Health care, housing top of mind for Antigonish candidates

As the Nova Scotia Liberals campaign to form a third consecutive government undernew leader Iain Rankin, a high-profile member of Stephen McNeil's government is seeking re-election in Antigonish.

Since his election in 2013, Randy Delorey has held cabinet positions as minister of the environment, finance, and most recently, justice.

But his most prominent role was as health minister whenNova Scotia faced the first wave of COVID-19.

Being a former health minister can be tough on a constituency candidate: the province's opposition campaigns are portraying the health-care system as one in crisis requiring urgent government action.

But Delorey says that's not what he's seeing as he goes door-to-door.

"This election so far has been quite positive people obviously are very pleased with the COVID response," the Liberal candidate said in a recent campaign office interview.

"I was the health minister during that first wave working with Dr. Strang, public health, the premier and my other colleagues to prepare our health response and our entire provincial response to that pandemic."

Housing shortage in town

Delorey said having St. Francis Xavier University and St. Martha's Regional Hospital in a town of more than 4,500 people brings strength to the local economy.

The former St. FX business professor said housing demand from professionals and students is driving up prices.

"In a large way, that's a good problem to have," he said. "It just means we need to, as we have in other communities across the province, need to build more and support increased housing opportunities."

Delorey saidthat at a constituency level, he facilitated affordable housing groups accessing provincial funding programs.

"There's two new buildings just opening up here on Main Street that are being developed and nearing completion with new housing opportunities, as well as retail on the main floor. So people see the opportunity and they're supporting it," he said.

PC candidate's health care focus

Michelle Thompson won a hotly-contested race for the PC nomination in Antigonish.

Thompson has been a nurse for 29 years, and is currently CEO of a major local nursing home. With those front line credentials, she believes she'sin tune with the party'scampaign focus on healthcare.

"I would say that's the number one thing that I hear: health care, health care, health care. And so I'm able to speak to my experience and folks seem to be receptive to that," Thompson said.

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She says access to primary care is an urgent challenge in Antigonish and beyond.

"That's a big worry, especially folks that have moved from away who maybe are managing a chronic condition," she said. "So things as simple and as important as getting a prescription refilled is almost unattainable for some folks, if they're new to this community."

Thompson said she's also keenly aware ofthe struggles of the province's long-term care system. She believes training more long-term care employees is crucial to the future, as is building more facilities.

"There are folks who are trying to support loved ones in community and wondering about long-term care and access to long-term care," she said. "So there's a variety of different concerns, but they are all covered in the PC platform and the plans that Tim Houston and PC Party have put out."

NDP candidate's second campaign

NDP candidate Moraig Macgillivray runs youth programming at a women'sresource and sexual assault centre.

She said her party's messages are resonating during her second campaign as a New Democrat in Antigonish.

"The past four years, the things I was running on in 2017 are really coming to light, especially after the pandemic," she said.

"Realizing that we need to have better investments in health care, better investments in our communities, and people's pocketbooks. We need to move away from fiscal conservatism and trying to balance the budget at all costs. That's really damaging our communities."

Macgillivray said health care is a touchstone on voters' doorsteps, and that government investment is urgently needed in local health care.

"What's happening now is hospitals, St. Martha's in particular, is overflowing," she said. "So there's people in the hospital waiting to get into long-term care, there's not enough beds inlong term care.

"So because our hospitals are overflowing, ambulances can't unload. So ambulances are stuck there, and there's places where they can't access ambulance services. And that's a crisis."

Macgillivraysaid the provincial government also needs to become directly involved in financing and purchasing affordable housing to be administered locally.

She said the NDPwouldraise funds for housing and health care by increasing taxes on large corporationsand on the extremely wealthy.

Green candidate looks forward.

At 23 years old, Green Party candidate Will Fraser is the youngest candidate in Antigonish.

He sees that as a strength.

"I think it's really important that you have representation of young people in government, who not only are probably thinking more in the long term, 50 or 60 years down the road when we're still going to be here, but also people who are experiencing the changes as they occur," he said.

Fraser is proud that the Town of Antigonish is aiming to be carbon neutral by the year 2030.

But he said recent severe droughts, forest fires, and flooding show the environment is changing faster than efforts to limit carbon emissions are being made.

"We are at the intersection of a lot of different crises that are happening. And I think now is the time that you really need a government to step in and take action," he said.

"A lot of what we've been doing just does not work anymore. We've seen a pandemic that's changed everything but all through the world was changing before that. So we think it's time for a kind of a fresh revisioning(of) government."

A riding to watch

The Atlantica Party is fielding candidate Ryan Smyth in Antigonish.

The party seeks to reform what it calls a broken political system, and revamp economic policies to turn Nova Scotia into a "have" province.

The Liberal Party has seen a political sea change since the election of 2017, with the departure not only of Stephen McNeil but of 10 other long-serving Liberal MLAs who declined to reoffer.

Delorey slightly increased his percentage of the popular vote in 2017 over 2013, in an election where Liberals saw their seat count cut back in the legislature.