BEAVER BANK: Premier Tim Houston poured water on speculation that there is an impending election during an interview on July 9.
The premier was in Beaver Bank as he began a tour July 9 with Advanced Education Minister and local MLA Brian Wong of the riding, including stops in Windsor Junction, Fall River, and Waverley and spoke with The Laker News.
He did the interview before a meeting with the Beaver Bank Awareness Association and the Woodbine Community Nonprofit society.
The meeting was held at Brown Hall.
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NO ELECTION FORTHCOMING:
Houston was asked if there was any election call coming soon, given the number of candidates being announced by the party.
Hants East MLA John A. MacDonald and Waverley-Fall River-Beaver Bank MLA Brian Wong, who is the Advanced Education Miniter, are two candidates who will be re-offering.
He said there are 55 constituencies across the province so for the campaign team that’s a significant amount of work to nominate candidates across the entire province and have them ready for an election.
“The campaign team started with our incumbent MLAs to make sure people know who’s re-offering and who’s not re-offering that type of thing,” said Houston.
“We’ve nominated I think we’ve nominated most of our incumbents at this stage.”
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He said any election call is just speculation, mostly coming from the media.
“An election’s not something that I’m thinking about or talking about,” he said. “The folks in the media are talking about it, but it’s not something we are.
“We’re just focused on providing good government for Nova Scotians. And the campaign team will be ready when the when the campaign comes.
“But it’s not it’s not it’s not something that’s on my mind right now.”
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ELECTION OF NEW HRM MAYOR
Houston said that it will be the people of the Halifax Regional Municipality who will decide on Mayor. He doesn’t have any favourite.
“There’s some good candidates that have put their name forward, and we’re looking forward to a productive relationship with whoever is the mayor and whoever is the council,” he said. “Not just in HRM, but across the province in all the municipalities we have.
“I think we have a pretty good track record of working with municipalities.”
He said the province has been supportive of projects that any municipality puts forward.
“There will be good candidates,” said Houston. “That means there will be a good mayor, and the people will decide who that is. And we look forward to working with them.”
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STAMPEDE VISIT
Houston was asked what the reasoning was to visit the Calgary Stampede last week. He pointed to the N.S. Stampede happening in September in Bible Hill as the main reason.
“It’s a big deal,” he said of the N.S. Stampeded. “It’s a great opportunity. I’m pretty proud of the people at the at the Rath Eastlink Centre there and the provincial exhibition grounds and the initiative that they’re taking to bring events, their concerts and of course, the Nova Scotia Stampede.”
He expects it will be a big economic impact for the Truro/Bible Hill area.
“The N.S. Stampede folks met with people out there,” he said. “They took a look at what works and what doesn’t work. So they did some learning for sure.
“I was there to support them with that, plus a series of other meetings around energy and opportunities for other events. I would say it was a successful mission.
“I hope everyone gets out and supports the Nova Scotia Stampede. It is going to be a great event.”
The N.S. Stampede takes place Sept. 26 to Sept. 29 in Bible Hill/Truro.
