In two separate news releases on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Nova Scotia NDP Party announced that there were only one qualified NDP candidate in each of four Southwest Nova provicial ridings in anticipation of an election which might be called by the McNeil Liberal government.
John Davis will be acclaimed March 8 for the Queens-Shelburne riding. David Olie is running in Yarmouth, Harold Neil in Clare-Digby and Greg Foster in Argyle-Barrington. All three will be nominated by acclaimation at a single meeting in Yarmouth on March 6.
Davis is the founder and spokesman for the Clean Ocean Action Committee, which has been lobbying various government departments to limit offshore oil and gas development on the Scotian shelf near Shelburne. In a news release, Davis says he also has experience in the fisheries and community development
David Olie was the NDP candidate in Yarmouth in 2009 and has been engaged for many years in a variety of civic activity in the Yarmouth area. He may be best known as the Town Crier for Yarmouth.
Harold Neil has worked for the Nova Scotia government as a helicopter pilot and a wild land firefighte and has experience in the oil and gas industry, including in spill response supervision. Currently, Harold is working on the NB-PEI Interconnect energy project in the Northumberland Strait.
Greg Foster is running in Argyle-Barrington. He ran federally for the NDP in 2015 in nthe West Nova Riding. Foster's NDP bio says he is an Acadian who holds one of only 27 gill net licenses for fishing gaspereaux on the Tusket River. He he has served on the Argyle Municipal Council and the Clare-Argyle School Board. His community work includes the Hubbard’s Point Community Hall and the restoration of the Hubbard’s Point Wharf.
The acclaimed candidates, according to NDP Party president Bill Matheson, were the only four who passed through what Matheson described as the "nomination process", which included vetting by a committee from the riding association and approval by the NDP party hierarchy. Matheson declined to share what he described as "internal documents" describing the nomination process.
According to the PC Party web site, candidates for these ridings include Chris d'Entremont in Argyle-Barrington and Kim Masland in Queens-Shelburne. No candidates are named in Clare-Digby or Yarmouth.
The Liberal Party web site does not name candidates and calls to the party seeking candidate information were unsuccessful.
