for low- and middle-income renters.
On health care, the PCs say during their tenure they have made inroads in recruiting doctors and nurses and in providing more resources for emergency medical care, while the opposition says that 145,000 people in the province currently don’t have access to a family doctor.
On housing, the PCs have extended a 5 percent rent cap and say they will build 273 new public housing units. The Liberals and the NDP say the use of fixed-term leases undermines the rent cap, and say more work is needed to create affordable homes.
The top topics of concern in Nova Scotia have been consistent with those seen in other provinces that are having an election this year.
British Columbians, who headed to the polls on Oct. 19, are still awaiting the finalization of a vote count to determine who will form the next government. So far, the incumbent NDP is leading with 46 seats against the Conservatives’ 45 seats, while the Greens have two seats.
In New Brunswick, Susan Holt’s Liberals defeated the incumbent Progressive Conservative government of Blaine Higgs on Oct. 21.
In Saskatchewan, voters are going to the polls on Oct. 28. The election is a contest between Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party and Carla Beck’s NDP. The Saskatchewan Party has been in government since 2007, while the NDP last won in the province in 2003.
