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:

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.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to the audio version of this story below