Who Represents You?
Every three or four years, Nova Scotians elect a provincial government. Elected members from the leading party form a cabinet which manages our health care, education, support for disadvantaged members of our communities, care for the environment, worker safety and training, economic development and many other functions. In fulfilling these responsibilities, our provincial government spends about $9 billion a year, or $1 million per hour.
Politicians do not tend to be held in high esteem at the best of times, and the recent disclosures of inappropriate spending by MLA’s have further hurt the image. The new NDP government looks more like its predecessors than was hoped or expected, so the whole political class is under a cloud. Two MLA`s have already resigned and been replaced.
The key political roles are premier, opposition leaders, and cabinet members. They represent between a quarter and a half of the elected members. To fulfill these roles properly requires sound judgment, skill in policy development, and strength in both written and verbal communications. These are in addition to the empathy and endurance that are required to be a successful constituency politician. In fact it is good constituency level skills that get people elected, but these skills are not necessarily those needed by leaders and cabinet members.
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View all commentsWe need transparency and a good public accounting that shows where our taxes are going . We really have no idea what we are getting for our taxes . Take the tourism business owner in rural Nova Scotia, he pays Municipal property taxes, he maybe has a 2% room tax that goes to some unelected government group, he collects 15% on every room he sells and that goes to government , and now he is told that we’ll create another crown corporation with another unelected board to “govern” tourism . Why bother stay in the business when you are only collecting money for an unelected organization to play around with as they see fit and with no real accountability. The government net gets over $ 225 million in taxes alone from tourism and spends maybe $ 20 million itself and gives several millions to third parties .
Caper | November 30, 2011
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
In my opinion, many Nova Scotians are aware of the problems with our government, economy, and overall attitude to immigrants – to touch on a few of the issues you have raised in this website.
With the government being the major employer – robbing Peter to pay Paul – those who benefit indirectly or directly do not want things to change.
Until the pain is so great or there is an outside element that can bring change, things will continue.
Change does not come from the majority. It takes time, effort, will and organization.
I applaud and support your efforts.
Anne Stephaniuk | January 28, 2011
Brilliant..but the trick is how the lonely and tiny agents for change in this province can actually make this happen against the wishes of the powerful institutions of government and their bogus commissions and “not for profit” authorities who want simply to maintain the status quo..also the argument has always been put forward that elected reps need to be fairly compensated to offset their public service as they take time away from their occupations to “serve”..a cursory look at the backgrounds of our current MLA’s and MP’s would indicate that nearly all make much more as an elected rep than they did before politics? …and what is “public service” these days anyway?..Is it the elected rep or civil servant with great salaries,benefits and perks..or is it the volunteer kids basketball coach..or the parents who take kids to activities..or simply the ordinary Nova Scotia citizen who pays all his taxes and knows he will never have any of those great political appts that his taxes make possible..I believe the revolution must be imminent
Allan Rodger | October 1, 2010