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.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Listen to the audio version below

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:

Jessica Fancy-Landry is the Liberal candidate in the riding of South Shore-St. Margarets. (Jessica Fancy-Landry)

Jessica Fancy-Landry is trying to take back the riding of South Shore-St. Margarets for the Liberals in the April 28 federal election.

She’s up against incumbent MP Rick Perkins, who won the seat in the 2021 election over Liberal MP Bernadette Jordan by about 1,800 votes.

Fancy-Landry, a Bridgewater resident and first-time candidate, is a teacher at Forest Heights Community School in Chester Basin.

She’s also a community volunteer, including serving as past board chair with the Rural Communities Foundation of Nova Scotia.

Fancy-Landry grew up in Caledonia, Queens County. We asked her about various local issues in the campaign, including the commercial fishery and the prospect of a new kraft pulp mill in Liverpool.

The interview was recorded on April 9 and edited for length.

Listen to our interview with Jessica Fancy-Landry below:

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.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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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

Rick Perkins and Bernadette Jordan at candidates debate September 7, 2021. Photo Ed Halverson

Twenty-four hours after the results of the election, the outgoing and incoming MPs are both upbeat about the result.

Conservative Rick Perkins defeated two-term Liberal incumbent Bernadette Jordan to take the riding of South Shore St. Margaret’s by a 2,000 vote margin.

Perkins ran in 2019 and says the experience helped as constituents recognized him when he came to their door.

“Well, there’s no question that this time I was much better known. Knocking on 15,000 doors in 2019 and then continuing my relationship with many of the people in the riding, the fisherman and the businesses that employ most of us in the riding, has made it easier in this campaign,” said Perkins. “When I went door to door people recognized me and remembered me.”

Perkins says he had a sense people were looking for change when he was on the doorsteps.

“The three biggest issues I got at the door was Justin Trudeau fatigue, health care and a view that people wanted a change in who their actual member of parliament was,” said Perkins.

For her part, Jordan acknowledges her role as fisheries minister contributed to the voter dissatisfaction in the riding.

“I think that it’s been a tough year and a half as the fisheries minister. Obviously the fisheries issue was a big concern for a lot of people and it translated to votes,” said Jordan. “It’s always tough being the fisheries minister because nobody really likes the person who makes the rules.”

Jordan says plans to enjoy the first stretch of time off she’s had in six years as she plans her next move.

“Community has always been extremely important to me and just because I’m not the elected official it does not mean that I will not be involved in my community. I will still be. I’m just trying to figure out in what capacity now,” said Jordan.

The outgoing minister also acknowledged her staff of five in Bridgewater and 18 in her ministerial office will now be looking for work.

“They’re all going to be fine because they’re all very smart and very capable people but it’s still really hard to see,” said Jordan. “They’ve been an amazing team that have supported me through a lot and it’s hard for people who have put their heart and soul into everything for six years to now be in a position where they are looking for something else.”

Reflecting on her time in office Jordan is proud of many accomplishments including: enshrining owner/operator into law, the removal of the Cormorant from the LaHave River and being instrumental in establishing a law to remove derelict vessels from waterways across the country.

But most of all, it’s the constituency work that Jordan will remember most.

“The individual people who have come into our office for help, who have had problems navigating the government system or who have challenges and we’ve been able to help them with whatever they’re dealing with. Often times, people forget that’s one of the main jobs of an MP is to help their constituents,” said Jordan.

Perkins plans to make constituent concerns the focus of his mandate.

To that end he will set up his primary office in Bridgewater and open another office in Shelburne to ensure people can access their MP.

Perkins says he’s keen to get going and won’t take for granted the faith placed in him by the people of South Shore-St.Margaret’s.

“It’s overwhelming and humbling at the same time. As many of your listeners would know, I was the candidate in 2019 and the result was a little different than this one,” said Perkins. “It was exciting to see the results [Monday] night and now the work begins.”

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Conservative Rick Perkins is the new MP for South-Shore St.Margaret’s. Photo Ed Halverson

Canadians have re-elected a Liberal minority government but South Shore-St.Margaret’s will have new representation in Ottawa.

With 269 of 270 polls reporting, Conservative Rick Perkins has defeated incumbent Liberal Bernadette Jordan by almost 2,000 votes.

Slightly more than 60 percent of eligible electors in South Shore-St.Margaret’s cast a ballot which is just above the national turnout of 58 percent.

The results of Monday’s election are a reversal of fortunes for Perkins who lost by 7,000 votes to Jordan in the 2019 election.

Since 2019, Jordan has been Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.

She was the only federal minister in Atlantic Canada, in a role closely tied to the economy of the region.

During the campaign, opponents called on Jordan to defend her record after a decades-long dispute regarding First Nations fishing rights boiled over in the riding last year.

The Liberals are leading or elected in 158 of 338 ridings across the country with 98 percent of polls reporting.

If the numbers hold, the election has meant little change in the House of Commons.

The Liberals will add three seats for a total of 158, the Conservatives stay steady at 119, the NDP gained one to hold 25 seats, the Bloc Québécois saw a two and the Green Party held fast at two seats.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Thomas Trappenberg at the candidates debate September 7, 2021. Photo Ed Halverson

The former leader of Nova Scotia’s Green party is calling it a career.

Thomas Trappenberg has stood for the Greens in both provincial and federal elections but has never won a seat.

“I was hoping for more impact by now, after 15 years and it’s still a long road ahead,” said Trappenberg.

The announcement to step away from politics comes as Trappenberg is currently running to represent South Shore-St. Margaret’s in the federal election.

He doesn’t plan to run again but a win in this campaign could change his mind.

“If I’m elected, of course I’m staying on and I will really work very hard to do this, yes, of course.”

Throughout his political career, Trappenberg has worked to push environmental issues to the forefront of public discourse.

He says he wants to be able to tell his grandchildren that he stood up for their future.

Despite his best efforts, he is concerned about the effect climate change is going to have on the world in which they grow up.

“It’s actually worse than you think. If we now do something really drastic, we will still have climate change,” said Trappenberg. “The question is how much we will have when we survive this.”

After spending the better part of a couple of decades building awareness of the Green party in Nova Scotia, Trappenberg remains optimistic that voters will see the the party as a viable option.

“I hope they will appreciate, and I think they do, I get this feedback, that we are serious, we are not just a protest movement. We are actually deeply thinking people, that we are really thinking about the future,” said Trappenberg.

Voters go the polls in the federal election Monday September 20.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Photo Elections Canada

The riding of South Shore- St. Margaret’s is one of the larger constituencies in the country.

Candidates do their best to reach voters but can’t always make it to all corners of the riding.

Each of the people vying to represent the region were given five minutes to explain who they are and their vision for South Shore-St. Margaret’s.

Click below to hear the audio from each candidate.

Olivia Dorey – NDP

Bernadette Jordan – Liberal

Rick Perkins – Conservative

Thomas Trappenberg – Green Party

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson