Who Represents You?

Posted September 21, 2010

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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Most Recent Comments

  • Recently, your column concerning teachers and our legislature garnered some debate. I believe that both participants missed the point.

    In my opinion, and that of many others, the people with the required skill sets to run a province (indeed a country and a municipality, reference the current King’s Council shenanigans and the Harper government) do not offer for office. The pay is too little (compared to what they currently earn for the most part) and the “crap” that politicians take from opposition parties and the media is not worth stepping up, apparently. A prominent local business leader stated this quite clearly a number of years ago when he was asked to serve.

    Gordon Boyce | August 2, 2015

  • Dear Bill, I contend that it is policy that matters, not politicians. MLA’s would be more representative of society if they were selected by lottery. Any policy that MLA’s may produce should be subject to a vote by all people being governed. I’d suggest that if policy does not have the support of at least 70% of the electorate then it should be ditched.
    The present system results in too much government and government sticking its nose where it does not belong.

    Brian Sanderson | September 2, 2012

  • We 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

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