Buoyed by election win, Tim Houston tones down rhetoric toward Ottawa

On the heels of a resounding election victory, Tim Houston is adopting a more measured tone when it comes to assessing his province’s relationship with the federal government.

On the heels of a resounding election victory one month ago, Nova Scotia’s premier is adopting a more measured tone when it comes to assessing his province’s relationship with the federal government.

Tim Houston’s Progressive Conservatives were returned to power Nov. 26, capturing 43 of the legislature’s 55 seats after a campaign during which he attacked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government on a number of fronts. In fact, he justified his decision to call a snap election and ignore the province’s fixed-date election law — which had set the vote for July 2025 — by claiming he needed a strong mandate to stand up to Ottawa.

But in a recent end-of-year interview with The Canadian Press, Houston was more conciliatory, saying a Dec. 9 meeting at his Halifax office with Trudeau was conducted with “a spirit of collaboration.”

“We started to see right away that the tone was different,” he said, adding that whatever comes of Trudeau’s leadership of the Liberal party, Nova Scotia will retain its important relationship with the federal government. Trudeau, meanwhile, has been facing increasing pressure from inside his caucus to step down.

High on Houston’s list of grievances has been Ottawa’s imposition of carbon pricing in the province and its refusal to pay the entire bill for the costly work needed to protect the Chignecto Isthmus, the low-lying land link between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia that is increasingly prone to severe flooding.

During the provincial election campaign, the premier accused the federal government of shirking its responsibility for the isthmus, on occasion accusing Ottawa of “trying to rip us off.”

However, his language has become noticeably less strident since the election win.

“I would say they were more open-minded to looking at different ways we could finance it (the isthmus project), so I will let that unfold,” said Houston. “It’s not resolved yet, I don’t want to give that impression, but certainly we are trying to work towards a resolution that both parties can live with.”