July fixed election date introduced

Opposition parties not certain summer elections are the best idea

Fun, sun and aspiring MLAs banging on your door.

That’s what Nova Scotians can look forward to during the month of July of every fourth year.

The next provincial election will be held July 15, 2025, and future elections past 2025 will be held every four years on the third Tuesday of July, according to amendments to the Elections Act introduced by the Premier Tim Houston and the Progressive Conservative government.

“Nova Scotian voters need to have confidence in their electoral system,” Houston said. “Having a fixed date will mean predictability, transparency and it will limit any perceived advantage by the government to control the timing of the next election.”

Nova Scotia will join the federal government, and every other province and territory in the country, with fixed election date legislation in place. The majority of those dates are in October, however.

Houston defended the date selected.

“There are a lot of reasons that it makes sense to have it in that time frame,” he said. “Schools are vacant, you can use schools as polling stations. That made sense. We could have picked other dates but we just thought giving people four years’ notice when the next election is, that’s a date that made sense to us.”

Houston said the fall fixed date option “runs the risk of municipal elections on certain cycles so we were more interested in respecting the fouryear standard than looking at other factors.”

Houston said the commitment gives people notice of when elections will be held.

“We picked a date within four years (of having been elected), we weren’t going to pick three years and the early fall, we probably would have had to go three years and I don’t think that’s fair to Nova Scotians with the magnitude of the issues.”

The opposition leaders applauded the fixed-election idea but took issue with the date.

“We’ve advocated for this for a long time, but I would say that of the list of possible, reasonable helpful dates for a fixed election, the middle of July would be about No. 37,” said NDP Leader Gary Burrill. “The object with democratic reform is to enhance and support engagement. What part of the year are people less engaged than in the dead-centre of July?”

“It seems to me that this really goes against the purpose of having fixed election dates, which is to improve the overall tone of engagement in our democratic practice,” he added.

Burrill said the fall or spring present the best possibilities for a fixed election date.

“The reason that the government has offered, that school buildings would be available for polling stations, this seems to be putting the cart before the horse. … I would say choosing the least engaged part of the year as far as the public is concerned is not very good thinking . . . I think this shows a lot of signs of something that hasn’t really been given very thorough consideration.”

Liberal Leader Iain Rankin said his party wasn’t consulted on the timing of the fixedelection proposal.

“We’ll have a discussion at

“We’ve advocated for this for a long time, but I would say that of the list of possible, reasonable helpful dates for a fixed election, the middle of July would be about No. 37.”

Provincial NDP Leader Gary Burrill

caucus and see what the team thinks,” he said. “In principle, we agree that there should be a discussion on fixed election dates but we’re not sure we can support the date they are proposing without consulting with other parties.”

Rankin said he knows that summer elections generally generate lower voter turnout and the Liberal party wants to look at dates chosen by other provinces.

The changes to the act will not affect the lieutenant-governor’s authority to dissolve the legislature at any time on the advice of the premier or if there is a non-confidence in the government in the legislature.

The legislation amendment will also provide the chief electoral officer with authority to choose an alternative date if the legislated date conflicts with a civic or religious holiday or overlaps with a federal or municipal election.

Elections Nova Scotia recommended fixed election dates in its 2009 and 2013 reports on proposed changes to the act.

“I am pleased with the introduction of fixed-date election legislation, I support the choice of date and I appreciate the flexibility to choose an alternate date, if necessary,” Richard Temporale, chief electoral officer with Elections Nova Scotia, said in a release.

Having a fixed election date could create nearly a halfmillion dollars in operational savings for Elections Nova Scotia and make it easier to attract election workers and secure accessible polling venues more efficiently.