Two Tories top short ‘best of’ list
While Liberals dominate Nova Scotian politics, the best political performances of 2018 were turned in by a couple of red Tories from Pictou County and a Glace Bay Grit, who waited until the last minute to get on the list.
In October, Pictou East MLA Tim Houston won the provincial Progressive Conservative leadership in impressive style against a strong field. Time and political fortune will determine just how big that win was, but one thing is clear. The guy can put together a potent political machine.
Houston won more than half of the 8,947 votes cast on the first and only leadership ballot and outpolled each of his four rivals in 38 of the province’s 51 ridings. It takes a lot to win the leadership of a mainstream political party in the one-member-one-vote era, but more than anything it takes an effective organization signing up party members, then making sure they vote.
Houston’s organization got that done.
During the leadership the party’s membership tripled, to more than 11,000, Nova Scotians. If the Tories can hang on to a sizable chunk of that membership and harness its political potential, they’ll mount a very formidable challenge to the Liberal government in the next election, likely in 2021.
While Houston won the leadership, his cross-county colleague Karla MacFarlane won the hearts of Nova Scotia’s Conservatives in the 10 months she served as their leader.
MacFarlane took the reins of the party on an interim basis, and became Leader of the Opposition, following Jamie Baillie’s resignation amid allegations of inappropriate behaviour involving a female staffer.
The Pictou West MLA stepped in when the party was at a low point, led it through the sometimes-fractious leadership race, and managed to keep the inevitable divisions created by that race from fracturing the legislative caucus.
But it was her performance as Opposition Leader that earned MacFarlane the most plaudits. She went toe-to-toe with the larger egos and longer political resumes on the government side of the House, and more than held her own.
Both Houston and MacFarlane fit comfortably into their party’s progressive wing, which remains vital in Nova Scotia, even as Conservatives elsewhere in the country swing to the right.
Led by Houston, Nova Scotia’s Tories will find themselves mostly in the moderate middle of the political spectrum – the same space the province’s Liberal government attempts to occupy. It’s also where the bulk of the provincial electorate is, so there’s room for both parties.
The Liberals, of course, have a majority provincial government and hold all 11 of Nova Scotia’s seats in the House of Commons. By sheer force of numbers, there must be a significant political achievement during 2018 by someone in the Nova Scotia cabinet or by a Nova Scotian sitting on the government benches in Ottawa.
There is, but it took until the last month of the year for a Liberal to solidify a spot on this very selective and totally subjective list.
Nova Scotia’s Business Minister Geoff MacLellan is among a handful of ministers in Stephen McNeil’s government that are both politically astute and firmly in command of their cabinet responsibilities.
MacLellan quarterbacked the province’s successful effort to get a new owner and operator in place for the Sydney call centre that closed, throwing more than 500 people out of work, in early December. The new operation is expected to open, employing the former workers, early in the new year.
From here, that looks like a fast, effective response to a dire set of circumstances, and it is a considerable achievement – political and substantive – for the Liberal government.
As for Premier McNeil, he is so completely in charge of the government it is impossible to separate him from its successes and failures. Any assessment of his job performance is really an assessment of the government-writ-large and 2018 was, at best, a wash for that government.
Some might expect the best performances in a political role to be balanced here by a comparable airing of the worst, but that’s not in keeping with the spirit of the season.
Politicians suffer the opprobrium of critics mostly in genial silence, understanding that it comes with the job. Once a year, maybe even the critics should acknowledge that their jobs are difficult and the rest of us are fortunate that they step up to do them.
And wish them – and you – a Happy New Year.