Calling an early election paid off for Tim Houston and his Nova Scotia Progressive Conservatives, as Houston won a landslide victory in the province Tuesday.
The leaders of both opposition parties conceded the election within 30 minutes of results being reported as Houston’s victory became clear.
PCs under Houston won 35 seats and led in 8 ridings out of 55 seats and 53.7% of the popular vote at the time of publication, moving his government from a majority to a projected supermajority, compared to his 2021 victory, where the PC’s secured 31 seats and 38.44% of the vote.
If the PCs maintain their 43-seat lead, they will be elected with the most seats in the province’s history.
In Nova Scotia, a party must secure two-thirds of the seats to gain a supermajority, meaning 37 seats were required. However, to hold its majority after a speaker is appointed, typically chosen from the governing party, a party must win 38 seats.
Houston needed 28 seats to form a majority. With a supermajority, Houston’s PCs can change the House’s procedural rules without working with opposition parties.
Houston’s party can now prevent opposition parties from filibustering through the use of house procedures. Before the election was called, opposition parties would halt government action by taking full hours to speak, calling for recorded votes, and ringing house bells to suspend business.
On the campaign trail, he said his main priorities would be building homes, healtchare and taking a stronger stance against Ottawa and that the election results would improve his bargaining power with the federal party.
Houston is the first Premier in Nova Scotia history to win a larger majority in his second term and will be Premier for at least four more years. However, this isn’t Houston’s first historic victory, as he was the only opposition leader to win an election against an incumbent party during the COVID lockdowns in 2021.
”I want to thank Nova Scotians for putting their faith in the PC party and reelecting an even larger PC majority,” Houston said in his victory speech. “We shared a message with (voters), a message of positivity and potential, and tonight, they have sent us a message, and I received that message loud and clear. And that message is very simple, ‘keep going.’”
NDP and Liberal MLAs have recently used these tactics to delay Houston’s government from passing legislation too quickly. However, they employed similar tactics when the PCs were an opposition party.
Nova Scotia NDP Leader Claudia Chender was elected in her riding. Her party will be forming the province’s Official Opposition, replacing the Liberals—the N.S. The NDP secured 6 seats, leading in 3 out of 55, with 22.1% of the vote. The victory makes Chender the first woman to be elected as the Leader of the Official Opposition in Nova Scotia.
“While we had hoped for a different result tonight, make no mistake, our vision for a different kind of government has struck a nerve,” Chender said in a concession speech. “And I am here to tell you that the Nova Scotia NDP is on the rise.”
Liberal leader Zach Churchill conceded early Tuesday night, calling Houston to congratulate him on his victory. His party garnered 24.2% support, though it only secured one seat while leading in one other, barely surviving the election with official party status.
Despite having around the same amount of popular support as the NDP, the party lost its official opposition status and was still in danger of losing its official party status at the time of publication.
Churchill lost his Yarmouth seat to the PC’s candidate Nick Hilton. One of the two Liberal seats was won by Nova Scotia’s former premier, Ian Rankin. In the August 2021 election, under Rankin, the Liberals secured 17 seats with 36.55% of the vote in the last election.
The Liberals had only one more seat than the independents. Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin won the only independent seat. Smith-McCrossin won a second time in a row, scoring another historic moment for Nova Scotia, being the first independent to win as such twice.