Parties face different challenges, present different narratives as N.S. election kicks off

When Tim Houston stood in the Nova Scotia legislature in 2021 to speak in support of fixed election dates — the first piece of legislation he put forward after becoming premier — he said it was a way to create predictability for the public, prospective candidates and volunteers.

He said it would also level the playing field for the government and opposition parties.

"We all know that governments sometimes pick a date that they think benefits them," Houston said at the time. "Snap election, high in the polls, whatever the case may be."

Being the government to finally put an end to that and set July 15, 2025, as the next provincial election was "truly an honour," he said.

On Sunday, after a month that saw his government make no fewer than 37 announcements costing a total of more than $402 million, and at a time when his party is high in the polls, Houston called a snap election.

While the party leaders vying to replace the Progressive Conservatives as government are sure to point to Houston's broken promise and month of announcements, Dalhousie University professor Lori Turnbull thinks Houston is far enough into his mandate that it will not be a burning issue for voters.

Turnbull thinks something other than voters punishing Houston for not keeping his word on the election date is more probable.

"I think a more likely outcome could be that voters don't see a huge need for an election right now, so they don't show up," said Turnbull, a professor in the school's Faculty of Management and Department of Political Science..

Cape Breton University political scientist Tom Urbaniak thinks that if the early election call turns out to be a problem for Houston, it would be in the context of keeping promises.

"It feeds into a credibility issue," he said.

Liberal and NDP candidates could seize on that or other broken Tory promises, such as the reversal on proclaiming the Coastal Protection Act or not giving the privacy commissioner more powers, or accountability issues such as the way the PC government spent less and less time in the legislature and spent more than a billion dollars a year outside of its own budgets.

But the promise most likely to be scrutinized is the PC pledge from 2021 to fix health care.

During their first mandate, the PCs signed new contracts with doctors, nurses, paramedics and other health-care workers, all in an attempt to attract and retain more people. Changes have been made to try to speed up credentialing, with health-care leaders acknowledging that the fastest way to address staffing shortages in the province is through immigration.

Thousands more long-term care rooms are planned or under construction and the government pushed hard to increase the use of technology in the health-care system. Many of these details and others are included in a booklet the government mailed to 480,000 addresses just before the election call at a cost of $158,000. The Liberals have filed a complaint with Elections Nova Scotia about the document.