Newly elected South Shore-St. Margarets MP Jessica Fancy-Landry speaks to a voter in Liverpool earlier in the campaign. (Rick Conrad)

UPDATED TUESDAY at 5:20 P.M.

Voters in South Shore-St. Margarets went back to the Liberals on Monday night, electing first-time candidate Jessica Fancy-Landry in a decisive victory.

Fancy-Landry beat Conservative incumbent Rick Perkins by about 7,000 votes, grabbing 55 per cent support.

The Liberal got 27,871 votes to Perkins’s 20,854, according to preliminary results from Elections Canada.

“I think it was our positivity,” she told QCCR in an interview.

“We ran a very positive and clean and energetic campaign and I think that really resonated with a lot of people here.”

Turnout in the riding was just over 72 per cent, which was higher than the national rate of about 67 per cent.

Fancy-Landry is originally from Caledonia and now lives in Bridgewater. She’s a teacher at Forest Heights Community School in Chester Basin.

Perkins was first elected in 2021, ousting then-fisheries minister Bernadette Jordan.

Fancy-Landry said the big issue on the campaign trail was affordability and people’s concerns over the cost of living.

“Also, Trump and tariffs and then being a coastal riding, definitely fisheries,” she said. 

“But I really think right now it’s time to unify all of our community and really build on this positivity and build trust back where the Liberal Party might have lost trust in a couple of different areas within the riding.”

She said she believes growing up in the area helped cement her win.

“I think that was my secret sauce. We need someone who has been here, has their feet on the street, has raised their kids here and really knows those intimate concerns and issues for the area and has the connections to bring people together.

“I really think it was that positivity in bringing people together that really spoke to a lot of people because politics right now is just so divisive. And we need to unify as a nation. And I really felt like … now that we have that mandate, we can start doing a lot of really good work.”

She said she’s already heard from municipal leaders from around the riding, as well as other Liberal MPs to help her in her new role.

Fancy-Landry said that in the next few weeks, she’ll be getting orientation as a first-time MP and meeting with the rest of the newly elected Liberal caucus.

She’ll also be wrapping up her career as a teacher.

But she’s looking forward to getting to work as the MP for South Shore-St. Margarets.

“That’s been my tagline for the last 37 days: ‘Let’s get to work,’” she said. 

“And now we’re here and we’ve got to put our money where our mouth is and work really hard for our constituents, all constituents.”

The Green Party’s Mark Embrett finished third with 818 votes. Patrick Boyd of the People’s Party of Canada was the choice of 698 people and independent candidate Hayden Henderson got 460 votes.

Elections Canada said 50,701 of 70,205 eligible electors voted. That included just over 19,000 people who turned out for advance polls over the Easter weekend.

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Rick Perkins, Jessica Fancy-Landry, Mark Embrett and Patrick Boyd are four of the candidates running in South Shore-St. Margarets. 

QCCR has interviewed four of the candidates running in the riding of South Shore-St. Margarets in the April 28 federal election.

Conservative Rick Perkins, Liberal Jessica Fancy-Landry, the Green Party’s Mark Embrett and Patrick Boyd of the People’s Party of Canada spoke to us about various issues, including those specific to Queens County. Independent candidate Hayden Henderson did not respond to our request for an interview.

The riding covers more than 8,000 square kilometres and stretches from Tantallon outside Halifax to Clark’s Harbour in southwestern Nova Scotia. It was redrawn after the 2021 election and lost some its areas to the riding of Halifax West.

Conservative Rick Perkins defeated Liberal incumbent Bernadette Jordan in the 2021 election by about 1,800 votes. In that election, the NDP candidate got about 19 per cent of the vote.

This time, however, there is no declared NDP candidate. And the riding has lost some of its suburban Halifax voters after it was redrawn in 2023.

QCCR will be airing each of the four interviews with the candidates at 99.3 FM in Liverpool at 2:30 p.m. each day, beginning Thurs., April 24 through to April 27.

You can also follow the links below to listen to each of the interviews.

• Conservative Rick Perkins
• Liberal Jessica Fancy-Landry
• Green Party’s Mark Embrett
• People’s Party of Canada’s Patrick Boyd

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Rick Perkins is the Conservative candidate in South Shore-St. Margarets. (Rick Perkins photo)

Rick Perkins is trying to hold onto the South Shore-St. Margarets seat for the Conservative Party of Canada in the April 28 federal election.

He was first elected in 2021, ousting Liberal MP and then Fisheries Minister Bernadette Jordan by about 1,800 votes.

He’s up against Liberal Jessica Fancy-Landry, Green Party candidate Mark Embrett, People’s Party of Canada candidate Patrick Boyd and Independent Hayden Henderson.

The riding covers more than 8,000 square kilometres and stretches from Tantallon outside Halifax to Clark’s Harbour in southwestern Nova Scotia. It was redrawn after the 2021 election and lost some its areas to the riding of Halifax West.

This is the first in a series of interviews QCCR conducted with candidates about some issues specific to Queens County.

The interview was recorded on April 3 and edited for length.

Listen to our interview with Rick Perkins here:

Mark Embrett is the candidate for the Green Party in South Shore-St. Margarets. (Rick Conrad)

Mark Embrett is trying to make a breakthrough in the federal riding of South Shore-St. Margarets for the Green Party of Canada in the April 28 federal election.

The Queensland resident is an implementation scientist with Nova Scotia Health.

In the 2021 election, the Green Party captured just under three per cent of the vote in the riding.

Embrett told QCCR in this instalment of candidate interviews that he realizes the Green Party likely won’t form government, but he said it’s important to have a party raising issues around equity, the economy and the environment.

The interview was recorded on April 7 and edited for length.

Listen to our interview with Mark Embrett below:

Patrick Boyd is the candidate for the People’s Party of Canada in South Shore-St. Margarets. (Rick Conrad)

Patrick Boyd is the candidate for the People’s Party of Canada in the April 28 federal election.

The consultant and hobby farmer lives in Sable River, Shelburne Co., and is a first-time candidate.

Conservative incumbent Rick Perkins, Liberal Jessica Fancy-Landry, the Greens’ Mark Embrett and Independent Hayden Henderson are the other candidates.

This is another in our series of interviews with candidates in the riding.

We asked Boyd about his and his party’s views on immigration and the temporary foreign worker program, as well as the commercial fishery and the prospect of a new kraft pulp mill in Queens County.

The interview was recorded on April 11 and edited for length.

Listen to our interview with Patrick Boyd below:

You don’t need your voter information card from Elections Canada to vote in the April 28 federal election. (Elections Canada)

If you haven’t received your voter information card yet for the April 28 federal election, Elections Canada says not to worry.

You can still vote without it. 

Elections Canada told QCCR there have been delays in getting the cards to some parts of the country.

The Liverpool post office hadn’t begun receiving the cards for its customers until the middle of this week. 

The cards contain information on where and when you can vote, details about your polling station and your name and address.

Elections Canada spokeswoman Francoise Enguehard says you don’t need the voter information card to cast your ballot.

“What is important for people to know is that you do not need a voter information card to vote,” she said in an interview. “And you don’t need it either to verify where you have to vote.

“The voter information card can serve as one ID to vote. But it doesn’t really change the way people have to prove their identity and they have to prove their address. So if people have a driver’s licence or they have a municipal or provincial ID, as civil servants would, then they can use that. And it you don’t have it, you need two things both with your name and one that proves your address.”

To prove your civic address, you can also use a property tax bill, a statement from your house or tenant insurance or a utility bill that contains your physical address.

You can also have somebody else vouch for your identity at your polling station.

“It’s the honors system. You say you are who you are and where you live. But the person must be registered at the same polling station and and the person can only vouch for one individual.”

Enguehard said she doesn’t know the reason for the delay in Liverpool. 

“We send 28 million cards to electors all across the country. Sometimes it can happen that there is a delay in getting a polling location. So until you have the polling location, you cannot print the voter information card. Sometimes out of the 28 million, a few of the cards, the information is incorrect and new voter information cards have to be issued. So all of that can cause delays.”

She said those who haven’t yet received a voter information card should be getting one in the next few days. 

Regardless, you can use the “My voter information” section on the Elections Canada homepage at elections.ca or call 1-800-463-6868 to make sure you’re registered to vote.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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The South Queens Chamber of Commerce is organizing a meet-and-greet in Liverpool with candidates in South Shore-St. Margarets. (Elections Canada)

Voters in Queens County will get a chance to meet some of the candidates vying to be the next MP for South Shore-St. Margarets.

The South Queens Chamber of Commerce and Main and Mersey Dining Room and Coffee Bar in Liverpool are teaming up for a candidate Q&A on Mon., April 21 from 4 to 6 p.m.

Ashley Christian is president of the chamber of commerce.

“The idea is a casual meet-and-greet forum,” Christian said. “What we’re going to be doing is casual networking and then allowing each of the candidates five to 10 minutes to introduce themselves to the group and then we intend to take questions from the floor. So we expect one hour of a more formal question-and-answer period and then another hour of just casual networking.”

Christian said she expects three of the five candidates to be at the event: Liberal Jessica Fancy-Landry, the Green Party’s Mark Embrett and Patrick Boyd of the People’s Party of Canada.

Conservative Rick Perkins, who is running for re-election, could not make it.

Christian did not know whether Independent candidate Hayden Henderson will be at the event. Henderson is the outreach director for the youth wing of the NDP. He was a last-minute addition to the ballot after the NDP’s Brendan Mosher dropped out and has since been endorsed by the NDP. 

“We really wanted to give the citizens of Queens County an opportunity to meet everyone, hear their platforms, hear what’s important to them and ask them questions,” Christian said.

The event is free, though people have to register at this link. The federal election is April 28.

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Rick Perkins, Jessica Fancy-Landry, Mark Embrett and Patrick Boyd are four of the candidates running in South Shore-St. Margarets. Not pictured is Hayden Henderson.

Four people will be trying to unseat Rick Perkins as the South Shore-St. Margarets representative in the April 28 federal election.

Perkins beat Liberal MP Bernadette Jordan in 2021, after running unsuccessfully against her in 2019.

Since the last election, the riding has been redrawn, with part of it being absorbed into Halifax West. Nominations closed on Monday.

Liberal Jessica Fancy-Landry will be trying to take the seat back from Perkins. The teacher at Forest Heights Community School in Chester Basin is originally from Caledonia and lives in Bridgewater.

Green Party candidate Mark Embrett is an implementation scientist with Nova Scotia Health and lives in Hubbards.

Patrick Boyd is running for the People’s Party of Canada. He runs a consulting firm.

The NDP don’t have a registered candidate in the riding. Their declared candidate Brendan Mosher dropped out at the last minute. According to a Facebook post on his candidate page on Tuesday, he said that he decided against running “after a long consideration and some last minute delays.”

He edited the post to say that Hayden Henderson would be running for the party in the riding.

Henderson is listed on the Elections Canada website as an Independent. According to the federal agency, “if an endorsement by a political party cannot be confirmed within 48 hours of the prospective candidate submitting their nomination paper, … the word ‘Independent’ (will) appear under their name on the ballot.”

Perkins won South Shore-St. Margarets in 2021 by about 2,000 votes, or 40 per cent. Jordan got 37 per cent, while the NDP’s Olivia Dorey captured 19 per cent.

QCCR plans to publish interviews with all candidates.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Kim Masland was re-elected Tuesday as MLA for Queens in Nova Scotia’s provincial election. (Rick Conrad)

UPDATED Nov. 27, 4 p.m.

It’s a threepeat for Kim Masland, who will once again represent the riding of Queens in the Nova Scotia legislature.

The Liverpool resident easily won re-election on Tuesday night. It’s her third win in a row.

Masland told QCCR on Tuesday night that she doesn’t take any election for granted. 

“It’s fabulous, I’m just so grateful to the voters of Queens who have put their trust in me to represent them again in the Nova Scotia legislature,” she said.

“I do not take the position of MLA lightly. I know it comes with great responsibility and I’m just absolutely humbled and consider myself very blessed to once again represent the people of Queens. And I will keep working hard for us.”

The former Public Works minister and government House leader will again be part of a Progressive Conservative majority government.

Masland garnered 79.93 per cent of the vote. Turnout in Queens was 46.91 per cent.

In the 2021 election, Masland won the riding with 70.4 per cent of the vote. Turnout in 2021 was 57.8 per cent.

Liberal Cathy De Rome of Beach Meadows was in second, while the NDP’s Brian Skabar was in third.

De Rome told QCCR on Wednesday that she wasn’t surprised by Masland’s win and she wishes her well. 

“I was so happy to be able to talk to so many people and the response I received and the encouragement was very positive. Unfortunately, all the words of encouragement did not translate into more votes. … And hey, we knew it was an uphill battle from the get-go. We were disappointed but yet we’re pleased with what we did.”

Skabar could not be reached for comment.

The Progressive Conservatives under leader Tim Houston won their second majority government with 43 seats. The NDP will form the official Opposition with nine seats, while the Liberals held onto two.

Masland said she knocked on more than 6,000 doors and logged more 880,000 steps during the campaign. 

She credited her team with working hard to put her back in the legislature.

“I had an absolutely amazing team behind me here in Queens County. My campaign manager is Grant Webber, he’s been with me since the beginning.

“And you can’t win an election campaign by yourself. It takes hard work, it takes people believing in you. The people on my team they put their lives on hold to be part of this team for the benefit of Queens County, their own community. I’m very grateful for them and really glad that I can spend this evening celebrating with my team and my family.”

She said the late John Leefe, who was a longtime PC MLA for Queens and a former mayor of the Region of Queens, gave her advice that has stuck with her.

“As my dear friend and mentor John Leefe always said to me, you run a campaign as if you’re one vote behind. And that is how we have run this campaign. We never give up. We did not stop until the polls closed tonight, and I’m just very, very pleased with the campaign that we’ve run here.”

Turnout across the province appears to be lower than in 2021. Elections Nova Scotia hasn’t released official numbers yet, but it appears that turnout was around 45 per cent, compared to 55.1 per cent in 2021.

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QCCR acknowledges the support of the Community Radio Fund of Canada’s Local Journalism Initiative

Liberal Cathy De Rome, PC incumbent Kim Masland and New Democrat Brian Skabar are running in Queens in the Nova Scotia election. (Rick Conrad, Nova Scotia NDP)

The two people hoping to unseat popular MLA Kim Masland in Queens admit it’s an uphill battle, but they say they’ve been hearing good things from voters.

Cathy De Rome is running for the Liberals and Brian Skabar is trying to take the seat back for the NDP in Tuesday’s provincial election.

Masland is trying for a repeat in a riding she captured in 2021 for the Progressive Conservatives with 70 per cent of the vote. Before that, the riding was Queens-Shelburne, which Masland won in 2017 with almost 44 per cent of the vote. 

Election Day is Tues., Nov. 26. But Queens County residents can vote early at the returning office on Market Street in Liverpool or at the North Queens Fire Hall in Caledonia.

When the election was called on Oct. 27, the Tories had 34 seats, the Liberals had 14, the NDP had 6 and there was one independent.

PARTY PLATFORMS:

• Progressive Conservatives
• Liberals
• NDP

De Rome lives in Beach Meadows and is a retired elementary school teacher. She’s also the president of the Queens Liberal association. Skabar is originally from Amherst, but now lives near Caledonia. He is a retired social worker and a former NDP MLA for Cumberland North.

De Rome and Skabar say that they know it’s going to be tough to defeat Masland. But they say it’s important to run.

“Our democracy is only as strong as the people who participate in it,” De Rome said in a recent interview. “And I want people to become involved and find out what the issues are and how they can work at participating and hopefully making things better.

“Kim is very popular and she has been doing it a long time. But just maybe it’s time for a change.”

Skabar says he’s knocked on 40 to 50 doors a day during the campaign. And even though he’s new to the area, he says he’s been getting positive feedback.

“To my surprise, only having been here for two years, either people in Queens County are really, really kind, 0r I might have half a chance,” he said in an interview.

“Three out of five doors that I knock one are supportive of New Democrats. Our incumbent here is quite popular individually but I don’t think people are really crazy about Tim Houston.”

Masland could not be reached for an interview. But in a video posted on her Facebook page, she said she’s knocked on more than 5,000 doors in the campaign.

She also posted that the Houston government has hired more doctors, helped build more affordable housing, and made record investments in road and bridge infrastructure.

De Rome says that while many voters say they’re not happy with the state of health care, housing and affordability, they haven’t asked her much about she or the Liberals plan to address it.

“People will complain. When the other day I said to a man, ‘Do you have any questions?’ He said no. And so I said, ‘Are you happy with things?’ ‘Not really’. So it just didn’t quite make sense.”

De Rome points to the Liberal plan to build more homes using the co-operative housing model, open more collaborative care clinics around the province, and to forgive part of certain health-care workers’ student loans for up to five years.

“We are getting more doctors, it seems, but people are still having long waits in emergency. … To sit in emergency for nine-plus hours to have a prescription renewed is ridiculous.”

The NDP had been a force in the traditionally Conservative riding of Queens from 2006 to 2013. Sterling Belliveau hung on to the seat for the party in 2013 when it was changed to Queens-Shelburne. 

But the NDP haven’t had much of a presence since Belliveau retired before the 2017 election.

Skabar says he’s hearing from voters who are upset about Premier Tim Houston’s early election call. He says voters have told him they like some parts of the PC plan. But they wonder why the party needed an election to do that.

Skabar adds that Masland has done a good job getting roadwork done in Queens County. 

“I only just met Kim last week at the community dinner here in Caledonia. And really, what’s not to like? Actually, she’s a good member. But the government that she represents is not doing a good job for Nova Scotia.”

The Liberals’ De Rome says that no matter which party people support, she hopes they get out and vote.

“I would consider it an honour if they chose to elect me. I’ve never thought of doing this, but I am enjoying it. People have been very receptive when I’ve talked to them. … I hope people take the chance to get out and vote. It’s important. Go out and vote, put your X in the spot where you think would do the most good.”

You can vote early at the returning office in your area until 8 p.m. on Friday or until 6 p.m. on Saturday and Monday.

If you don’t know where your Election Day voting location is, you can use the Where do I Vote tool on the Elections Nova Scotia website at electionsnovascotia.ca or call 1-800-565-1504. Polls will be open on Tuesday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

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