Nova Scotia Local Elections 2016

[DC Al Fine]

Nova Scotia is having municipal elections on October 15. Halifax is the largest city, dominates media coverage, and I live there, so that's what I'll be focusing on. There are also interesting races in Cape Breton and a couple of the smaller towns.

[DC Al Fine]

Let's start with Halifax.

Halifax is an amalgamated municipality of three cities and a massive rural county. The municipality is about 200km end to end, with the city in the middle. To put this in perspective for American and European readers his would be like putting New York and Philadelphia or Cologne and Frankfurt in the same municipality. This has coloured the city's politics since amalgamation in the 1990's, with as rural and urban councilors try to implement conflicting visions. An example of this is in the 2000's when an urban councilor tried to ban backyard chicken coops in the 2000's. This is a reasonable policy downtown, but it was massively unpopular in the rural areas.

2012 was a realigning/wave year for Halifax politics. Longtime mayor Peter Kelly was implicated in a scandal where he took city funds to bail out a promoter who brought money losing concerts to the city. At the same time council was widely regarded as dysfunctional due to the urban/rural fights brought up earlier. This wave of anti-government sentiment, and the council was shrunk to 16 members from 23.

The smaller council led to many incumbent councilors facing off, and a pretty terrible city council map. You can see the map here. Partially because of the larger districts, and partially because the city did a bad job, the city council districts are a bit odd and would resemble a gerrymander if the politics were partisan. Bits of one neighborhood are tacked onto another with only a road or industrial park connecting them.

I have to go now, but I'll take a look at the mayor's race and some of the major council races later today or tomorrow. Anyone have any questions for now?

[DC Al Fine]

Here are some of the major races in Halifax. Halifax is somewhat unique in that it has riding names instead of numbered districts like a lot of municipalities.

Mayor
Incumbent mayor and former Liberal MP for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour Mike Savage faces off against Lil MacPherson, owner of an organic, locavore restaurant. Savage is pretty centrist by Halifax standards and has a well financed campaign with support from both progressives and the business community. MacPherson represents the most progressive, bobo demographics who feel that Savage wasn't progressive enough.

A poll a few weeks ago put the race at Savage 85%, MacPherson 15%. Nothing much has chaned since then and Savage will likely win by Chirac-2002 margins.

Dartmouth Centre
This seat was represented by councilor and former Dartmouth mayor Gloria McCluskey for 25 years. McCluskey is retiring and now there is a big competition for her open seat. McCluskey was on the right of council, but the area is left leaning, so it will likely shift left. However there are many progressive candidates running, so a rightist could sneak in. Major candidates include:

Sam Austin: Runner up to McCluskey in 2012, Austin is running on the centre right, and is relatively pro development.

Gabriel Enxuga: Halifax's first transgender candidate. Enxuga is running a far left campaign. He runs Solidarity Halifax, a self-described 'anti-capitalist collective'. Enxuga's major platform planks include making all city services including rec centres and transit free, requiring all city vendors to pay at least $15/hr, and reserving council seats for racial minoriteis

Tim Risseco: Losing Liberal candidate in the recent Dartmouth South by-election, and executive director of the Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission, Risseco is running as a centre to centre left candidate.

Kate Watson: Watson was an also-ran in 2012, and is best known as an affordable housing advocate. She is running a centre left campaign focusing on affordable housing and transit expansion.

Warren Wesson: This former coke dealer is best known for being testifying against his attempted murderers. He is running on a left win, anti-gentrification platform. Wesson now runs some legitimate small businesses.

Peninsula North
Peninsula North roughly corresponds to Halifax Needham provincially. It is a microcosm of the NDP, with racial minorities, bobo areas, and traditional working class parts. My favourite left wing councilor Jennifer Watts held the seat since 2008, but is retiring this year . Major candidates include:

Irvine Carvery: Former African-Nova Scotian school board rep and former Tory candidate Irvine Carvery is running as the sole right wing candidate that I can find.

Patrick Murphy: Murphy was on council from 2004-2008 when he was defeated by popular left winger Jerry Blumenthal. Murphy racked up a middling centrist record in council and now wants to pick up his old seat.

Chris Poole: Poole was school board rep in from 2008-2012 and is best known for nearly defeating NDP stalwart Maureen MacDonald in the last provincial election. He has visibility, but is

Lindell Smith: Is a black activist. I don't know much about him, but he's releasing some joint statements with Enxuga, so it's safe to say he's on the left.

Brendan Sommerhalder: Director of Marketing for Halifax, Sommerhalder is running a left leaning campaign with a focus on housing affordability; a major issue in the rapidly gentrifying north end.

Peninsula South-Downtown
Situated in the south end of the city, it has both of Halifax's major universities, but is also the biggest old money neighbourhood. It is often quite polarized. This seat was the biggest shocker of 2012, when left leaning candidate Waye Mason took out Sue Uteck, one of the cities bigger conservative names. Uteck and her late husband before her had represented the area for 20 years. This year is a rematch.

Waye Mason: Mason is a centre leftists. He is best known for attempting to save historic properties in the district and cut council pay.

Sue Uteck: Uteck was one of council's arch-conservatives and is best known for trying to keep property taxes low, and for being a big supporter of development and construction

[DC Al Fine]

And here are a couple more interesting races.

Waverley-Fall-River-Musquodoboit Valley
Barry Dalrymple, noted right winger defeated rival right win councilor, Steve Streatch in 2012. Now Dalrymple is retiring. Streatch is trying to regain the seat and is is challenged by conservative Colin Castle, and a couple of progressive candidates. This is probably the most right wing district in the city

Harbourview-Burnside-Dartmouth East
This is a left wing battle. Incumbent councilor Tony Mancini comes from an NDP family (brother was an NDP MP, sister-inlaw is an NDP MLA). He is challenged by black activist, and member of Enxuga's 'party' Carlos Beals.

[Hatman 🍁]

Thanks for the DC.

I see that Cape Breton is having a re-match of the 2012 race. I was emailed the results by district from the municipal elections office if anyone is interested.  Notably, over half of voters voted in advance polls, making the results a bit unreliable.

Also of note, Kings County will be having a mayoral election for the first time.

[DC Al Fine]

Bump for election day. Much of the province has e-voting for municipal elections, so I voted a week ago.

[Hatman 🍁]

E-voting? Ugh!

Anyways, here is my profile of today's main races: http://canadianelectionatlas.blogspot.ca/2016/10/nova-scotia-municipal-elections-today.html

[DC Al Fine]

E-voting? Ugh!

Haha yes. The security is a joke; a code received in the mail and one's birth date. It wouldn't be hard to vote for your spouse or adult children.

[DC Al Fine]

To add to your blog post, former Tory MLA Carolyn Bolivar-Getson is running for mayor of Lunenburg County, and former NDP MLA Brian Skabar is running for Mayor of the town of Amherst.

[Hatman 🍁]

The race in Cape Breton is very close...

Clarke: 18,500
MacSween: 17,669
(116/158 polls)


Halifax, perhaps closer than expected

Savage: 48,315
MacPherson: 21,347
(235/499 polls)

[Hatman 🍁]

Looks like Clarke will probably win...

Clarke: 21,452
MacSween: 20,182

(149/158)

Meanwhile, in Halifax:
Savage: 58,333
MacPherson: 26,675

(424/499)

[DC Al Fine]

Two Halifax incumbents are behind, both had controversies. Linda Mosher was in trouble for buying her opponent's domain and Brad Johns is best known for using his discretionary funds (usually given to local charities) to buy a giant animatronic Christmas tree.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Two Halifax incumbents are behind, both had controversies. Linda Mosher was in trouble for buying her opponent's domain and Brad Johns is best known for using his discretionary funds (usually given to local charities) to buy a giant animatronic Christmas tree.

ayyyyy lmao

[Hatman 🍁]

Cecil Clarke re-elected in Cape Breton

Clarke: 22,250
MacSween: 20,911

(all polls reporting)

[Hatman 🍁]

Also, Dave Wilson finished last in his council race

[Hatman 🍁]

Kings County, mayor:
Peter Muttart   5,683
Dick Killam   3,268
Rick Ackland   1,133
Laurie Porter   1,039

Previous warden Diana Brothers lost her seat on council.

[Hatman 🍁]

Colchester County, mayor

Christine Blair   3,051
Bob Taylor (inc.) 2,703

[DC Al Fine]

Two Halifax incumbents are behind, both had controversies. Linda Mosher was in trouble for buying her opponent's domain and Brad Johns is best known for using his discretionary funds (usually given to local charities) to buy a giant animatronic Christmas tree.

ayyyyy lmao

And here is a picture of the tree in question

[Hatman 🍁]

lol...

Final results in Halifax:

Savage: 61,875 (68.4%)
MacPherson: 28.543 (31.6%)

Much closer than that 85-15 poll!

[Hatman 🍁]

Final map:



Strongest district for Savage: #16 (Bedford-Wentworth), 74%
Worst district: #8 (Peninsula North), 58%