Premier Stephen McNeil and chief medical officer of health Dr. Robert Strang have reached celebrity status in Nova Scotia.
The pair have been the face of leadership throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and the province of Nova Scotia has fared well when compared with other provinces across the country.
McNeil’s call for Nova Scotians to “stay the blazes home” became an endearing catchphrase that first went viral on the internet and was then plastered on t-shirts and coffee mugs and became an inspiration for folk songs about the pandemic.
If McNeil was to run again for Premier of Nova Scotia, he’d likely skate to a third-term victory, says Dalhousie University Director of Public Administration Lori Turnbull.
But McNeil isn’t running again.
At the height of his popularity and after a 17-year career, McNeil is leaving politics. He announced he would step down as Liberal leader and as premier in August, leaving the party with big shoes to fill.
“He (McNeil) is able to leave on this high note of having worked with Dr. Strang and worked with the other Atlantic premiers to manage this pandemic,” said Turnbull.
“I think that’s a positive for the party.”
The Liberals will select a new party leader and subsequently the next premier of Nova Scotia on Saturday, with the results to be announced at a live-virtual event.
It’s a three-man race for the leadership, with Labi Kousoulis, Iain Rankin and Randy Delorey, all former cabinet ministers, vying to replace McNeil, who was first elected as the Annapolis MLA in 2003.
For McNeil, this was the right time to leave. After nearly eight years as premier and two majority governments, the former small business owner has said he’s going to pursue a career in the private sector.
Turnbull says his departure during the pandemic could come as a challenge for the Liberals but also as an opportunity for the party to reinvent itself.
“It’s hard to say that the premier hasn’t done a good job,” said Turnbull. “He’s been very visible, he’s been there with Dr. Strang every day.
“He’s been decisive which I would say is quite consistent with his legacy for his entire career, and that decisive style has lent itself very well to the kind of situation that we are in right now with the pandemic.”
That decisive style also gave his critics the opportunity to call out McNeil on his hard stance and stubbornness and his refusal to compromise on several issues, says NS CUPE President Nan McFadgen.
“Any leader that doesn’t do any succession planning for when they leave their organization leaves it worse off,” says McFadgen. “He always stood in the light and he very rarely gave anyone any light. He had a very autocratic style and ran a very tight ship.”
McNeil clashed with unions and stuck his heels in the ground when negotiating with the teachers union in 2017 when the Liberals used their majority to ram through Bill 75, which ended a longstanding work-to-rule job action by the teachers union.
Halifax Chamber of Commerce President Patrick Sullivan held an hour-long online interview with Premier McNeil last week and says McNeil always held a long-term view for the province and despite criticism, he always stuck to his guns.
“I think the emphasis on immigration and what we’ve seen with a population that’s grown and actually gotten younger in the last couple of years, is astounding for Nova Scotia,” said Sullivan.
Sullivan said McNeil’s track record when it came to the economy speaks for itself.
“After four years of balanced budgets, the House is in financial order,” said Sullivan. “I think that will leave his successor in a good place, even though, it certainly won’t be a balanced budget after this year.”
2020 was a year like no other, marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and also an unprecedented number of tragedies, from the April mass shooting, that saw 22 innocent Nova Scotians killed, to the sinking of the Chief William Saulis fishing vessel, taking the lives of six fishermen in December.
Turnbull says the pandemic made McNeil not only a celebrity type figure and the face of the Liberal party, but his prominence may have cast a shadow over the rest of the party and those candidates looking to replace him, especially in the current virtual environment we’re living in.
“It can be a struggle to get traction at this point because everyone is focussed on the pandemic,” said Turnbull.
“How do you get people to focus on another issue when you are still trying to get the vaccine rolled out?”