Left East to West
Weekly check-in on top political stories across Canada, interviews for people building this country
Left East to West
Fixing Nova Scotia affordability and supporting its culture
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Claudia Chender, Nova Scotia NDP leader, joins to talk about the PCs government's budget-backdown, rising electricity and housing costs and Premier Tim Houston's mistake of attacking support to the culture of small town and rural Nova Scotia.
Nikki delves into what Canadian municipalities are doing around maternity and parental leave for city councillors and Tom digs into first quarter fundraising results in Ontario, which suggest the Ontario Liberals' polling levels may be a halo from the Carney Liberals rather than a reflection of their own momentum.
Nikki gives a big heave to the bigoted far-right attacks on the professional and precise chairperson for the recent Federal NDP convention, and Tom gives some love to those trying to find ways to make food affordable again.
Welcome to Left East to West with me, Tom Parkin.
SPEAKER_05And me, Nikki Hill. We're back from a week off. I think we learned that we both like to take a little time around our birthdays. But I also think that we earned it after a busy week or two around the Federal NDP Convention and our fun federal post-convention episode. Thanks for inviting us back into your ears. Feels like a lot has happened in the week or so since we had a show. Lots of news to cover from Trump's threats on Iran to floor crossings in Canada. And we're not going to touch any of it today because lots of other shows are doing that. But we are going to talk to Claudia Tender, the leader of the Nova Scotia NDP. She's our guest this week, and she has brought her party out of third place to official opposition in Nova Scotia, and the polls are clearly showing she is the alternative to current conservative premier Tim Houston.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we're going to talk to Claudia about Tim Houston's rising electricity prices, rising housing prices and rents, uh the government's recent backdown on budgets, budget cuts. And um, we're gonna try and settle a longstanding East to West debate.
SPEAKER_05But first, we're gonna start with this week Below the Fold, taking a look at a couple of important stories that didn't make national headlines.
SPEAKER_01Nikki, Below the Fall is is an idea to help our listeners hear about issues that don't make national headlines. But I think you found an important one today that barely made provincial headlines. So tell tell us about that.
SPEAKER_05I did indeed. So a number of provinces are going into local government elections this year, mostly in the fall, including BC and Ontario. So now, of course, in the spring is the time incumbents are making final decisions on their futures. New candidates are thinking about if they're going to take a run for it. We're certainly actually seeing, I think, a lot of people both reoffering this year and considering running at least here in BC. So it should be a really busy local government election year. But something did happen that made me think a little bit differently about how we get people involved in local government elections. And I know from years of doing candidate recruitment that some of the ways that we we look at getting more women in particular involved and equity-seeking groups involved in politics is that we have to ask them many, many times if they will consider running. And when they're considering those options, it can take as many as seven times due to the impact on their lives, their families, work, stress. Just look at social media impact and many other issues. So thinking why we can't get more people to represent us at different levels of government is really important. One of the ways that you can get more people to run, particularly women, has come up in DC recently. And so the BC government just tabled new legislation to make it easier for local government officials to take parental leave when they become a parent, which is actually shocking to me as it didn't exist. Um, once elected, these are people holding jobs in communities like any other person is working, but no access to parental leave partly if they're not in a community that has put this in themselves, which seems to be the general case. So currently, parental leave rules are different throughout BC. And I've been looking through other jurisdictions and seeing the same thing across the country for the most part. Some local governments have brought in their own policies, and others require elected officials to actually apply for leave. So imagine you're you're going on parental leave, you've got to apply, and they address them case by case. So you wouldn't necessarily know how your leave after you have a baby is going to be addressed and what that's coming for you in your work situation. So obviously, this inconsistency would be a barrier for people as they're looking to serve their communities, which we want them to. And the rules actually, in many cases, make it so if you miss meetings, you then can lose your seat. So you get elected, you have a child, and you can lose your seat here that we've just elected you into because you have a child. Though what this advocacy around in BC took, though, was women largely, a lot of current and former local government elected officials, some of whom actually went on to be cabinet ministers, like Michelle Mongell, who's been active on this push, and current Squamish City Councillor Jenna Stoner, shout out to her for driving work over six years forward, building on work of women before her, of course, as we all do, but trying to get through this understanding, which we've seen in Ontario and Nova Scotia, because we are talking Nova Scotia today as well, where they already require municipal governments to have a policy allowing for leave. But for the most part, it seems municipal councils across the country, and I would guess this applies to those places with school boards and other elected levels in local government, like Parks Board, where we have them, where they don't have leave. I thought it was interesting in looking at this as well as look at what a man had said on parental leave. So former Toronto counselor Joe Cressy was the first to use a leave policy in Toronto, and he actually wrote about the negative ways it was received. So he said, this hasn't stopped people from telling me my 16-week leave means I'm no longer qualified to be in office, but indeed, no politician is entitled to parental leave of any kind. And he said, in a throwback to the 50s, Toronto Sun columnist Sue Ann Livy described Chrissy's forthcoming parental leave at that point and attempts to improve the policy as like a typical entitled millennial, Christy wants to have his cake and eat it too. So imagine that message being delivered to people looking getting into politics in a local government election year. You don't get to have the same rights as other workers. You, and this particularly looks at barriers to women's participation. But I also think this speaks to representation and lived experience mattering in politics. And I think, you know, as a fur kid-only family, it's not one of those issues that I have thought about before until women counselors have been advocating on it. So having people at the decision-making table who understand the immense impact of what might actually seem like a straightforward policy change to others is huge. If we remove those voices from councils because they have a child and they miss the required meetings, we really lose that on the policy front. And we lose that on having people considering running for office who actually understand what voters are facing in their daily lives. So that was a big learning as BC brought in that legislation as to the why and also how limited we have across the country policies for parental leave that are brought in by provinces and with city councils.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's interesting. Um, well, you know, uh it's not a shocker. Um men like to spend some time with their newborns too. Um uh and you know, anybody who's had children knows how much work it is. Uh and if you're not in a situation where you have another partner who can really take up all the all the work um while you're working at the city council job, I mean, it's almost it's it's almost like I can't. Impossible. Yeah. Right? So that does that would exclude a lot of people right off the bat, for sure.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and you wouldn't even think about writing if you didn't have that sort of guarantee going into it and you knew you were, especially if you're younger and thinking about starting a family. So good on everybody who advocated on this issue so hard. Okay, Tom, you have the first quarter Ontario political party fundraising numbers, which we haven't seen a lot of being written on and seems contrary to some recent polling results.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the headline Ontario polling story is the PCs are down, now below 40, with the leaderless liberals just above 30 and the Ontario NDP just above 20, or so said abacus in their poll released midweek last week. But the end of the full story is the Ontario Liberals' terrible fundraising numbers, which have got to raise the possibility that their polling pop is more about the Kearney liberals than their own momentum. And yeah, I said terrible, not bad or weak, terrible. In the first quarter of 2026, the Ford PCs took in a massive amount, as usual. Uh they are perfecting the cash for access system, a sort of policy for rent approach to governing. But the liberals, well, the only independently verified numbers come from Elections Ontario. Now they only include donors who've given $200 or more. But among that group, Nikki, take a guess where the Ontario Liberals stand in the fundraising pack.
SPEAKER_05Sounds like you're going to tell me they're third in fundraising?
SPEAKER_01No, not third, fourth. Among the 200 plus donor crowd, the Ontario Liberals ran behind the Greens. The Ontario NDP raised just under $99,000 from donors who've given over $200 so far. The Ontario Liberals just below $69,000. That does not track with a party at 30 plus percent support. And no arguing the self-reported total donations, regardless of whether they're above or below $200 so far. The ONDP reported raising $750,000 from all donors in the first quarter, but the Ontario Liberals reported just $423,000. And their press release blamed the low numbers on Doug Ford's new higher fundraising cap, saying it isn't just about fundraising numbers, it's about fairness. That's probably not an angle I would have taken. The Ontario NDP statement just said Doug Ford answers to insiders and Mart Styles answered to people. And the fundraising data isn't the only contraindicator to the polling numbers. We have their weird inability to attract a leadership candidate other than Nate Erskine Smith. Nate, you'll recall, is the Liberal MP who finally made it to cabinet in the dying days of the Trudeau government, then got bounced by Kearney just a few months later, then took some very public shots at the Prime Minister. So he's not in the big tent with the cool kids. Nate announced he wants to be the Ontario Liberal Party candidate in a by-election in Scarborough. His federal seat is not in Scarborough, it's uh close by though. Uh and when the woman who got the nomination there last time said she wanted to get the nomination again for the by-election, Nate said she should back off so he could be acclaimed. So uh not great, not a great move. But no one else has said they want the top job of Ontario Liberal Party leader, and that also does not track with a party polling at 30%. So no doubt there's some halo effect from Kearney, impossible to say how much. But even if that's what it is, that halo is an opportunity. But Nikki, I'd say the bad fundraising results and the lackluster leadership race is telling us the Ontario liberals are just too internally dysfunctional to seize it.
SPEAKER_05Okay, well, interesting results there in Ontario, Tom. I think we actually had some fundraising numbers here in BC that we're gonna dig into, but I want to do in a episode to come thinking a little bit more about that BC dynamic because there's a lot going on right now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I saw that. The BCA NDP doing very well in fundraising, but yeah, let's talk about that another day. All right, let's take a quick break and we'll be right back with Nova Scotia NDP leader Claudia Chender. Thank you for joining us, Claudia Chender. Welcome to Left, East to West.
SPEAKER_04Thanks so much for having me.
SPEAKER_01Claudia, you were first elected MLA for Dartmouth South in 2017, re-elected in 2021 and 2024. Um, after a disappointing 2021 election result, uh, where the Nova Scotia NDP dropped a seat and came third, you won the leadership by acclamation in June 2022, led the Nova Scotia NDP into the 2024 election, gaining seats, becoming the official opposition leader, and winning your own seat with 68% supports. Uh that's pretty impressive stuff. But uh what makes you possibly the uh perfect left East to West guest, and I I just found this out reading your bio, is you were born and raised in Halifax, but you did law school in Victoria, BC before coming back to work in legal legal education in Halifax. Uh so uh so Claudia, for Nikki's benefit, right? Um please settle this important East to West question. Why is the East Coast better than the West Coast?
SPEAKER_04Well, listen, it's all about the people. So mine, yeah. My husband and I moved out uh for education to the West Coast and we loved it. But in particular, being in Victoria, we figured if we wanted to be in a beautiful Canadian city by the ocean, probably better to be in the one we love where our family and and friends are. So we came home and we've been thrilled to be there.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so you're not gonna throw any shade on the West Coast.
SPEAKER_04You're just I'm not gonna throw a shade on the West Coast. Absolutely not. It's beautiful.
SPEAKER_05And I'm not gonna throw any shade on the East Coast because I don't think we've talked about the fact that my husband's from Nova Scotia and my mother-in-law may be listening, so I am not gonna go down okay. Okay. We won't talk about it.
SPEAKER_01We won't talk about central Canada at all in this one, okay?
SPEAKER_04Just it is we can if you want to get us both talking about Central Canada, I'm sure we'd find a lot to agree with.
SPEAKER_01The force that unites the country.
SPEAKER_05All right. That's right. Okay, well, let's get into some politics. So as Tom said in the last election that you had in Nova Scotia 2024, you brought the Nova Scotia NVP back to official opposition. So big congratulations. Thank you. But of course, also Tim Houston's PCs had a pretty impressive win. Majority of votes, significant majority. And um, at that point, Houston had an approval rate in Angus Reed polling of 59%. But things have changed. So last week, uh same polling institute showed his approval down 20 points to 39%. So pretty big drop there. Net approval score at minus 19, and yours is actually up 11 points. So I think with Houston, because only about 3% of people say that they don't know him enough to actually have an opinion of him. So that's that's also pretty high um awareness rates for the public there for him. But for you, you've got a 27% of folks who say that they don't know you enough yet to have an opinion. And of course, the challenge there is going to be getting them to shift their votes and their perceptions from don't know her to I like her and want to want to vote for her. So where are you focusing those efforts?
SPEAKER_04Well, we remain focused where we have been for a long time and on what's also reflected in that poll, which is that cost of living remains the number one issue for Nova Scotians and affordability. And, you know, the reality is we just came through a very controversial budget session. Um the premier uh, well, he's in Calgary right now. That tells you how committed he was to it. He wasn't there to vote on his own budget. Um but, you know, he emerged with a lot of scratches and bruises and and a decline for sure in the polls. And I think that's because we weren't talking about the issues that mattered. He was doing what other conservatives are doing. He was consolidating power. Um, he was paving the way for natural resources in ways that may or may not benefit us, even if they come to pass. Uh, but he wasn't really, you know, he has talking points about how, you know, the HST break that he brought in is gonna vastly benefit Nova Scotians, but people aren't feeling that. Uh and it remains a really stubborn issue here. And it's the one that we've been talking to people about for the last couple of years. And we're certainly gonna, today is sort of the first day of the rest of our lives as legislators till we go back into the uh House, and that's what we're gonna spend our time doing.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I mean that's the important piece, I think. And you know, there were a lot of tricky budgets across the country, I think, and didn't get positive support. BC, you know, same here, I think, in the for the NVP. But I was using this this measure of protests. I think Nova Scotia was seeing the largest public response uh to the budget. And and I think that's that's pretty significant when people actually come out to to legislative lawn on a budget in winter.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean, this is this has been uh a real learning experience for this government because it's by far the biggest uh, you know, the biggest public backlash that they have faced for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And I would say, you know, I think what we saw with this budget was just a total lack of um responsiveness. Like they've gotten too comfortable, they've been there for too long, they forget who they're there to represent. And so they brought in what they thought were sort of small but manageable cuts, didn't address the deficit, but they really hurt a lot of people and they just didn't do their homework. And so for people to feel like, you know, they are some getting lost off the side of a bureaucratic spreadsheet somewhere in a way that impacts their jobs and their lives and their communities is really galling. And so, you know, people came out and had their say.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And and and significant, I think, as well, because you don't often see a government reverse major parts of its budget. So it it's it is this a you know, uh was there maybe a little loss of nerve here uh on the government's part that they didn't foresee this kind of reaction. Uh they reinstated uh fifty-four million dollars of cuts. Um but the other thing I think you know, curious, there were some of those cuts that people were protesting, um, particularly around culture, uh, remain. And that's a sore spot, isn't it?
SPEAKER_04Oh, totally. I mean, your question off the top, you know, is East or West better? I uh what I can tell you is what we love on the East Coast. And I think when other Canadians think about us, they think about our culture. They think about, you know, the lighthouse and the songs and the ships and the paintings. Um, and that was at the heart of the cuts in this budget. So, you know, we have no, we're the only province now with no publisher's assistance program. So, like our stories may now not get told. Um, we have all these small community museums that, you know, are they making a lot of money for the government? No. But do they increase our appeal at large for our billi multi-billion dollar tourism industry? Absolutely. But more importantly, those are the places where, you know, the memory of communities lives. I mean, small rural communities are imperiled across our country. It's those spaces where the the, you know, the older women get together and hook rugs or have strawberry socials. You know, those are the hearts of our communities. Those were what got cut. And uh, and I really think it was an oversight. So did they lose nerve? Maybe, but you know, Tom, I would say that this is a government that just doesn't do their homework. They just are not connected enough with people to understand the impact of their decisions. So, so they backtrack quite a lot. And I think they use it as a point of pride. They say it's because they're listening, but I don't think so. I think it's because they're not listening and listening enough. They're not engaging with people, and they think they can always fix it later. Um, but these things are devastating and and folks have long memories.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Before we move off the budget, you know, one thing that that you said too in the response to the budget that really caught my ear, someone who does a lot of work around women's health advocacy, was talking about the medical misogyny as well and the cuts context. I thought that was, you know, it's such a great framing there of trying to explain where those cuts and things like women's health really have that long-term impact.
SPEAKER_04Well, listen, we um we the IWK Foundation here in Halifax, so that's our women and children's hospital, has really led the charge nationally for a women's health strategy. And they've done amazing work in actually gathering a lot of data about just how bad the situation is. And, you know, again, like many conservative governments, this is a government that I think doesn't understand um systemic challenges.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04So they don't understand that, like, because you're funding health care does not actually mean that women's health care needs are being met. So yesterday in question period, the Minister of Health actually said, Well, we're funding health care for all people. And then she went into the scrum and called the call for a women's health strategy a wedge issue. And I think that that just shows a lack of understanding because in our province, we have a situation where people wait years to get diagnosed for things like endometriosis. People don't have adequate screening for breast cancer. Um, you know, we have take-home tests for colon cancer, but not for HPV. So, you know, women have these invasive PAP smears, which like that technology ought to have changed over the last, you know, 100 years or however long that's been going on. Um, it has actually. There are take-home tests. HPB, but our government won't invest in it. And so they don't understand that, like, if those if all of those things applied to men, they would have been taken care of because they would have just been thought of health as healthcare, not as women's health care. Um, so we've got a long way to go, and it's really important, and it's an issue we hear about every day.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. And we have those tests here in BC. I think um it was just a women's health research month in BC for the first time by proclamation. So hopefully some lessons there for other governments. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and Manitoba's calling it a wedge issue is pretty dismissive.
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. Absolutely it is. I mean, they're on their back foot, they're defensive, but you know, this also speaks to our relationship, how we're able to engage with the federal government, right? Like we didn't take the money that was on the table for pharmacare. Women in this province, women and gender-diverse people don't have access to free birth control, which is health care. You know, Manitoba has hormone replacement therapy that's available for women and gender-diverse people. We don't have that here. And so the fact that we can't even have it acknowledged that this is an issue is is frustrating for people. And people are losing their patience. They're paying a lot of money, which we all know in Canada you should not need to do to leave our province and get health care. And um, we are absolutely committed to to making those changes because Nova Scotians deserve it.
SPEAKER_05And there's money on the table. Yeah. Okay, we're gonna do a hard pivot into power. Okay. Sounds good. So, new issue here. So, Premier Houston also made himself his own minister of energy. Sure. Uh, and you have had him on the defense about the cost of electricity. So, Nova Scotia Power, which was privatized in 1992, owns a provincial grid and almost all the power plants. So, our listeners know, recently asked the regulator for an 8% rate increase. You went to public hearings getting headlines with uh noting that power is essential, expensive, and unreliable in the current form. And then after that, Houston echoed your opposition to the rate hike. But that's not how it's turned out. What has happened now? Where are things at? And what's next?
SPEAKER_04Uh, well, we have an independent energy board. And so we made submissions before the board, which I think is what you're referring to. Um, they they had had actually an agreement to do that 8% rate hike between all the classes. But the most interesting thing about the decision that they came out with, which wasn't really a surprise, was that they made it really clear that it was not their role to address affordability issues for consumers. It was their role to regulate energy. And they explicitly said it is the provincial government's role to address affordability concerns. So that was really vindication because, you know, the government likes to rely on the fact that there's an independent board to wash their hands of the issue. And, you know, this is in a year where they changed the eligibility for a heating rebate program that kicked 46,000 low-income Nova Scotians off of that program. So we have been putting forward solutions for years. Part of it are things like that, you know, like actual cash help to people who can't pay their power bills. Um, but, you know, there are also lots of kind of more complex solutions that the government could introduce by legislation. And by the way, they legislate that board. So what that board considers is up to the government. Um, and so, you know, there's an affordable energy program that Megan Leslie, our MP from a million years ago, she started in law school. She started working on what could be uh an affordable energy program for Nova Scotians that requires a legislative change that this government refuses to make. Um, but you know, beyond that, there is just so much opportunity for us to take a look at our system and this company as a whole. In 1992, it was sold. Uh, and it was sold, of course, by a conservative government who thought private was better, but they didn't do an economic analysis. And so we have been saying for years, do the analysis now. Like, how does this company operate? And actually, you know, all of the opposition in the house from every party and the independence agrees, and we have all been pushing the government to just at least do an operational review of the company. Um, we have added to also do a review of the ownership structure. Um, we aren't taking the position that it has to come back into public ownership, but we should look at it. Uh, we should understand what the value is, uh particularly for our transmission grid, because you know, Tim Houston is in talks with Ottawa around a project of national significance that would be wind export. But that we need our grid to be strong enough to be able to capture some of that clean, affordable energy for Nova Scotians. It isn't right now. That's owned by Nova Scotia Power. So there's lots that can be done, and this government isn't doing any of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, let's just continue on on this power issue in the grid. Um so this is a this grid is owned by a private company, the the provincial power grid. Uh the government has got some legislation to create a new nonprofit company with that would be run by government appointees that would set the price so that uh other uh providers, other generators uh can feed into the grid. Um but in a way it's it's like i i now we have uh or would have uh Nova Scotia Power, this private company owning the grid, and then the other companies in essence renting it, uh renting access to it with the rent set by this board of technocrats. But you know, isn't that exactly isn't it a board of technocrats that just gave you a large increase, gave everybody a large increase in their bills. So do you do you guys uh see that this system that they're proposing can work in any way, or are you looking at a something uh compared to a different vision?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, the jury's still out on that. I mean, I think, you know, for literally decades since Nova Scotia Power was privatized, people have been promising to break the monopoly. And so the $64,000 question is how? I think this is a nod towards that. Our concern with the independent system operator, I don't have great hopes it's gonna get a lot better. I think uh, but the challenge is where the accountability is. So Nova Scotia Power at least was really heavily regulated. Is really heavily regulated. So, like they have clean energy targets, they have all these targets. Um, and and and they're regulated. So you can look at them and say, did they meet the target? Didn't they? Is there a penalty? We're not sure how the independent system operator is regulated yet, because all not all of those details have been worked out. And now a lot of those targets have shifted to this independent body. So it is a little bit concerning in terms of what kind of oversight. This is a government that is allergic to oversight, by the way. We have no crown corporations left in Nova Scotia. They've collapsed them all. We have no independent boards. Um, they don't like expert advice. So, given that context, we are cautious uh about this. But, you know, that's one of the things I'm gonna spend the next month or so doing is having a lot of meetings with folks about power, including meeting with the independent system operator and trying to better understand how that works. Um and, you know, I think it's a step away from a private company um making every decision. And and and I think part of that came out of the fact that Nova Scotia Power actively seemed to discourage cleaner and cheaper forms of energy than the ones that they could charge their rate base for. And that was that's something that has to be addressed. Whether this is the right way to address it, I think the jury's still out.
SPEAKER_05Okay. So moving into housing as well. So there was a recent census that showed about 37% of Nova Scotia households are rented. And according to the March 2026 last month rent report, the average Nova Scotia rent is up 22% over the past three years. So that's putting average monthly rent into about $24.50 for a two-bedroom apartment and over $2,000 for a one bedroom, both second highest in Canada, which I think is really remarkable. Second highest in Canada. Hundreds of dollars a month more than Quebec, Manitoba, Alberta. Yeah, higher than Toronto. I know I'm not gonna say it's higher than Vancouver. Higher than Ontario. Sorry.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're still leading there, Mickey.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we win. Um but the you know, price for home sales is up almost 4% from February 2025 to this February. So in theory, those rising rents and prices for home for should be sparking more housing construction, one would think. But the Halifax Regional Municipality's housing dashboard is showing residential construction starts so far this year are down 20% from the same period neck last year. So what's going wrong in housing?
SPEAKER_04Oh my gosh, there's so much going wrong in housing. Um so I would start with the fact that, you know, I think the statistics are even worse than the ones you've cited. So what we've been able to figure out is that rent's annual rent is up almost $5,000 a year since Tim Houston was elected. And so that is just an absurd amount. I mean, incomes haven't risen in a the same way. And that's against a backdrop of a situation where we have no rent control. So we have a rent cap that has been in place since COVID, but if landlords offer a fixed-term lease, it doesn't apply. And so now every that this is why it has gone up so high, because every landlord now only offers a fixed-term lease. And then they can increase that as much as they want. Um, and it's become really scary in terms of how we keep folks here. So when I was a teenager here, everyone left, everyone went out west. Um, and we really had done some good work on reversing that trend, actually, starting with the NDP government that commissioned this one Nova Scotia report, which then was um kind of carried forward by the predecessor like the following liberal government. And, you know, we had a big kind of provincial conversation where we understood that we needed to reverse this trend. And we understood that we needed to take some steps around things like immigration, around, you know, parts of our economy. Um but this, these housing prices on their own are really terrifying in terms of their implication for our province. So can young people stay here? Is it an attractive place to live and work? Is it possible to live and work here? Um, we have no rent control. And so we have been pushing for rent control for so long because like a real system of rent control, which we had here, of course, like every other province, but but but disappeared uh many decades ago. Um it's a it's a terrible situation, and and we do need to build to address that. Um, but the challenge is that we did have a rush to build. We have seen more building in this province than we have in a long time, but very little of it is affordable.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_04And so this is a government that really believes in the idea of trickle-down housing. And, you know, that might work in generational time, but it doesn't work in real time. And so unfortunately, what we have is a lot of housing. Um, you know, it's there's been a real carte blanche offered to a lot of developers. So the province has kind of overridden the city because our municipality has half of the province is in the Halifax Regional Municipality. We have a big planning department. They understand how to plan for complete communities with schools. So the province has just taken away a bunch of that power and stuff and stuck a lot of kind of expensive developments around the periphery of the urban core, but they're really expensive. Like a starter home in Halifax now costs over half a million bucks. Great. Our our wages don't support that. Like people can't afford that. Um, and so so we have a huge issue. And and so there, you know, there are some programs, but but they're all kind of like not nearly enough, you know. So we need government to take that seriously. But in the short term, in the immediate term, from the affordability perspective, we need rent control. We need rent control in this province so that people can afford to stay in the homes that they're living in while we figure out, you know, how to go forward. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05To bring the policies back in.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And and it's not, you know, it's for anything, anything that we want to do as a province um in terms of moving forward and growing, you know, quality of life. So culture we talk about, it's culture, and and the kind of corollary of that culture is the quality of life we hear we have here. And affordable has always been a piece of that. It's beautiful, it's more relaxed, you know, it's small, it's it's uh it's friendly and it's affordable. And if we lose that, then then we we lose a lot. And we lost Tom, it looks like. Oh, we lost Tom.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. I have a tiny window clearly. Okay, well, let's film on that because so terms of tourism, and we talked a little bit about so tourism and culture already. But I think too, you know, thinking about the how the size of the tourism industry in Nova Scotia, part of that, of course, is the beauty of the province, as my husband's always telling me, because we need to get our trip back to his family booked soon. But as we just mentioned, there's also that culture and and history component. So is there a cultural narrative of Nova Scotians that your brand of social democracy fits into, like an idea of who Nova Scotians aspire to be and are right now?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. I absolutely. I mean, I think, you know, at the heart of our province, and obviously as a as political representatives, as a political project, we spend a lot of time thinking about this. And, you know, I think at the heart of our province is this idea that communities are resilient and that they take care of each other. Um, and so there is there is a resistance uh sometimes when you um kind of engage with folks around what they need because people always say, oh, well, I'm that you know, this seems really bad. I'm okay. Somebody else has worse, right? Like there is a stoicism, um, there's there's a dignity, uh, and there, and there's a basic sense of care. And so I think, you know, we want to echo that care. So we want to tell people that they can have a government that cares about them, the way that they care for each other, that that that's how government should be. Um and, you know, Nova Scotians aren't asking for a lot. It's like people are used to having um challenges. We have always have our share of adversity on the East Coast. Um, but you know, that's that's okay. That's part of who we are. And people just want a shot to live a decent life, uh, you know, pay their bills, uh, see a good future for their kids. Um, and so, you know, we have successive governments and and you know, Tim Houston in Alberta is a great example right now that are gonna, you know, offer, you know, we're gonna be an energy superpower.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_04Maybe. Um, but you know, in in the meantime, like, what are we doing to actually nurture what we have here? How are we taking care of people? How are we supporting, you know, small businesses and the people who are keeping our economy afloat right now instead of promising shiny things. Uh and so people just want resilient communities and jobs and a good life. And and I think that's the that's where we meet people. That's the conversation we have because I think that's what that's that's what we're aiming to do. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You talked a little earlier about um the idea that you know the the the local culture is pretty strong in Nova Scotia and and my experience there and you know, is very different than the experience of culture in Toronto, which is very institutional. We got the AGO, we got the ROM, it's very elite. Right. But it you feel when you go to Nova Scotia that it's it's day-to-day. Um and yet uh so you know that c that idea identity and culture is is uh is is is isn't something removed. And that's I think why so many people enjoy going there and enjoying that. Um and and uh you know that all ties into the tourism sector. But surely it ties into an idea of what it is to be, you know, no matter what your heritage is, you're there in that milieu, right? You're there in that culture.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um that does some amazing and interesting things that don't happen elsewhere, you know?
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Um Absolutely. I mean, I think it's yeah, I think culture is is is so central to who we are. Um it's like the water we drink or the air we breathe. We don't notice it as much. We see it reflected back in the people who come and see us.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_04Um, but you know, I think this was one of the grave miscalculations that this government made is that I think I think they thought that cuts to arts and culture would hit not their people.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Right. Right.
SPEAKER_04I think they thought that it would hit the the urban elites, not their people. But they didn't do the work to understand what that money supported. Um and so, you know, I think that that is part of the trouble that they've gotten themselves in is that their rhetoric is not meeting their reality because, of course, they're a rural government. Like these are their seats. And we had an embarrassing display for the first couple of weeks of our session because their own MLAs, their own cabinet ministers didn't know what cuts were happening in their own communities. And, you know, our ridings have like 15 or 20,000 people. It's not like a hundred thousand people. It's like you're really gonna see most people in the course of a year if you're a good representative. Uh, and so people were hearing about it. You know, we had an MLA who, you know, there was a cultural institution across the street from our office that was got the note that they were losing their funding and closing down, and no one had told her. Uh and so again, this is a government that's kind of out of touch with the people of the province and and what they care about.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um just a a f a final, I think, uh idea. You know, we we touched on it a little bit when you talked about the pharmacare and um and those sort of things. But often um for a political leader, whether you're the official opposition leader like yourself, and you're trying to put together a plan or you're a premier uh and you're you're trying to govern a province, there's some of those uh policy leaders that are in Ottawa uh that you need to try and get your hands around. So you need an advocate. You need either a a good relationship with the incumbent government or you need an advocate who's gonna you know push for you. And um I was just thinking, uh what do you how do you see that relationship uh like what is it that you i as you uh want to express your plan for the province, um what would it be on on jobs, on culture, on health that you would want to see more from or different things from the federal government to assist in the plan?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so I think you know, healthcare is one. So I think there are ways that we can be advocating and um in relationship with Ottawa that would really help. You know, we do have a province that is statistically older and sicker than many provinces in in Canada. And so we need that support for diabetes, for birth control, but for many other things, pharmacare. Um but I would also say that one of the challenges we've had with this government, and I think it again comes from a misapprehension of what being a rural government means, is that they have been very um, they have they've taken a real austerity approach with our universities. And the other thing about Nova Scotia that makes us very special is that we have an incredible post-secondary system. Um, we have 11 post-secondary institutions. Um, and and what comes out of that is innovation. And so, you know, we have this government that has a lot nested under defense, um, but a lot of that defense spending is actually things like innovation and dual use technologies and things like that. Nova Scotia stands to benefit incredibly from that. And we have seen some investment already, but we can't do it without a strong university partner. Like that's the third leg. You know, we need the federal government and investment. We need, we do need our military infrastructure, which we have here. And NATO Diana is headquartered here in Halifax. Uh, that's their innovation um body. Uh, but we need a strong university sector because when we that those are the the human capital, those are our best natural resources. That's what we always say. Um, and so we are really concerned. And so I think our our pitch to the government in terms of jobs is we have an incredibly smart, educated, eager, um, grounded opportunity here. With everything we need to really be a bed of innovation for our country, you know, and I think, you know, what's good for Canada is good for Nova Scotia. We want to contribute to that. So we hear a lot about breaking down interprovincial barriers. I mean, we've heard lots of announcements. I don't think it's had any tangible impact on our province. But I think things like investments in innovation, um, seeing more of that work happen here, um, uh, particularly around clean energy and things like that, you know, which I think we're not hearing about it as much because it's slightly at odds with this kind of resource approach that this government is hearing about it. But look, it could be a big missed opportunity if we don't spend more time on it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, Claudia, thank you so much for for joining us and good luck. Uh the the legislature has wrapped as of Friday.
SPEAKER_04The legislature has wrapped. That's right.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_04Uh yeah, yesterday.
SPEAKER_01So now you're uh now you got some time to tour the province and and meet people and get yourself better known.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and remind my kids what I look like. Oh, yeah, that's that's important too. That's a good priority. Yeah. I'll I'll bring them with me. Good for you. Before the tours. All right, good point.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, thanks so much for joining us.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah, thank you. Great to chat.
SPEAKER_05Great interview with Claudia Fender, the NDP leader from Nova Scotia. And I think some some nice threads there about the difference between what's going on from East to West Coast right now in politics. And and I think where how different provinces are addressing or not addressing probably cost of living and affordability issues for people too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. You know, it's it's interesting what she said um about Nova Scotian stoicism. This sort of almost that that could be used against trying to do things, this idea that, you know, we've got to do everything on ourselves, ourselves, which is, I guess, admirable, but but but can you be used as a political weapon? No rent control, uh, not following up in pharmacare, uh calling women's health issues uh a divisive wedge. Um, and meanwhile we see in most provinces there's you know, yours is your rent control stronger than here in Ontario. Uh and we see, you know, your approach to pharmacare is stronger, obviously stronger than what you got there. And people like, you know, Wab Canoe looking into uh grocery prices, which um is something that, you know, so it's just this idea that government can do stuff um and and and pulling into that neighborly idea um that she talks about. I think that's interesting.
SPEAKER_05So we're gonna take a quick break and then come back with Love It or Heave It.
SPEAKER_01Before we wrap up, we've come to that part of the show we call Love It or Heave It uh about something you love and want to keep, or something you'd like to heave and forever forget. What do you have for folks this week, Nikki?
SPEAKER_05I am definitely going to heave something that has happened at the NDP convention that has actually continues to get coverage only from the far right media and influencers. So at the NDP convention, which Tom and I were both at, we had the chair, a fabulous chair, make a basic correction on two things. One, their pronouns for delegate use, very easy, simple correction, and also the use of equity cards, which is part of standard proceedings to ensure there's more of a diversity of voices speaking to issues at the convention floor. So this was clipped by a right-wing influencer used many times, even with even made its way up to Fox News. Uh, you know, not a place that I think progressives ever want to be on. And since the couple of weeks since the convention, the chair, along with the equity-deserving speakers who were clipped, have become the target of really awful hate from far-right commentators and online trolls, which is really continuing. Um so, you know, we were both there. It was a second on the agenda to correct the process. It was barely noticed by delegates at the time. And then equity, you know, practices at conventions mean that we aren't hearing the same voices at the mic. I think they're really integral to the way that we function as New Democrats and our values. Other parties have similar models or different models if they also value having diversity of voices in their parties. If they don't, they don't need those models. But what's really baffling, I think, is how much the right wing has continued to focus on this minor incident at the NDP convention that most delegates didn't actually notice, and using this clip now weeks after the convention. I think we need to be really clear, and we have talked about this before, how harmful the right wing fear has been. It has resulted in death threats and harassment for those people who were clipped. But what's really telling to me sitting here and looking back at the last couple of weeks, it's just how scared the far right truly is of having a diversity of voices in politics. And I think that's something that we continue to talk about on this show, but for the most part, has been really harmful for anyone involved in this. Again, an issue that was at a party's convention in which delegates found to be a very minor correction from the chair, and for some reason has really been driven in the last couple of weeks online.
SPEAKER_01Nikki, I am loving the attitude that we need to investigate new ideas if we're gonna cut food prices. A few weeks ago, Toronto City Councilor Anthony Peruza moved a motion to investigate, just to investigate if city stores or markets could cut food prices for people. And to the howls from conservatives, Toronto City Councilors were condemned as they did pass that motion. To me, this is incredible. There's not even a proposal on the table yet. They're just condemning the idea of exploring if maybe we can do something better on food prices. And that their attacks are made with such highly ideological language, calling it communism and so forth, is just such a tell. We already have lots of effective public and public private retail models. In many provinces, there are publicly run wine and liquor retail stores with supply chains reaching around the world that use big buying power to drive good prices. We have co-ops in many parts of Western Canada, which they're not publicly owned, they're member owned, but they sure are public. We have the centuries-old tradition of publicly owned markets, where there is actual competition between food retailers under one roof. But the online goons just toss out insults at anyone who challenges their insistence that our current system of near monopoly over food is the only efficient way to get food from farm to table. If it's such an efficient system, how could the families who own it become billionaires? I I don't know what city run stores might exactly look like, or if they can help get food prices under control, because it hasn't been investigated. But I think we should try. Because what I do know is something is badly wrong. Good food should be affordable. And so I do know we need to give big love to those who are at least trying to find solutions, and a big heave to those who only want to shout them down. Okay. But that's our show for this week. Take care, have a great week.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for joining Left East to West with hosts Nikki Hill and Tom Parker. We love to hear your comments, ratings, follows, and shares. It helps people find us. To become a Left East to West community member and to help us reach even more Canadians, subscribe using the link in the show notes. You can watch us on YouTube or listen wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Just search for Left East to West and subscribe. I'm Doug Hamilton signing off for Left East to West. We'll see you next week.
