New premier has ambitious plans
Nova Scotia Liberals looked past the pandemic and picked as their new leader, and the province’s next premier, the candidate who offered the most ambitious plan to build back better.
When he and his new Liberal government are sworn in sometime in the next two weeks, Iain Rankin will become the province’s first millennial premier — he was born in 1983 — and he’ll arrive in office with an aggressive social and economic agenda that is, above all else, inclusive and green.
Rankin won the threeway leadership race Saturday night, edging out Labi Kousoulis on the second ballot by 265 points out of a total of 5,500. Former health minister Randy Delorey, who’d campaigned as the best choice to lead the province through the pandemic, finished third on the first ballot and was eliminated.
Rankin succeeds Premier Stephen McNeil who is leaving him a province that’s become almost a sanctuary amid a sea of COVID, and the new premier’s immediate political prospects hang on maintaining that enviable position.
He also takes over a province that, prior to the pandemic, was on an economic upswing, with record immigration, thriving exports, a growing population and the highest employment levels ever.
Rankin now faces the formidable task of assembling a cabinet and a staff, putting together a throne speech and a budget and meeting the legislature for the first time as premier on March 9 – just one day shy of a full year after the house last met.
He also takes over a government with a one-seat majority and that’s just three months away from entering the fifth and final year of its mandate.
So, right out of the gate, he’ll have to try to put his stamp on the government, even as he and his team look for the right window of opportunity to ask Nova Scotians to elect a third successive Liberal government.
Rankin will need to be mindful of the divisions a leadership race can leave in the party, and his cabinet choices can go a long way to healing those rifts.
He’s already said his leadership opponents, Kousoulis and Delorey, have places in his cabinet and, given the rather shallow talent pool he has to draw from, so too will ministers from McNeil’s government who backed Rankin’s opponents.
He will also need to quickly assemble a staff of trusted political and policy advisers, people who, past experience shows, can gum up the works of government in a hurry if they exert their influence before they figure out how to use the levers of power.
But the first real tests for Rankin will come in about a month, when his government brings first a throne speech and soon after a budget to the legislature.
That’s when Nova Scotians will discover how, and if, the youthful premier’s bold and idealistic vision can mesh with the stark realities of a province trying to keep the pandemic at bay while struggling to regain the economic footing that eroded under the virus.
Rankin believes that the solid fiscal footing McNeil had the province on before the pandemic hit provides some flexibility to meet the demands of the moment, while advancing his broader agenda.
“This is our moment to activate an economic plan that ensures no Nova Scotians are left behind, a plan that is low carbon, and that is climate resilient,” Rankin promised during the campaign.
Those twin themes of environmental responsibility, and social and economic inclusion and justice, permeated almost everything he said during the leadership race.
Whether Rankin leans into his brand as a new generation of leader, flush with the aspirations of that generation, or whether the hard realities of the moment will temper or delay his ambitious plans will become clearer as we move into the spring.
Rankin has early opportunities, particularly on environmental files, to burnish his bona fides.
He’s committed to protecting the 100-plus places in the Parks and Protected Areas plan that have yet to be designated for protection.
Early action to move those sites along in the process would help cement his environmental credentials.
And, if he includes the controversial Owl’s Head land — which the McNeil government surreptitiously removed from the list to make way for a proposed golf resort — among the areas for protection, he’ll send a loud message that when he balances potential economic activity and the environment, the environment stands a fighting chance. That hasn’t been common in these parts.
Others will be watching to see how Rankin’s government advances its other key priority, building a more economically and socially inclusive province.
“If our province is to truly build back better, we must confront our past and learn from our mistakes, in particular those that continue to harm and hold back African Nova Scotians and Mi’kmaq peoples,” he said. “We must include marginalized groups in all of government’s decision-making, with honest deference to their lived experience — and then we must act.”
Nova Scotia’s new, millennial premier arrives in office amid the worst health crisis in a century and the economic ruin it is has wrought. He brings an ambitious agenda of progressive social, economic and environmental action, and he faces an election within 15 months at the absolute outside, likely much sooner.
It’s at this point where I suppose we should wish him luck.