Headlines about low voter turnout have become commonplace across the country in recent years. Even as the political stakes are higher, people seem understandably checked out, cynical and focused on the real day-to-day struggle of keeping food on the table and a roof over their head.
Nova Scotia Progressive Conservative leader Tim Houston was no doubt counting on that when he called a snap provincial election for November 2024, months before the fixed election date written into law by his own government. Heading back into the provincial legislature with a super majority – 43 of the 55 seats – Houston likely felt unstoppable. Thankfully, Nova Scotians were more than ready to prove him wrong.
Whose special interests?
Houston started saying the quiet parts of Conservative ideology out loud in a January 2025 letter to his caucus which was made public. In the letter, the Premier asserted that “special interests have captured too many parts of our economy and have had an out-sized voice in policy creation. That must end”. Nowhere in the letter does he explain what he means by “special interests” however, given the focus on amping up resource extraction, including hydrogen, mining, natural gas, coalbed methane, and uranium, it is safe to assume that the lobbyists from the Mining Association of Nova Scotia are excluded from Houston’s list. In fact, at least one mining company was so happy about the Premier’s letter that they put out a press release to celebrate.
Returning to the provincial legislature on February 14, these themes continued in the Speech from the Throne. The speech proclaimed that “Giving groups vetoes that impoverish our fellow Nova Scotians will no longer be tolerated”, that we must “focus on those things we can control. Those things like approving more projects, building more pipelines, building more homes, and finding ways to do so in an environmentally safe and responsible manner” and, when met with resistance, “We must band together and push back against these voices who look only to oppose”.
The Conservative bogeyman of the “special interests” was then mentioned 12 times in the government’s ten page budget address on February 18. In fact, these shadowy special interests are blamed for Nova Scotia’s high rates of poverty:
“Allowing special interests to control policy has kept too many Nova Scotian families locked in the cycle of poverty. When we give small groups a veto over development, it costs years off the lives of our fellow Nova Scotians.”
Forget the income assistance rates set so far below the poverty line by successive governments. Pay no attention to the lack of effective rent control and the well documented loss of affordable housing. Ignore the tuition rates that are among the highest in the country. It is the “outsized weight of special interests and the professional protestor class” that has their boot on your neck – that is the story being told by Houston and his Conservatives.
And the solution to all our troubles lies in a return to our historic roots.
“Nova Scotia has a 300-year history of mining. Communities grew around mines. Our connection to mining is so strong that neighbourhoods are still referred to using the name or number of the historic mines around them. Today’s mines are not the mines of old. Nor are the jobs. The average salary in mining is over $100,000 per year. Just imagine the difference that kind of pay cheque can make. Now, imagine a home with one person working in a mine and another in a mill. That family’s life is infinitely better because of our resources. Empowering families is how we unlock our province’s potential.” [emphasis added]
Imagine! One person in a mine and another in a mill. Did Houston hear about the meme and not grasp the sarcasm?
It’s almost like Tim Houston’s Nova Scotia doesn’t have a whole catalogue of beloved songs all about the horrors of the mines and the fact that we “never again will go down under ground”.
Houston’s assault on democracy
Against this Dickensian backdrop, Houston introduced a series of bills and other changes seeking to consolidate power in the Premier’s office, limit debate in the legislature, restrict the public’s access to information, allow non-union employees of the government to be fired without cause, decrease the autonomy of post-secondary institutions, remove existing bans on fracking and uranium exploration, rename and strip the powers of the Legislature’s Law Amendments Committee and give the province the ability to overturn municipal decisions related to infrastructure and transportation.
The public response was loud and immediate – Nova Scotians were having none of it. Within days of introducing the bills, Houston was forced to walk back changes related to the Office of the Auditor General, the Freedom of Information Officer, and journalists’ access to the Premier and Ministers during the legislative sitting, because of the strong public outcry.
A group of more than 20 different organizations including the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour, the Ecology Action Centre, and local Chapters of the Council of Canadians organized a noon time rally appropriately called “Special Interests” for Democracy, which took place on March 5. Hundreds of people gathered on Hollis Street in front of the legislature to speak up for their “special interest” in the environment, academic freedom, job security, access to information, and the democratic process. Students, professors, union members, environmentalists and others recognized Houston’s overreach and clapped back.
One rally speaker read a portion of Joseph Howe’s famous speech given as the summation of his defence in his libel trial in 1835. Howe, whose statue stands on the grounds of the legislature, stated:
“My public life is before you; and I know you will believe me when I say, that when I sit down in solitude to the labours of my profession, the only questions I ask myself are, What is right? What is just? What is for the public good? “
Super-majority or not, this week Nova Scotians reminded the Conservatives that the government works for the people and not the other way around. And the people are the ones who will decide what is right, what is just, and what is for the public good.
None of the harmful bills listed below have been passed into law yet.
- Bill 1 – An Act Respecting Government Organization and Administration
- Bill 6 – An Act Respecting Agriculture, Energy and Natural Resources
- Bill 12 – An Act Respecting Advanced Education and Research
- Bill 24 – Temporary Access to Land Act and Joint Regional Transportation Agency Act (amended)
- Bill 36 – An Act Respecting Free Trade and Mobility within Canada
There is still time to write to the Premier and your Member of the Legislative Assembly to tell them what you think of Houston’s ill-conceived power grab. You can also request to speak to the members of the Public Bills Committee (formerly Law Amendments) to share all of the reasons you refuse to heed the call to return to the mines.
The solidarity of the diverse coalition in the streets on Wednesday was a great reminder that people have much more power than we often remember—something we must not forget in the many fights to come.
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