Preston Liberal candidate won't take down sign deemed misleading by N.S. elections watchdog

The Nova Scotia Liberal Party says Carlo Simmons, its candidate running in the Preston byelection, won't back down from signs and flyers that imply the Houston government supports a construction and demolition disposal site in the riding.

The province's top election official has ordered removal of the signs for being misleading.

In a letter to Dorothy Rice shared with CBC News, the party said Elections Nova Scotia is "not in a position to label the Campaign Materials as false simply on the basis there is no active application for approval of a waste management facility or by opining that a particular letter constitutes an appropriate response."

The party said the Elections Nova Scotia order infringes on "political speech."

"Dump the dump," reads the flyer that was being distributed by Simmons during his door-to-door canvassing.

"Houston's Conservatives have done nothing to stop this dump. We must stop them. Vote Carlo Simmons."

In the letter to Rice, the Liberal Party said Simmons regards the waste management facility issue as "one of high importance to the local community he is seeking to represent, and an active issue of discussion in the election."

They said it's "simply not practical given the short duration of the writ period" to order the removal of the signs and flyers because they are "the only methods" through which Simmons can "reach out to an important subset of the electorate."

PC Party complaint

The PC Party wrote to the province's chief electoral officer to complain about the materials. In a letter dated Aug. 1, Rice noted that after a review of the material and evidence supplied by the Liberals to back up their claim, "I do not feel they are properly representing the facts of this matter."

Rice's letter went on to say, "[The Liberal campaign team] have been instructed to remove all signs, by 12:00 AM Thursday, August 3, 2023, and cease use of related door knockers/flyers immediately."

No permit applications, says PC executive

In her letter to Rice, PC Party executive director Penny Morash wrote that the Liberal campaign material refers to a potential construction and demolition (C&D) disposal site in the constituency. Morash noted that the minister of environment and climate change has confirmed that no permit applications have been submitted to the department with respect to such a site.

"We understand from the Minister of Environment that there is no active application to consider and therefore no current scenario in which the PC Party or government can address an issue related to this dump," wrote Morash.

Rice's reply indicates that if the Liberals do not remove the campaign material in question, the party will be in breach of section 307 of the Elections Act.

That section of the law states: "Every person is guilty of an offence who, during an election, knowingly makes, distributes or publishes a false statement of fact about a candidate's character or conduct for the purpose of influencing the election."

Jordan Croucher, the PC campaign communications manager for the byelection in Preston, called it "sad that the Liberal campaign has to resort to fear-mongering" to try to win a seat it has held previously for 20 years.

"I can't imagine it's going that well if they need to resort to not telling the truth," he said.

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill thinks the material is "fair" and "accurate."

Election material defended

"Our candidate Carlo Simmons is standing up for the people in Lake Echo who don't want a dump in their backyard," Churchill told CBC Tuesday. "Tim Houston is trying to silence our candidate and the community on this issue during a byelection.

"We don't agree with the chief electoral officer, although we do respect that office, but we're evaluating what our options are right now because this is a big issue for people."

Churchill said the premier should say whether he supports the dump, regardless of whether the proponents have asked for provincial approval for one.

"Tim Houston has done this before other applications have come in for development," said Churchill. "He did it in Mabou, related to the golf course.… They did not wait for an application to say no, in that particular case."

Churchill suggested Houston could do the same now to alleviate the stress of those who oppose the dump in the Preston riding.

At the beginning of the campaign, the chief electoral officer ordered the Nova Scotia government to end an ad campaign critical of the federal Liberal government and its carbon tax because she felt the ads were "partisan."

The Houston government complied and ended the online component early. The radio ads had already run their course by the time the Liberals complained about that campaign.

The byelection is set for Aug. 8.

Read the complaint letter to Elections Nova Scotia and the response from the agency and the Liberal Party.