The farming factor and the battle for Kings-Hants
Liberal incumbent Kody Blois tries to fend off Conservative Joel Hirtle
In the federal riding of Kings-Hants, scattered among the typical campaign signs in bright party colours, there are some large signs in an unfamiliar burgundy.
"Farmers for Kody," the signs say, referring to Liberal candidate Kody Blois but with no mention of the party.
The signs speak to the importance of the agriculture industry in this part of Nova Scotia, as well as the strategy of the incumbent, who is seeking a third term.
"There's a lot of farmers in Kings-Hants. Not all are Liberal farmers, of course. Some like the government, some don't, but they generally have supported my work and my candidacy here," Blois said in an interview.
He said he came up with the idea for the sign about a year ago, at a time when the Liberal brand was sinking in popularity and well before he was appointed to Prime Minister Mark Carney's cabinet as agriculture minister.
Even though the Liberals are now leading in most public opinion polls, political science professor Erin Crandall said Blois's strategy is still sage.
Fighting to keep the seat
"Any Liberal candidate will be fighting really hard to keep this riding," said Crandall, who works at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S., in the heart of Kings-Hants.
"Despite the fact that it has been a Liberal riding for 20 years, I don't think anyone here would call it a Liberal riding.… It was a Scott Brison riding," she said, referring to Blois's predecessor who served as a Conservative MP before he was a Liberal, and a Progressive Conservative before that.
Crandall said Blois's use of his personal brand, plus the recent Liberal boost, is giving Blois the edge over his Conservative competitor, Joel Hirtle.
Hirtle, a one-term councillor for the Municipality of the County of Kings and former tire builder at Michelin, secured the federal Conservative nomination more than a year ago and began unofficially campaigning right away.
Old posts drum up controversy
Soon after the writ dropped, old tweets by Hirtle in which he criticized the #MeToo movement began circulating online.
"As a straight (married) man I have not issued compliments to female coworkers that I believe would be appreciated. "I like your new haircut" suddenly becomes dangerous post #metoo," reads one of his posts from July 2018.
In another, he said he would require Bitcoin donations to interact with members of the "#metoo swarm mob," and in another he refers to adherents of #MeToo as "heroines of hypocrisy" and "sultans of slander," among other epithets.
The posts drummed up critical chatter online and inspired a small protest against Hirtle in a public park in Wolfville, where a little more than a dozen participants chanted "We do not consent to Hirtle" and "Hirtle has no place in Parliament."
Rene Doucet Cottreau, a student at Acadia University, organized the event and said it was partly about Hirtle's past comments, and partly about Hirtle's response — or lack thereof — to them.
"[He] is continually refusing to meet with the people that he claims to want to represent," Doucet Cottreau said, referring to Hirtle declining to participate in two local candidates debates.
Hirtle also declined to speak with CBC News.
"This is about candidate quality both in a professional and personal capacity," said Doucet Cottreau.
Doucet Cottreau said he hoped Hirtle would apologize. Hirtle does not appear to have commented publicly on the issue, but the Conservative party told CBC News that he "regrets his imprudent posts from 7 years ago."
"Sexual assault and sexual harassment are serious issues that demand equally serious responses. Mr. Hirtle firmly believes such incidents must be properly addressed and perpetrators held accountable," a party spokesperson said in an email.
Conservative headwinds
Crandall said the matter doesn't seem to be affecting the race. At least, not as significantly as other factors.
"I would guess that what's bringing down the local campaign has more to do with the struggles of the national [Conservative] campaign as opposed to perhaps some of the controversy around the candidate," she said.
Crandall highlighted that as generations who grew up with social media age into politics, candidates are increasingly having to grapple with old social media posts.
"[People] do have to be held accountable for it. But you also have to allow for growth of a person," she said.
"What you say when you're 22 is not going to be representative, necessarily, of what you believe when you're 32. And voters will get to decide that. That's the value of the vote."
Five names on the ballot
The New Democrats have Paul Doerr on the ballot. A professor of history at Acadia University, he ran unsuccessfully in the fall provincial election for the Nova Scotia NDP.
He said his career studying and teaching 20th-century European politics and history inspired his run.
"I'm very much aware of the dangers of authoritarianism and fascism and the fragility of our democracies. So at that time I wanted to make a contribution. I also wanted to be sure that postelection we have a country with a strong social safety net, including a very strong health-care system," he said in an interview.
Green candidate Karen Beazley is a retired professor with Dalhousie's school of resource and environmental studies. At a local debate, she said she's running because party co-leader Elizabeth May's message resonates with her — especially as Canada navigates new international tariffs and the economic fallout.
"Democracy and respect for human rights, climate action and collective work for a better world must not be abandoned," she said.
The People's Party is running Alexander Cargill, who describes himself on the PPC website as a "key figure" in the Freedom Convoy, which descended on downtown Ottawa in 2022 to protest pandemic protocols and other federal Liberal government policies.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
