Nova Scotians weigh in
Here’s what they had to say.
When Denise Szuler heads to the polls on Aug. 17 to cast her vote in Nova Scotia’s 41st provincial election, she says there are a number of issues that are going to be top of mind for her.
She’d like for the next provincial government to be more transparent and to focus on reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, benefits for seniors and improvements in health care, she said.
But the latter deserves the most attention of all, according to Szuler, 64, from Halifax.
“Health care definitely needs some improvement, supporting the nurses, the doctors. We need more doctors in Halifax, Cape Breton, period,” she added.
“It doesn’t seem like anything’s happening. It’s the same thing, same talk all the time and it’s just the same old.”
Szuler is just one of the many Nova Scotians who are now gathering their thoughts on which election issues matter most after Premier Iain Rankin visited Lt.-gov. Arthur J. Leblanc Saturday morning and asked to dissolve the legislature and start a summer election campaign.
The Chronicle Herald spoke to people out and about in Halifax about the issues that they care about the most.
HEALTH CARE
Similar to Szuler, Colin Hebb would like to see changes in the province’s health-care system.
A family doctor from Bridgewater, Hebb said the lack of coverage and availability of family doctors in Nova Scotia cannot be ignored.
“Recently, we’ve had a lot of people come into our clinic looking for a family doctor, probably more so than a year ago, and I think that will be a big issue in the election,” said Hebb, 38.
“I think every party talks it up big, but we need to see some concrete ideas and concrete solutions.”
Hebb noted that compensation models for family doctors in the province “are changing all the time," which is something he struggles with and believes is to blame for difficulty recruiting more family doctors.
HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
Sean Sawh wants there to be more of a focus on helping those who are experiencing homelessness. He said he sees lots of people camped along Sackville River in Lower Sackville, where he’s from, and believes they deserve safer alternatives.
“The homeless are people, too. We have to look after those guys and I don’t think enough time is spent on that,” Sawh said.
Terry Charron, 23, grew up in Halifax. Charron would “love to stay” in the city, he said, but unless more is done by the province to address the ongoing affordable housing crisis, he doesn’t know if that’ll be a possibility for him for much longer.
“My one concern is getting renovicted or having my landlord, without any protection for myself, decide yearover-year to hike up the rent so I can’t live close to where I work and just further cripple me down with the student loans I’m trying to pay down,” he said.
ENVIRONMENT
For Philip Church, who is from Hantsport and currently lives in a van with no fixed address, saving the environment — and Owls Head Provincial Park specifically from being developed — is most important.
“What’s wrong with the status quo? Why do we always have to be taking more land away from animals and the wildlife? I think we’re good where we are,” said Church, 42.
Charles Blackhall, 72, is also concerned about the environment and would like to see the next provincial government to prioritize sustainable forestry practices, among other climate change mitigation strategies.
“We’re just going backwards. We’re still clearcutting, we’re still resurrecting old school pulp mills and spending billions and billions on cutting forests down, when we need all the oxygen and carbon sinks that we can get, which are what forests are,” he said.
TRANSPORTATION, INFRASTRUCTURE AND MORE
Phil Mabley, 42, said it’s time for the province “to step up” when it comes to public transportation and infrastructure and fund a subway system in Halifax Regional Municipality.
“HRM pretty much constitutes almost half the landmass of the province, so it’d be nice if they were focusing more on rapid transit as opposed to just transit, where they’re just putting in buses in gridlock traffic,” he said.
Subha Vasudevan, 28, lives in Sydney and studies at Cape Breton University. She’s also looking forward to improvements in public transit.
“The thing about Sydney is we don’t have buses so frequently, it’s very infrequent, like (they come) in an hour or maybe two hours and sometimes you don’t have a bus, so transportation is something I would bring to notice,” said Vasubeva, who was visiting Halifax over the weekend.
Rhea Black, 28, is interested to see how the next provincial government deals with COVID-19 moving forward beyond “just the science.”
“The economy and even mental health has taken the backburner and (I’d like to see) how we’re going to move forward with that in the next year or three years.”