Majority strengthened for Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservatives | Nova Scotia Elections 2024

The Premier of Nova Scotia wins his bet. Tim Houston gets the second strong mandate he asked for from the province’s voters when he called an early vote.

The Progressive Conservative Party won 43 of the province’s 55 ridings. The New Democratic Party (NDP) took advantage of the collapse of the Liberal Party to form the official opposition for the first time in 15 years.

With more than two thirds of the seats, Tim Houston begins his second term with a super majority. Such a deputation allows him to exercise greater control over the Legislative Assembly, particularly over the composition of legislative committees and the speaking time of deputies, without seeking the approval of opposition parties.

Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservatives had not won such a victory since the 1984 election, when John Buchanan was prime minister.

The party of Tim Houston retains almost all the constituencies it held when the Legislative Assembly was dissolved on October 27. He loses Sackville-Cobequid in the hands of NPDbut this loss is largely offset by gains elsewhere in the Halifax suburbs of the Halifax Valley.Annapolis and in the southwest of the province.

My intention is to serve all Nova Scotians for the next four years. We received a clear message: keep going, keep going!

By calling early elections, Tim Houston asked Nova Scotians for a strong second mandate to tackle the rising cost of living, to continue its health system reforms and to confront the federal government of Justin Trudeau on the issue of the carbon tax, in particular.

The Progressive Conservative leader promised to reduce the harmonized sales tax (HST) from 15% to 14%, increase the minimum wage to $16.50 an hour, build 41,000 housing units by 2028 , the abandonment of tolls on the two Halifax Harbor bridges and the creation of a provincial team of 300 traveling nurses.

The opponents of Tim Houston accused him of breaking his promise to hold fixed-date elections, which were scheduled for July 15, 2025, in order to take advantage of polls that favored him.

The NPD makes gains, its boss writes a page of history

The New Democratic Party of Nova Scotia also won its bet, that of making gains.

The party climbs onto the benches of the official opposition in Province House after spending more than a decade in third place. At the same time, its boss, Claudia Chender, becomes the first woman elected head of the official opposition in the province.

The deputy of Dartmouth-Sud was easily re-elected in her constituency.

We succeeded together. The NDP in Nova Scotia is growing.

The NPD retained its six ridings in Halifax and Cape Breton and took over three other ridings in the Halifax suburbs. The party, however, did not succeed in breaking through to the rural regions of the province. These regions have largely turned their backs on the New Democrats since the defeat of the government of Darrell Dexter, in 2013.

The NPD promised to cap rent increases at 2.5% per year and to end fixed-term leases. He also proposed removing the HST grocery, phone and Internet bills.

Historic defeat for the Liberals

The rise of NPD is partly at the expense of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party, which finds itself in third place with only two seats. The party has never experienced such discomfiture, even during the 1963 election, when the Progressive Conservatives of Robert Stanfield occupied 39 of the 43 seats at the time.

The liberal leader Zach Churchill is defeated in his constituency of Yarmouthin the southwest of the province. Other party strongholds, such as Annapolis, Bedford Basin, Clare et Kings-South, fell into the hands of the Progressive Conservatives.

In total, the Liberal Party lost around ten seats even though it received more votes than the NPD across the province.

This is not the result we expected. But no, we are beaten. These are things that happen. Sometimes we lose.

Zach Churchill took responsibility for the defeat of his party. However, he did not indicate on Tuesday evening whether or not he intended to remain its leader.

An independent MP re-elected

Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin in turn writes a page of history. Re-elected in her constituency of Cumberland-North, she becomes the first independent MP to win a second consecutive mandate in Nova Scotia.

The Green Party of Nova Scotia ran 23 candidates but received no seats. The training conducted by Anthony Edmonds received less than 1% of the votes cast.

Even though he was taken to task by the Progressive Conservative campaign, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau congratulated Tim Houston for his victory and pledged to continue working with him. Much work remains to be done: improving health care, building more housing, growing the economyhe added on the social network Twitter).

Start of the Twitter widget. Skip the widget?End of Twitter widget. Return to start of widget?

The Progressive Conservative Premier of Ontario, Doug Fordalso conveyed his congratulations to Tim Houston on X. He said he was happy to continue his work with his ami of Nova Scotia for defend Canadian workers and fight against the Liberal carbon tax to keep costs low for families.

The Prime Minister of the Saskatchewan, Scott Moeanother opponent of the carbon tax, praised his Nova Scotia counterpart for his impressive and decisive victory.

However, the participation rate fell below 45%. It was 55% in 2021.

Around 788,425 voters were called to the polls. Nearly 160,700 of them voted in advance. The announcement of the electoral results was delayed by an hour Tuesday evening due to the late closing of a polling station in the constituency ofEastern Shore.