Nova Scotia’s Liberal party has elected Zach Churchill as new leader to replace the province’s former premier.
Churchill won the leadership with 65 per cent of the vote over Angela Simmonds.
Churchill first joined the legislature in a 2010 byelection and has served as a cabinet minister for the departments of education and health.
The new leader from Yarmouth, N.S. thanked his community for supporting him for the last 12 years and told delegates that Simmonds showed courage in running for the party’s top job after first being elected last August.
Simmonds received a standing ovation as Churchill said she would be key to the party’s future, calling the lawyer and small business owner a “wonderful person.”
The Liberals were defeated in last summer’s provincial election, and leader Iain Rankin stepped down in January.
“Liberals, we will rise again,” Churchill told delegates.
Going into the vote, the party said it has more than 3,400 registered delegates who are eligible to vote, which is less than half the number of members who were able to vote in the February 2021 Liberal leadership race won by former premier Iain Rankin.
According to Liberal party records, there were more than 8,100 eligible voters for the election that made Rankin Nova Scotia’s 29th premier. But the Liberals were defeated in last August’s provincial election and Rankin stepped down from the party’s top job in January.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2022.