N.S. votes May 30 amid some ‘tough choices’

ELECTION CALL

KEITH DOUCETTE HALIFAX • Premier Stephen McNeil has called a Nova Scotia election for May 30, launching his bid for a second mandate by acknowledging his government has made some unpopular decisions.

“We had to make tough choices, choices that weren’t always popular,” he told a kickoff rally at a Lebanese cultural centre in Halifax Sunday. “I believe you either shape change or change shapes you. We had to shape our own change.”

McNeil dropped the writ after meeting with Lt.-Gov. J.J. Grant at Government House in Halifax.

At dissolution the Liberals held 34 seats in the 51-seat legislature, the Progressive Conservatives had 10 and the NDP 5. There was one Independent and one seat was vacant.

The election follows nearly two months of election-style spending announcements by the Liberals, and a budget tabled Thursday offering a broad, though modest tax cut to about 500,000 low- and middle-income Nova Scotians.

It was the second consecutive balanced budget for the Liberals. The government has exercised strict wage restraint for public sector unions, including nurses and teachers, while making a series of cuts to programs affecting areas such as seniors’ longterm care and initiatives run by public service organizations.

“Thanks to our choices the province is in better shape than it was three and a half years ago,” McNeil said Sunday.

Tory Leader Jamie Baillie pitched himself Sunday as a sunny alternative to four years of Liberal austerity, which he said has hurt Nova Scotia’s rural communities, allowed infrastructure to crumble and sent doctors and young people away from the province in “droves.”

“(Nova Scotians) will have to decide if they want to invest and jobs and in their communities, or if they want more McNeil cuts,” said Baillie, surrounded by Tory candidates. “Only the Progressive Conservative party has the plan to allow Nova Scotians to stand proudly on their own two feet once again.”

Baillie said the premier’s heavy hand in dealing with public sector unions has resonated through the province, and said if elected, he would push for a “middle way” that would keep wages at roughly current levels but increase investment in public services.

Baillie’s speech was replete with promises of prosperity, but when pressed for specifics, the Tory leader often pivoted back to attacking McNeil.

Baillie has been sounding confident that his party, which hasn’t won an election since 2006, is poised for an electoral breakthrough. That’s critical for Baillie, who is leading the party through his second campaign — and may not get a third opportunity if expectations aren’t realized.

NDP Leader Gary Burrill told dozens of supporters at a west-end Halifax café Sunday that an NDP government would prioritize “investments in our people” over a balanced budget to tackle issues like hunger, access to education and hospital overcrowding.