A Grumpy Gal from the East Coast

Pollsters and pundits keep telling us it's not worth voting in Nova Scotia's provincial election on Tuesday because the outcome is preordained. I beg to differ. There are at least 5 good reasons to vote even if you don't support the party expected to form our next government. 1. Your vote tells politicians and others what’s important to you Voting is an important way to let politicians, parties and pundits know which issues matter to you so they can take your views into account when shaping future policies and positions. For example, if enough of us vote for candidates that believe climate change is not only real, but an existential threat, we can increase the pressure on all parties and politicians to take the crisis more seriously and propose real options for addressing it.  2. Your vote helps your preferred candidate qualify for expense reimbursements and your preferred party qualify for semi-annual payments In Nova Scotia, candidates who receive at least 10 percent of t...

Early voting in Nova Scotia has been underway for weeks and yet voter turnout remains low. With the election looming, I’m hoping more people will turn their minds to who they want running the province for the next four years, but I suspect many will just shrug and snap on the TV instead. They shouldn’t. Houston keeps saying “good things are happening” and that we should re-elect his government so they can continue to “make things happen” but they're empty words. The Premier has little to show for his three and a half years in office - if you don’t count broken promises and dumb ideas, that is.  Here's just a partial list of the broken promises: 1. to reinstate elected school boards; 2. to take a science-based approach to decisions around covid public health measures; 3. to improve health care (especially in rural areas); 4. to appoint a new Board of Directors and permanent CEO for the NS Health Authority; 5. to implement the Coastal Protection Act ; 6. to abide by the fixed ele...

I woke up this morning worried about the level of voter engagement with this year's NS election and immediately wrote the following email to family and friends across the province. I hope some of you will consider doing the same.  Dear Nova Scotia family and friends; I’m taking the unusual step of writing to you today because I’m deeply concerned about the future of our province and the fate of our democracy.  The Houston government’s decision to call a snap election has resulted in too many people apparently feeling as if their votes don’t matter because the outcome is predetermined. Worse, many people aren’t even sure where or how to vote because - for the first time I can remember - voter cards weren’t sent out to tell us where and when we could cast our ballots.  The purpose of this email is four-fold: To ask you to please vote if you haven’t already done so;  To encourage you to review each of the party’s platforms before you vote; To invite you to tune into the...