Liberal candidate for Dartmouth South steps down

The Nova Scotia Liberal Party lost a candidate on the same day the provincial election was announced.

Robyn Ingraham, the candidate for Dartmouth South, posted a statement to her personal Instagram page on Saturday announcing she would be dropping out of the race.

Ingraham said she'd arrived at the "difficult decision" to not proceed any further "realizing the time commitment and intensity of a campaign and the impact it will have on my mental health," the post said.

"In the future when I can better manage my anxiety, you may see my face with a red border once again. Maybe by then, folks won't care as much about modelling photos, & face and hand tattoos," she said.

Candidacy announced Friday

Less than 24 hours earlier, Ingraham announced her candidacy on Facebook, where she said she was "beyond excited" to be joining the Liberals.

In a post to her business page, The Gentle Barber, on Friday evening, Ingraham talked about how she planned to balance her barbering alongside the demands of the political campaign.

Ingraham co-owns and manages Devoted Barbers & Co. in Dartmouth, "one of very few all-female owned and operated barber shops in HRM," according to the Facebook post.

The post also describes Ingraham as an award-winning barber and celebrated entrepreneur based in downtown Dartmouth who has been practising in Nova Scotia since 2013.

A link to Ingraham's Liberal candidate page is not working, although the URL includes her name.

Matt Hefler, a spokesperson for the Liberals, said in an email that"the party was informed" of this development Saturday morning.

He said the partyhas20 days to name a new candidate in the riding.

CBC has reached out to Ingraham, and will update this story with any response.

N.S. Liberal Leader Iain Rankin, who became premier in February, met Saturday with Lt.-Gov. Arthur LeBlanc to dissolve the Nova Scotia legislature.

Election Day will be Aug. 17.