Tim Houston, the shiny new leader of Nova Scotia Conservatives said all the right things about party unity and working together to defeat Nova Scotia’s Liberal government, but more than a few Tories who backed other leadership contenders say his actions in the coming weeks and months will speak louder than any words.
On Saturday, Houston came tantalizingly close but didn’t quite have the numbers needed for a first ballot win.
But then, in one of the few moments of high drama at the Tory leadership convention, Cecil Clarke, the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) mayor, who finished second on the first ballot, walked across the Halifax Exhibition Centre, threw his support behind Houston, and it was over.
The other contenders, Julie Chaisson, Elizabeth Smith-Crossin and John Lohr, followed Clarke’s lead, and there was no need for a second ballot.
After the first ballot, Clarke was the only candidate in the field with a mathematical chance of catching Houston, but the odds were long and, he said, the interests of the party were best served by coming together at that point, rather than by pushing the race to its limits with another ballot.
Clarke then quietly exited the convention to start on a honeymoon that was on hold until the leadership was decided. The CBRM mayor married his partner Kyle Peterson in mid-September.
Houston, who represents Pictou East in the legislature, put together a formidable campaign team that brought thousands of new members to the party, and then made sure those members voted.
His 2,497 points on the first ballot fell just 55 short of the 2,551 needed to win, so it was all but over, yet the jubilation in the Houston camp was delayed until Clarke’s trip across the floor.
The leadership was decided by a system that allocates 100 points to each of the province’s 51 provincial ridings. Those points are then distributed to candidates in proportion to their votes in each riding. The overwhelming majority of votes were cast by mailed-in preferential ballots. Only a few hundred Tories voted at the convention.
While 8,943 valid ballots were cast — there were 208 spoiled ballots — the party refused to release the vote tally, standing firm that the weighted constituency results, expressed in points, were what mattered.
The new leader openly disagreed with the party’s decision, telling reporters he believes the vote totals should be available to party members and the public.
Tim Houston is a 48-year-old chartered accountant and businessman who has twice won his Pictou County seat.
Smart and energetic, he’s been an effective critic of the government and will become the Leader of the Opposition when the House next convenes in the late winter or spring of 2019.
As Conservative Finance Critic, Houston was particularly effective on the legislature’s public accounts committee, where his pointed questioning left more than a few senior bureaucrats looking for cover that was nowhere to be found.
It’s now Houston’s job to heal the wounds created during a leadership contest that was, at times, bitterly divisive. While he recognizes that imperative, he tends to gloss over the hurt felt in other camps, while insisting there is more that unites the party than divides it.
Houston needs to calm the waters in Cape Breton, where some of his supporters have openly attacked popular sitting MLAs Eddie Orrell and Alfie MacLeod because they backed Clarke.
He also needs to strike the right balance in assigning roles to the party’s legislative caucus. Much of that caucus supported his leadership bid and those MLAs could be expecting plum assignments in return.
But Houston will also have to consider what roles to assign his leadership rivals, Lohr (PC-Kings North) and Smith-McCrossin (PC-Cumberland North) along with the MLAs who backed Clarke, because how he treats them will send a clear signal to party members who backed other candidates about where they stand in the PC Party Tim Houston leads.
Houston’s message to Nova Scotian voters is about promise unfulfilled. He believes the province has abundant economic opportunities, but that poor government is squandering those opportunities.
Finally, my apologies for relocating Garden of Eden from its rightful place in Pictou County in Saturday’s column, and thanks to readers who gently corrected my geographical blunder.
