HALIFAX: Zach Churchill officially launched his campaign to be leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party on Feb. 22, at an event in Halifax.
Churchill, who has won four consecutive elections in the rural riding of Yarmouth, highlighted his grassroots party involvement, experience in government and opposition, and commitment to rebuilding the Nova Scotia Liberal Party at the Saint Antonios Antiochian Orthodox Church.
“I feel called to offer my service as leader, to use the experience I’ve gained and the lessons I’ve learned to rebuild and grow our party,” said Churchill. “We need to earn back the trust of our party members, and their confidence in our party. We have to get back to basics and engage our members in a real way.”
Churchill’s vision for party leadership is based on unity, hard work and focusing on what matters to Nova Scotians to lead the Liberals back to government.
“It is going to take all of us: old guard and new; urban and rural. The progressives in our ranks and the traditional centrists,” he said. “We need to take the diverse strands of our party and tie them into a knot that can’t be undone.“
Speaking to a room of Liberal supporters, Churchill also cited big promises the Houston government made to Nova Scotians and the critical need to hold them to account.
“They stated as recently as the fall that under their stewardship, the health care system would be better each and every day. The reality is the situation in our hospitals has gotten worse,” said Churchill.
Churchill was joined by his wife, Katie Churchill, his two daughters, Cecilia and Eva, and five of his supporting caucus members at the campaign launch event: Patricia Arab, Braedon Clark, Tony Ince, Carman Kerr and Ronnie Leblanc.
A live stream of the event can be found at www.facebook.com/ZachChurchillNS.
Churchill is the second candidate for the position after Preston MLA Angela Simmonds put her name forward previously.
