Category: Halifax

The Liberals are scrambling after kicking their nominee in Pictou East, Mathew MacKnight, off their team.

Campaign chair Chris MacInnes says highly inappropriate remarks by MacKnight on social media were brought to his attention yesterday which run contrary to the values of the party but wouldn’t say what they were.
Meanwhile, the Premier’s former communications director Kyley Harris, who was brought back to help with the campaign, is out again. Harris has resigned. He said despite his efforts to make amends for a mistake three years ago, when he was investigated in an assault case, it is not possible in the current political climate.

The opposition has been hammering Stephen McNeil for bringing Harris back to work on the campaign.

Premier Stephen McNeil was talking about the environment on the ampaign trail yesterday. He repeated the Liberal plan, announced in the budget, to appoint an independent review of forestry practices. He also promised to extend the moratorium on fracking.

Conservative leader Jamie Baillie continued to hammer away at the government on health issues saying the Liberals have failed to address a deepening mental health crisis that is seeing people commit suicide while waiting as long as a year to get emergency psychiatric care. A Tory government would spent 40 million dollars on mental health services and put specialized nurses in schools.

NDP Leader Gary Burrill was talking about expanding dental coverage to all young people up to and including 17. The current program only covers kids up to 14. The cost estimate is about $2 million a year and would cover an additional 30,000 young people.