Atlantica Party says it offers alternative to 'same old, same old' in N.S. politics

No one can accuse the Atlantica Party's Jonathan Dean of looking for the quick and easy road to success, or of being easily discouraged.

The leader of Nova Scotia's fifth party, officially recognized in 2010 and again in 2016 after a four-year absence from the political landscape, is trying a sixth time to win a seat in the Nova Scotia Legislature.

"This is a multi-election project to reform Nova Scotia," said Dean in a recent interview with CBC News.

The investment advisor has run in byelections and general elections from Yarmouth, N.S., to Cape Breton, garnering as few as 19 votes in 2010, to a high of 154 in 2017.

He blamed his lack of electoral support, in part, on notgarnering the same attention from the media as the other party leaders.

"I'm not being taken seriously by the status quo media," Dean said in Victoria Park in Truro, N.S.

Pitching to disinterested voters

He agreed to meet a reporter halfway between his home in Tatamagouche, N.S., and Halifax, an indication of how far he's willing to go to get his message out.

According to Dean, that message is aimed squarely at people disinterested in or discouraged by the current political situation.

"We're specifically pitching ourselves to the one out of two people who no longer vote here in Nova Scotia," said Dean, appealing to people who are "tired of the same old, same old" in Nova Scotia politics.

"We are offering them a specific set of policies that will help amend that and bring them back into the political system."

The Atlantica Party platform is different from what the Liberal, Progressive Conservative, NDP and Green partiesare offering. It includes:

• Voters being able to remove MLAs from office.
• Making all votes in the legislature recorded votes.
• Ending the practice of voting along party lines.
• Eliminating business taxes.
• Establishing a voucher programthat provides money from the public school system to parents, allowing them to choose which school their child attends.
• Allowing private businesses to sell alcohol and cannabis.
• Establishing a flat tax.

Dean hopes that by offering something different, people who are fed up will respond.

"[The] parties are all the same," said Dean. "They promise all these different things, which are ineffective, and in a lot of cases are counterproductive to Nova Scotia."

He said his party offers a "real alternative" for Nova Scotians.

"Parties like the AtlanticaParty have always been about getting people back in and getting them excited again about politics, not hearing the same thing over and over again from the status quo," he said.

The Atlantica Party, which Dean acknowledged has "between 100 to 200 paid members," is running candidates in 16 ridings.

That's one more than in the 2017 general election. In that election, the 15 party candidates garnered a total of 1,632 votes or 0.4 per cent of the overall vote.

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