MLAs sworn in during muted ceremonies
HALIFAX — Province House swung open its historic doors to an increasingly diverse group of MLAs on Monday but Nova Scotia still has a way to go on the inclusion meter.
“We're getting there but we definitely need to do better,” Suzy Hansen, the New Democrat elected in Halifax Needham and one of four Black MLAs who will sit in the House after Monday's swearing-in, said of diversity in the legislature.
“We don't have any Mi'kmaw representation, which I think should have been at the forefront. We are on their land and we need to hear from them as well. I don't know if we have anybody there with abilities or disabilities that could be represented. We could be doing better but we're moving at a good track right now to have a number of voices at the table.”
At the time of the dissolution of the legislature to kick off the provincial election campaign, Liberal Tony Ince was the lone Black voice among 49 sitting MLAs. In the history of the province, only five Black MLAs had ever been elected before the Aug. 17 vote.
“This is an exciting time, the diversity and the fact that we'll have four African Nova Scotians sitting at the table,” said Hansen, the mother of seven children ranging in age from four to 18 who grew up in north-end Halifax on Brunswick Street, Mulgrave Park and Uniacke Square and now lives in Mulgrave Park.
“It (four Black MLAs) has never happened before. I'm excited about that, I'm really happy to see that our parties are changing, there is a different type of look in the way
way that all of our parties look right now and moving forward, hopefully, we can use our experiences to better what this province is going to look like.”
The need to do better referenced by Hansen is evident in the numbers. In its last census, in 2016, 2.5 per cent of Nova Scotia's 908,304 people were Black and 2.8 per cent were First Nations. A full 6.5 per cent of the province's population consisted of a visible minority and 5.7 per cent were Aboriginal.
The four Black MLAs account for seven per cent of the 55 seats in the legislature. There are 20 women among the sworn-in MLAs, making up 36 per cent of the sitting members and an increase in female representation from 31 per cent in the 2017-21 assembly and 29 per cent in the 2013-17 House. Hansen and Liberal Angela Simmonds in Preston are just the second and third Black women ever elected to the House.
Ince was re-elected in the Cole Harbour riding on Aug. 17 and fellow Liberal Ali Duale, who fled Somalia with his family in 1991 and spent seven years in a Kenyan refugee camp before coming to Canada, won the Halifax Armdale seat. Duale became the province's first Muslim MLA at Monday's swearingin ceremony.
At the swearing-in, the governing Progressive Conservatives held 31 seats, the Liberals 17 and the NDP six, along with a single Independent.
Among the NDP members, five are women, accounting for 83 per cent of the caucus. The Liberals elected five women, making up 29 per cent of the 17 elected party members. The Progressive Conservatives elected nine women, accounting for 22 per cent of the party's MLAs.
The PCs did not elect a visible minority, creating a potential cabinet diversity void when Tim Houston is sworn in Tuesday as premier along with his appointed PC ministers.
“It will be interesting to see their take and even their debate behind some of the things that might come up,” Hansen said of the PC cabinet.
On Monday, Hansen joined her five elected NDP mates to be sworn in at 5 p.m. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the swearing-in ceremonies took place in smaller groups. The PCs were sworn in at 1 p.m., followed by the Liberals at 3:30 p.m. Elizabeth SmithMcCrossin was sworn in as an Independent MLA at 5:30 p.m.
“It's huge, I'm super excited,” Hansen said during the run-up to being sworn in. “This is like the start of the next chapter. It's bittersweet because I'd love to be able to have my whole family there but because of COVID and with restrictions, you're limited. I'm really excited. It's going to be real, becoming an MLA in a political sense and being able to help more people and be a part of the legislative process. It's going to definitely be a learning piece for me throughout but I'm really excited to see what's going to happen.”