A political scientist says the provincial Liberal leadership contest hasn’t had any real competition among the former cabinet colleagues.
Antigonish MLA Randy Delorey, Halifax Citadel-Sable Island MLA Labi Kousoulis and Timberlea-Prospect MLA Iain Rankin are running to become the new Liberal leader and, by extension, the province’s next premier.
Yvon Grenier, a political science professor at StFX, says none of the three candidates offer anything meaningfully unique.
“It was a bit (of a) boring campaign,” he says. “None of them wanted to indicate any kind of departure from what they experienced over the past year in the McNeil cabinet.”
Grenier says the provincial Liberals- and Premier Stephen McNeil in particular- surged in popularity through the pandemic.
He says none of the candidates have criticized the outgoing premier, and each has presented a platform for more of the same.
“McNeil didn’t resign tarred and feathered, as it happens sometimes- when he resigned, he was super popular,” he says. “None of the candidates have an appetite for criticizing him- they all sound pretty much like good disciples of McNeil.”
Grenier says the candidates’ positions are so similar there isn’t anything to criticize about each other either.
He says it’s unlikely any candidate will get the 50 per cent of support required to win in the first round of the preferential ballot, and it’s anyone’s game on the second and final ballot.
The results will be announced at the party’s virtual leadership convention Saturday night.
