He balanced five-consecutive budgets, cut taxes for businesses and the middle class, battled labour unions, and oversaw an improved credit rating for Nova Scotia. Houston won that election by promising a break from the spending policies of the previous government. In other words, when it came to government spending, he essentially ran to the left of his Liberal opponent.įrom 2013 to 2021, Liberal Premier Stephen McNeil oversaw one of the most austere governments in the province’s recent memory. Last summer, Houston’s PCs defied polling and swept to a majority government in the 2021 provincial election, ending eight years of Liberal governance in Nova Scotia. He acknowledges Houston’s government may offer some lessons but says there is no nationwide model for conservatism in Canada. Some commentators have suggested the federal Conservative Party should take cues from Houston, but Woodfinden disagrees. Regardless of just how his government is labelled, Houston is one of Canada’s most popular premiers. “The very nature of us being a regional country means the federal conservatism at the federal level is going to have to reflect that kind of diversity.” It’s going to look quite different from conservatism in Ontario, conservatism in Quebec and then conservatism in Atlantic Canada,” says Hub contributor and political theorist Ben Woodfinden. “There’s Western conservatism, Prairie conservatism. The question for pundits and scholars is whether this is a new kind of big-spending conservative or simply a pragmatic politician doing what it takes to get elected. I think people were ready for a government to willingly spend on priorities like health care, seniors, and long-term care,” says Houston in an exclusive interview with The Hub. On the charge Houston’s government is not legislating conservative policies, they strongly disagree as well.
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