Darrell Dexter content with life as a former premier

Darrell Dexter comes in from the cold, wiping tears from his face

He's quick to point out those tears are just from the biting wind, not any lingering sadness from his life in politics

Dexter recalls story of Ed Muskie, a U.S. politician in the early 1970s, who addressed reporters outside in the snow and the headlines the next day said he had tears streaming down his face.

“I always remembered that,” he said with a laugh.

Dexter no longer has to wear the suit and tie of a politician. He’s dressed pretty casually, jeans, open collar shirt and a Team Nova Scotia jacket.

It’s his first sit-down interview since losing the election a year and a half ago and he said he is pretty content with life as a former premier.

My position now is that I was the 27th premier of the province and that never stops.- Darrell Dexter

“I liken it to the John Lennon line , 'I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round,'" he said.

“It’s kind of who I am. I can’t ignore what’s going on on a day-to-day basis. But I’ve worked really hard kind of not to be engaged in that."

Since his defeat in October 2013, Dexter said he’s had lots of opportunity to comment on what’s been happening in provincial politics, but has declined.

“You know my position now is that I was the 27th premier of the province and that never stops,” he said

“And I only wish the best for the province. The government of the day is experiencing the kinds of difficulties that I am likely one of the few people who truly understand what that’s like.”

When asked about the dust-up between the McNeil government and arbitrator James Dorsey over the reorganization of health care, Dexter said he finds it fascinating.

Hasn't read Graham Steele's book

“[The Liberals] have chosen a course or a path that they want to go down and like everything in political life, you know it looks fairly straight forward from the outset. It always becomes much more complicated than you would ever believe. I’ve told people this many times. I would often on a daily basis, say to myself ‘Oh this surely can’t be so,’” he said laughing. “And yet it was.”

Former finance minister Graham Steele chronicled his own take on the Dexter years in his book What I Learned in Politics. In it, Steele said Dexter centralized power, too much, within the premier's office.  

Dexter said he says he hasn't read it because political memoirs often lead to hurt feelings. He said he likes Steele and didn't want anything to change his view of the good works he has done over the years.  

Defends Port Hawkesbury investment

As for his own record, Dexter defended some of the more controversial decisions government made, including a nearly $125-million investment in a failed paper mill in Cape Breton.

He said if the NDP hadn’t helped out, the Port Hawkesbury mill probably would have been stripped down and sold for parts otherwise, hurting the economy in that part of the province.  

His government was also criticized for the 2012 decision to provide a $304-million assistance package to Irving Shipbuilding to help prepare for the construction of the Royal Canadian Navy's next fleet of vessels.

But Dexter said he is “very proud of that.”

“The repayment of that loan was based on the province receiving back many, many, many times more benefits than they put into it,” he said.

But these days multi-million dollar deals are a thing of the past.

The former premier spends his free time playing basketball - the old timers league as he likes to call it - and spending more time with his family, including his son who is a commerce student at Dalhousie University.

'Small chance' he'll return to politics

He has also led two electoral observer missions to Tunisia - one for legislative elections in October, then for the presidential run off vote in December.

“It was fascinating to see the enthusiasm of a new democracy where people are kind of very fundamentally engaged in kind of a new endeavour for them, just never had the opportunity to elect members of parliament or a president,” Dexter said. “And yeah, it was a thrilling thing to be part of.”

Despite his continued interest in politics, Dexter is not eager to make a return himself - although he doesn’t completely close the door to the possibility.

“When Michael Jordan retired from basketball, they asked him if he would come back and he said he was 99 per cent sure that he wouldn’t and one reporter said, ‘Why aren’t you 100 per cent sure?’ and he said ‘That last one per cent belongs to me,’” Dexter said.

"I always thought that was a good answer. I can’t continue being engaged in a kind of public life level. Yet you should always reserve that one per cent chance that something you might  so motivate you, but like I say I think it’s a very small chance.”