Central Nova, NS — 2008 Federal Election Results Map

Central Nova

Central Nova drew national attention long before the writs were issued. On 17 March 2007 the Green Party leader announced she would run here against Peter MacKay, then minister of foreign affairs and, from that August, minister of national defence. On 12 April the Liberal leader agreed his party would leave the seat uncontested in exchange for the Greens standing aside in his own Montreal riding. No Liberal name appeared on the Central Nova ballot in 2008.

Candidates

Peter Gordon MacKay (Conservative) — MacKay took his arts degree at Acadia and Carleton and his law degree at Dalhousie, was called to the Nova Scotia bar in 1991, worked for the steel producer Thyssen in Halifax and in Germany, and served as a Crown attorney for the province's central region from 1993. Elected in 1997 for Pictou—Antigonish—Guysborough, he was House leader for the Progressive Conservative caucus, won that party's leadership in May 2003, and signed the agreement merging it with the Canadian Alliance that October. He became deputy leader of the new Conservative Party in 2004, was minister of foreign affairs from February 2006 until August 2007, held the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency portfolio, and was minister of national defence going into the campaign. His father, Elmer MacKay, sat for the same ground as a Progressive Conservative before him.

Elizabeth May (Green Party) — May moved with her family from Connecticut to Margaree Harbour in Cape Breton in 1972 and became a Canadian citizen in 1978. She first drew notice campaigning against aerial spraying of Cape Breton forests, took a law degree at Dalhousie in 1983, and served as senior policy adviser to federal environment minister Tom McMillan before resigning in 1988 over dam permits issued without proper assessment. She led Sierra Club Canada from 1989 to 2006, was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2005, and won the Green leadership in August 2006. She finished second in the London North Centre by-election that autumn. Excluded at first from the 2008 televised leaders' debates, she was admitted after a public backlash.

Mary Louise Lorefice (NDP) — A retired history teacher from Antigonish, Lorefice campaigned on household costs. At the riding's main debate she drew the loudest response of the night with the observation that no woman had ever thanked her at the door for the one-point cut to the GST.

Michael Harris MacKay, who worked in retail at West River Station, ran for the Christian Heritage Party, and Paul Kemp, a web master from Scotsburn, for the Canadian Action Party.

About the Riding

Central Nova covered 8,439 square kilometres and about 73,000 people: the counties of Pictou and Antigonish entire, the western district of Guysborough County, and a slice of the eastern shore of the Halifax Regional Municipality. New Glasgow, Stellarton, Westville, Trenton and the town of Pictou form the industrial core; Antigonish is the university town. Michelin's tire plant at Granton and the kraft pulp mill at Abercrombie Point are the largest industrial employers, the Sobeys grocery chain keeps its head office in Stellarton, and St. Francis Xavier University drives the Antigonish economy. Farms and the Northumberland Strait fishery fill in the rural areas.

Industrial decline was the sharpest local issue. The TrentonWorks railcar plant, which had built rolling stock and steel products in the county since the 1870s, ran its last shift in May 2007 after its Oregon owner rejected union concessions and government subsidies. About 600 people packed the all-candidates meeting at St. Francis Xavier University on 6 October, where that closure, the Afghanistan mission, the Atlantic Accord and the proposed carbon tax filled two hours.