A political science professor at Cape Breton University says Premier Iain Rankin has been more “wobbly” than his predecessor Stephen McNeil when it comes to addressing the COVID-19 situation in Nova Scotia, and a little less decisive.
Professor Tom Urbaniak said Rankin and McNeil do share some similarities in their handling of the pandemic, but their leadership style and personalities are different.
“Iain Rankin stepped into a very difficult position at a very difficult time … You can almost sense Rankin trying to feel his way into the leadership role,” said Urbaniak.
“And unfortunately for him, we’ve been confronted with the crisis so soon into his time as premier, he’s a little bit less spontaneous than his predecessor,” he added.
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When McNeil was the province’s premier, his call to “stay the blazes home” went viral across the province and even the country.
That kind of spontaneity and use of colloquial language is very important at a time like this, Urbaniak said.
“A politician is meant to have a bit of personality … to give stern lectures and at other times to sort of laugh and cry with the people, so the style of presentation is very important,” he said.
During COVID briefings and even on his Twitter account, Rankin has been giving some stern lectures to Nova Scotians who have been flouting public health rules.
The premier has called people breaking the rules a “selfish few,” and at Monday’s COVID briefing he spoke angrily after another record-breaking number of cases were reported.
“What part of that pattern of spread do you not understand? The only answer I can come up with is that you don’t care,” he said at Monday’s briefing.
On Facebook, there has been some mixed response to Rankin’s performance, with one person saying “this is Rankin’s fault (because he) doesn’t know how to make the restrictions harder.”
Another person applauded Rankin for blasting people who are disobeying the rules and for encouraging Nova Scotians to keep going.
In recent days, Urbanik said the good thing is Rankin’s messaging has been clear compared to his messaging on April 6 where he announced that malls, retail businesses and gyms can return to 100 per cent capacity with physical distancing.
During that time, Nova Scotia was only seeing a few cases a day while Ontario was in a full-blown crisis.
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“When that announcement was made, Rankin sort of congratulated the people and government saying that we’ve maintained our discipline and now we can enjoy the fruits of our labor,” said Urbaniak.
“It’s almost like he was trying to construct a really positive narrative with an election being so close one way or the other. And that was not the right approach to take,” he added.
Fast forward to late April when COVID-19 cases started to surge once again. In the first stages of the spike, Urbaniak said that was a “little bit of indecision” from the premier and the province.
There was an attempt to adjust capacity levels before the province declared a full shutdown, and the closure of schools was only announced a few days later.
“There was a great lack of clarity or certainty about what people would be asked to do for a few crucial days. Finally, when they announced a provincewide shutdown, you can almost sense a little bit of relief on the premier,” said the professor.
Urbaniak said to some people McNeil seemed more decisive, which he thinks is true in many ways, but he notes “Rankin inherited a difficult structure of decision-making from McNeil.”
He said the structure of decision-making was made up of former Premier Stephen McNeil and Dr. Robert Strang, chief medical officer of health, who were essentially running the province for a while.
“That’s a hard situation to step into because that’s not normally how our government works,” Urbaniak said.
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He says the opposite of that can be seen in Ontario for example, where there are multiple expert voices around the premier helping with the decision making.
“Nova Scotia, I think, might have gone too far in the direction of very authoritarian decision making without some key people, key experts in the room to talk to the premier,” he said.
Urbaniak explained that Rankin would sit with Dr. Strang and then with other people who would give him somewhat conflicting advice.
“I think that’s why you saw some of the wobbliness early on. In a good decision-making structure, you might have a few key experts in the virtual room called at the same time rather than at different times.”
Now with Nova Scotia being shut down, Urbaniak said Rankin can go before the public with much clearer and more focused messaging to try to get a handle on the crisis.
He also hopes that the premier isn’t giving too much thought to an election at this point, given the current serious COVID-19 situation that needs to be resolved in Nova Scotia.
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