The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Chender comes out swinging
The only candidate in the running, Claudia Chender officially named new NDP leader on Saturday
Claudia Chender came out swinging at the provincial government after being officially named the new leader of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party on Saturday.
Chender was the only candidate, but the party still went through the vote-counting process at a leadership convention in Dartmouth on the weekend.
In her first speech as leader, she demanded that Premier Tim Houston do something for Nova Scotians weighed down by rising inflation, housing costs, and food and fuel prices.
Specifically, she said the government should use the gas tax and increased HST revenue that have come with rising fuel prices to give $500 to every family in the province with an income of $70,000 or less.
“The premier isn’t in touch with the problems that people are facing,” Chender said. “Provincially, we are among the only jurisdictions doing nothing to directly support people during this time of unprecedented inflation. People are falling behind, and this government is choosing to do nothing.”
NOVA SCOTIANS NEED HELP
She said she expects that the government might say that it doesn’t want to set a precedent, or that the current stresses are only a temporary problem, “but Nova Scotians aren’t looking for excuses. They’re calling out for help.”
A common phrase throughout her speech was “we know what we need to do” as she talked about the challenges facing Nova Scotians and what she said were inadequate responses from government on power rates, the housing crisis and other topics.
“We need a real rent control system, we need action on multiple owners with vacant properties and air B&BS,” Chender said. “These are things the government could do today.”
She also said there needs to be a place in government that champions rural issues and the rural economy.
“Our people, our communities, know what we need to do. But does Tim Houston know what we need to do? The premier is long on talk, but short on action,” she said. “It’s been almost a year, and
that big detailed platform of his is nowhere to be found at the moment, has yet to make a real impact on people’s lives in this province.”
She said tens of thousands more people are without primary health care now than when Houston took office last August.
“Across the province people are struggling to put a roof over their heads, and if they find one they are struggling to keep it there. The price of everything has gone up, and Tim Houston has told us, like his federal counterpart, that his plan is to do nothing.”
N.S. NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING, NOW
Speaking to reporters after her acceptance speech, Chender said she “was shocked to hear, after an initial signal that the government would do something to address the skyrocketing cost of living, the premier say ‘we’re not going to do anything.’ That’s not a position we can accept. People need direct support, and they need it now.”
She said after Houston said that “everything was on the table” to give Nova Scotians some relief, she expected something.
“I believe that the role of government is to ensure that people can live a dignified life and to help people take care of each other.”
SINGH ON ROE
Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh was a guest at the convention. In a speech to attendees, he addressed local, national and international issues, including the Supreme Court of the United States’s decision Friday to overturn the Roe vs. Wade protection for a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion.
“That decision is an attack on fundamental human rights, it’s an attack specifically on women as well,” Singh said. “It undermines the basic, fundamental understanding that a person should have control, authority and autonomy over their own body.”
He said Canadians must stay vigilant to defend that right, “but more important, in Canada in the context of our legal system, is the access to that right.”
He said that not only applies to people in rural and remote communities, but in provinces like New Brunswick, where the government is not providing funding to one of the major clinics that provided abortion services.
Singh also spoke about the agreement with the federal Liberal party to keep it in power in exchange for improvements to health and dental care and other initiatives to help Canadians.
“It’s not a coalition, as much as some people say it is. We remain independent, we vote against bills, they vote against our ideas; we are separate,” Singh said.
He said the party will also hold the government to account over the “really serious allegations” of political interference around the RCMP investigation in the April 2020 killings that left 22 people dead over two days.
“We are very seriously concerned about these allegations,” he said. “We’re going to call witnesses and we’re going to get to the truth.”