Nova Scotians heading to the polls Nov. 26 after early election call
CBC
Tim Houston has called a snap election to be held Nov. 26.
The Progressive Conservative leader is trying to win a second term, despite legislation he personally introduced three years ago that gave Nova Scotia a fixed election date of July 15, 2025.
Houston visited the lieutenant-governor Sunday to dissolve the current House.
Breaking from tradition, he did not take questions from reporters as he left the lieutenant-governor's residence. Houston then entered a blue bus with the message "Vote PC" on it. Houston is holding a rally in Bedford at 1:30 p.m. AT.
The decision to call an early election was criticized by NDP Leader Claudia Chender.
"Nova Scotians continue to experience a failing health-care system, unsustainable housing prices, and the rapidly rising cost of living — but instead of addressing these issues for the people they were elected to serve, the Houston government is focused on trying to hold onto power," she said in a statement.
The NDP is launching its campaign in Dartmouth at an event at 3 p.m.
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill criticized Houston's decision to call an early election, as well as a 21-page brochure the PCs sent out to Nova Scotians highlighting the party's work on health care.
"Tim Houston cannot be allowed to continue to spend Nova Scotians' hard-earned money on his partisan playbook," Churchill said at a Liberal event.
"It certainly shows a lack of respect for voters, for taxpayers, and I do think it shows that he will do unethical things as long as he thinks he can get away with it."
Earlier Sunday, the party filed a complaint with the province's chief electoral officer over the brochure.
Green Party Leader Anthony Edmonds said he was disappointed Houston broke his promise of a fixed election date.
"Elections Nova Scotia has reported that an early election call will increase their costs," he wrote in an email to CBC News. "I fear that a snap election will see many voters stay home, which is disheartening in this era of record low turnouts at the polls."
Cape Breton University political scientist Tom Urbaniak expects the early election call to dominate the debate during the first few days of the campaign but suggested it may lose ground to other issues.
Alberta's government — along with the Rural Municipalities of Alberta, and the province’s energy regulator — say they want to crack down on oil and gas companies that don’t pay their property taxes.
Ottawa will now allow rural businesses to employ more temporary foreign workers to help supplement the local workforce, a move Restaurants Canada says will help some restaurants on P.E.I. keep their doors open.
The City of Calgary is reminding people to save water after a recent spike in usage.
The number of visitors to food banks in Mississauga has nearly doubled since the height of the pandemic, says the city's largest food security organization.
After three weeks on the road in Yellowknife doing Inuvialuktun translation for the Northwest Territories legislative assembly, Lillian Elias says she's tired and ready to go home to Inuvik.
Metrolinx is reporting "significant" delays to several GO train lines late Monday afternoon due to a police investigation.
The federal government is spending $14.3 million to support over two dozen Yukon organizations and First Nations governments with arts, culture and language programming.
The war in the Middle East, the fear that it could escalate and the economic consequences were top of mind as Prime Minister Mark Carney met his British counterpart Monday in the United Kingdom at the tail of a whirlwind trip to Europe.
Alberta and Czechia will host the fourth edition of the World Cup of Hockey, a country-versus-country hockey tournament set to hit the ice in February 2028, the NHL announced Monday.
The Ontario government has confirmed it is cutting provincial funding for seven supervised drug consumption sites, days after harm reduction advocates said they were notified of the decision.
In the sprawling labyrinth of shops and showrooms in the Chinese city of Yiwu, parts of what’s widely known as the "world’s supermarket" are beginning to look more like a world-class warehouse.
The lawyer representing Umar Zameer, a man cleared in the death of a Toronto police officer two years ago, says he has "serious misgivings" about an upcoming report into the conduct of several officers involved in the case.
The system behind the emergency department wait times Winnipeggers see online had multiple flaws that made waits sometimes appear lower than they should, an internal memo shows.