Hot-button issues, fresh faces driving interest in N.S. municipal elections, say candidates

A long list of names will greet some Nova Scotia voters at the ballot box Saturday in towns where candidates say divisive issues and new political blood have stirred up unexpected interest in the municipal election.  

Sean Cameron, a longtime Antigonish councillor who's running for mayor, said he's never seen this level of buzz around a municipal vote.

Only two of the 11 people running for the town's six council seats are incumbents. Nine people ran for council in the 2020 election.

"It's taking a lot longer to go door to door," said Cameron. "People are more engaged, they're buying in."

He said the hotly debated issue of amalgamation with Antigonish County has been hanging heavily over the campaign, with people asking "really informative questions" at the doorstep.

Municipal and county candidates have openly criticized amalgamation on social media, even after the province decided against the move in April.

Cameron, who was opposed to the consolidation, is in an open race for mayor against Emilie Chiasson of the Coady Institute at St. Francis Xavier University. Chiasson has spoken at Province House in favour of amalgamation, but said she now understands people felt betrayed by the process.

While she said there's certainly a "presence online" still talking about consolidation, there's another major issue rankling voters: the stench coming from the town's sewer plant.

Chiasson said she was inspired to run in this election after Mayor Laurie Boucher decided not to reoffer. Chiasson said change at both the mayoral and council level is appealing to voters.

"It creates a lot of excitement and I think just a lot of general engagement because there's curiosity about it, versus being like, 'Oh, I know that person, they have already been a councillor,'" she said.

An hour's drive away in Kentville, there are 14 people vying for six council seats, with only three incumbents. It's one of the largest slates of candidates across Nova Scotia. In 2020, nine people ran for Kentville town council.

Three others are running in the open race for mayor, with Mayor Sandra Snow not reoffering.

A few candidates have said they want to improve the atmosphere around the council table. There was plenty of infighting among council members this term, with Snow and Coun. Andrew Zebian — who's now running for mayor — filing code of conduct complaints against one another multiple times.

There was also an active social media group that criticized council decisions and Snow personally, to the point where she said she was "screamed at on the street." Some members of that group are running for council.

"What you have is a lot of keyboard warriors that have gone after very specific issues," Snow said.

Controversy has spurred people to run before

She has seen this kind of candidate spike before: when Snow was first elected as mayor in 2016, 14 people also ran for council amidst a controversy where some councillors were living in Florida for months and joining meetings remotely.

Rebecca Wallace, an assistant professor of political science at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, said social media can be a double-edged sword when it comes to politics. 

Online hate can discourage people from running, but residents can also become passionate about local issues through social media and get the courage to step forward.

"I think a lot of people were feeling more inclined to think like, 'Why shouldn't we have a voice heard? Why shouldn't we be at the table?'" Wallace said.

"There's some good energy that comes from having a lot of these new folks, you know, in the running ... it's having, I would say, a positive effect right now. That's my hope."

Wallace said more civil discussions about local issues, and candidate debates, are badly needed at the municipal level rather than online arguments. These could help more people feel informed enough to run, or vote, she said.

Amherst, Halifax seeing high candidate numbers

Looking at other races with higher numbers, Amherst has 13 candidates, while the towns of Yarmouth and Oxford have 10 each. All of these municipalities have six council seats, and mayor races taking place this year.

The Halifax Regional Municipality has the largest race in Nova Scotia with 16 people putting their names forward for mayor after Mike Savage opted not to run for the first time in 12 years.

Nine people are running for mayor of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality with Mayor Amanda McDougall not reoffering.