What’s been talked about for weeks should soon become official – Nova Scotians will go the polls sometime in August for the province’s 41th general election.
Premier Iain Rankin will be visiting Nova Scotia Lt-Gov. Arthur J. LeBlanc on Saturday at 9:45 a.m., where he will ask for the legislature to be dissolved — kicking what will be a roughly a one-month campaign.
The date for the summer election would be Aug. 17.
Rankin will be speaking to media after visiting with LeBlanc.
Summer-election speculation has been swirling for weeks, with Rankin and the governing Liberals making almost daily funding announcements since late June. The parties have also had their candidates canvassing neighbourhoods in the gear-up to an election call everyone seemed to know was coming.
Nova Scotia is the only province without fixed election dates.
READ MORE: Nova Scotia ‘poised for an election very soon,’ says one expert
In the past election, the Liberals returned to the Province House with a majority mandate. It was the first time since 1988 that a party in Nova Scotia has achieved back-to-back majorities.
The Liberals won 27 of the seats, 17 were won by the Progressive Conservatives and seven were won by the NDP in 2017.
In May, the party was reduced to minority status following the resignation of veteran member and former cabinet minister Margaret Miller.
Tim Houston, the leader of the Progressive Conservatives, and NDP Leader Gary Burrill have been in campaign mode for weeks expecting the writ to soon drop.
There are 55 seats up for grabs in this election, 4 more than previously.
More to come.
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