Nova Scotia Election: Halifax Needham candidates

Quick take: Halifax Needham has been an NDP stronghold for almost two decades. Lisa Roberts is the NDP incumbent. It would be a major upset if she lost the seat.

READ MORE: All our Nova Scotia Election 2017 coverage

Candidates

Liberal: Melinda Daye is the former chair of the Halifax Regional School Board. She was the African Nova Scotian representative on the board between 2012 and 2016. She lost a re-election bid in 2016.

Progressive Conservative: Matthew Donahoe is a substitute teacher and also works at Moores clothing store.

NDP: Roberts was first elected to the legislature in 2016. Prior to her election, she was the executive director at Veith House, a non-profit community centre that helps families affected by poverty.

Green: Andrew Jamieson is a volunteer with the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax. He has also been involved with human rights issues with Amnesty International and studied law at Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law.

Riding background

View image in full screen

History: Roberts won the riding in a 2016 byelection after longtime NDP MLA Maureen MacDonald retired. MacDonald won every election from 1998 to 2013. Prior to that, the riding has also gone to the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives.

Boundaries: The riding covers Halifax’s “North End,” and is bordered by Windsor Street, Bayers Road, Robie Street, Duke Street, and the harbour.

Demographics: The riding includes the Halifax Dockyards, the Fairview Cove Container Terminal, Northwood Manor and the Leeds Street campus of Nova Scotia Community College. This is an ethnically diverse riding and it holds the original site of Africville, one of earliest black settlements in the province.