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Nova Scotia election drumbeat
September 6, 2013 - 5:12pm
Looks like there is going to be an election call soon!
Darrell Dexter NDP leader and premier posted his bio online and new webpage. It looks really good and even the Sun media couldn't find anything wrong with it.
His personal bio was very warm and endearing.
Darrell Dexter Cole Harbour-Portland Valley
We're ready to go here in Lunenburg.
Our M.L.A., Pam Birdsall, was the first NDP candidate to be nominated back in October, and since the 2009 election we've been fund-raising on a regular basis to the point where we're starting campaign with almost as much money in the bank as was spent during the entire 2009 campaign.
Pam has been a terrific constituency M.L.A., getting promptly back to constituents who contact her office with concerns, and she's been around the riding so much, she gets the same response no matter where she goes....'You're everywhere!!'
And the opponents?
The Conservatives have the son of a former M.L.A. (who lived in the Lunenburg riding but represented Lunenburg West) Brian Pickings, while the Liberals are running Suzanne Lohnes-Croft.
Bring on the election!
This is one of the many ridings that won't be going Liberal or P.C. on election night!
excellent news David. I'm following much of the election news via twitter -rapid response.
Well, I hope they win...and that, if they do, they start governing as New Democrats for the first time.
Austerity is austerity is austerity...and it's NEVER supposed to be something a center-left government does.
Is this something a "center-left government" does?
I don't care who wins in Nova Scotia. They're all pretty much the same. But it would be nice if Dexter lost his seat. Just for this.
Austerity is what happened in Saskatchewan after Tommy Douglas and the CCF took over in 1944. Tommy knew they had to live within their means, and then build a better future.
It took time, but the gains they made to improve the lives of that province's citizens have been felt for generations since!
Yes, the Dexter government has made some mistakes; but for a first-time government, we have fared a lot better than a certain province between 1990 and 1995.
So are you saying that the NDP hasn't had a new economic idea in 70 years? I have heard this lame excuse so many times from NDP/liberals that it makes me want to puke. However I expect it too be trotted out federally when Mulcair starts on that tried and true path.
There's a difference. The CCF, while balancing the budget, was able to make noticeable changes that benefitted the people of Saskatchewan while they were in office. Austerity, on the other hand, is when a government basically slashes services that were in place, on the pretext of balancing the budget. Ever notice that across the political spectrum, budgetary concerns are cited for not spending on what citizens need, yet there is always enough for special favours for the interest groups that got the government elected?
What is up with the Dexter government being unpopular anyways? Ken Summers has described the austerity push of the Dexter government, yet there was a report by the CCPA which claims that there are initiatives that have reduced poverty in the province. So either Dexter has betrayed the NDP base more than any other provincial NDP leader in the country, or they are spectacularly inept at communicating their accomplishments. Either way, the Nova Scotia NDP needs to be held accountable. Failing that, the message will go stronger that the only way for the NDP to win is to water down its principles and ideals.
I'd trust the CCPA which uses data to back up their statements.
Also remember that the NDP balanced the budget but their is still the debt to pay down, the debt brought to you by previous Conservative and Liberal govts.
And with young people one uses progressive discipline and behaviour modification rather than "walking the plank" and "zero tolerance" policies/practices. The later are pretty much associated with neoliberal and conservative responses. Just saying.
As did the Chretien Liberals in 1993, the Manitoba PCs in 1995, and the Alberta PCs in 1997. How did those balanced budgets come about, by the way?
Jan, you surprise me. Paying down the debt is deflationary, that is, a way of cooling down the economy so employees won't be able to bid up their wages. Why would you ever want to pay down the debt?
Not quite. The Dexter government took a balanced approach of revenue increases and spending restraint. That's not what we've seen by the Tories and especially the Liberals in Nova Scotia.
I'm not quite sure if people understood the gravity of the situation when the NDP took over. It was reported Nova Scotia had a $200 plus million deficit to deal with. That of course balloned greatly with an independent audit. We were facing a projected $1.4 billion deficit thanks to the Tories. Part of that was the Tories budgeting offshore revenue in the tune of almost a half billion dollards in their last year in office for health and education programs. What did we receive this year? Around $25 million. So Dexter had to backfill almost a half billion in spending before anything else could be done.
There was some restraint... slowing the healthcare budget to about 2% growth as opposed to almost 8% growth. They also reduced the education budget. For example, in 2012, 1.3%... yes, 1.3%... less went into education with 1.7% fewer students. Liberals call that slash and burn.
Compare that to the huge cuts we've seen in the past and it's almost laughable to say the NDP has been the same as the Tories and Liberals.
And now that we've turned the corner and got our books in order, we're able to invest in key areas that New Democrats care about. Topping the list for me is restoring funding to the children's dental care program that was cut by the Nova Scotia Liberal Party and further expanding the program. Did you know that, Ken Burch?
I wouldnt have bothered taking exception with mere cheerleading.
But saying that austerity budgeting is not austerity budgeting is another matter, plus the saccharine rationalizations to buttress it.
The education cuts were slash and burn. And stacking 1.3% cuts up to 1.7% fewer students is willful sophistry. Many of the larger cost factors are not under the control of school boards, and do not go down at all with small incremental student decreases. So the cuts have to come out of the big ticket item: teachers and support staff IN the classroom. The numbers of positions cut is substantially more than the 1.7% population decrease.
A pause was taken in the slash and burn in the last budget. But we'll be right back at it if the NDP does not back away from the promised HST tax cuts... which will require rescinding the legislation, by a minority government [should they survive the election].
Bringing back funding for children's dental is good. But its also cheap and flashy. You would never see promises from this government that classroom tracher position cuts will never exceed student populaton decreases. What you will keep seeing is more spin that no teachers have to be laid off- as if that is the same thing.
The reason 1.3% cuts in education is slash and burn is because school boards have a huge host of mandated programming requirements that establish a floor of rising costs even while student population numbers decrease. Pretending that does not exist is cynical sophistry.
To add insult to injury the govt has multiple times stepped in when school boards use the little discretion they have where they are allowed to cut some of those costs. When the government knows it is going to have to wear the parent outrage, they step in.
Dissapearing teacher positions are less visible. Axed libraries and other frontline support even less visible. The principle of the frog slowly heating up in the pot.
How can you not be excited about this:
I agree with Dexter, losing your future over a poorly thought out chant iscan over reaction. Massive public humiliation is punishment enough. Being vindictive over a chant isn't progressive its just mean and cruel and vengeful. Forgiveness is progressive.
Now I also hope Darrel Dexter loses his seat, but that's because he's a man of no vision that's holding the ndp in Nova Scotia back.
I didn't say I wanted to pay down the debt, but I did say that the debt was the result of past deficit accumulation. And debt and paying the interest on debt takes money that could be used for other things. So one way to do this is by increasing productivity and thus the ratio of the debt decreases. I also know that some debt is good debt, so to speak. An investment that in the long run lowers costs in other areas. eg. healthcare investments and so on.
And also, I do know that KenS mentioned elsewhere that when the NDP came into power that they inherited not only a huge debt but also a large structural deficit. As know a structural deficit is where revenue does not meet the budget.
And I am reminded that sometimes the options or choices we have to make are not any of the choices we want. I also know that declining student enrolment which is not exclusive to Nova Scotia has been most difficult to deal with.
And where does promising HST tax cuts fit in?
The legislated start of them is 1% next April. Total of 2% tax cut beginning April 2015.
That is $160million in NEW cuts, starting in a year and running on into the future. Make that $320million from 2015 on.
Looks like the incumbent NS NDP gov't is utilizing the exact same strategy as the incumbent MB NDP gov't and the incumbent BC Lib gov't utilized in their respective successful campaigns. That is, the NS NDP is painting their NS Lib rivals (leader and party) as "too risky" for a change. Not familiar enough with NS politics to ascertain whether that will be an effective strategy or not.
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/09/08/nova-scotia-election_n_3888854.html
Am I the only one tired of this slogan, blanks are just to risky. I don't care who uses it, its universally pathetic. Its uninspired and reminds us that Darrel is a man without vision. I me I'm fine with attack ads that explain why ones oppentant is unqualified, but they're too risky is the domain of government that are out of ideas and passion.
bump [getting around/over that TAT schmozzle]
Of course the irony is that this is exactly what the former PC government unsuccessfully claimed about Dexter in 2009.
Something else I noticed: doesn't it seem strange that Dexter is attacking the record of "Liberal cuts" when it wasn't a Liberal government he replaced but a PC one?
In Nova Scotia (as elsewhere) there's no real difference between Liberals and Conservatives, so what applies to one, applies to the other just as much.
And If I understand it, both the Liberals and Conservative minority govts backed up each other. And hence why there was no difference. With the exception of a majority Conservative govt 1999 to 2003, it had been minority govts since 1998 (not including the last majority govt of the NDP). So Libs/Cons back stopped each other.
Brachina I sent you a PM.
No, Charles has it right.
The Liberal cuts in the 90s were deeper than anything the Hamm and MacDonald governments did.
Besides. the bathwater shared among Dippers that there are no differences between the other parties, would never cut it for messaging.... even if it happened to be true [not saying that it is].
And that is still true even if in 2009, and MAYBE still now, an awful lot of voters in the end voted for the NDP laregely because there isnt enough difference between PCs and Libs.
Not to mention, that sword cuts two ways, and we are about to find out if a lot of voters have decided that goes for all three of them... so how much reason do I have to have to vote NDP again, eh?
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. There was definitely no united front against the NDP. And the PCs and Libs pulled plugs on each other when they saw it as in their party's interest... that being the only consideration ever. [not some anti-NDP thing]
This wouldn't be the first time voters have elected an NDP government to fix a province, only to kick them out of office once the job is done and the government can start re-investing in its citizens. Romanow had to clean-up the Devine disaster after 1991. After 16 years of restraint, in the midst of a resource boom, voters gave Lorne Calvert and his pharmacare the bird and elected Brad Wall and the Conservatives redux.