Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS — 2008 Federal Election Results Map

Sackville—Eastern Shore

This riding wraps around Halifax Harbour without taking in either of the cities on it. Its northern arm holds the suburbs of the Sackville River valley and the lake country at Waverley and Fall River. From there it runs down the harbour's eastern side through Shearwater, Eastern Passage and Cow Bay, past the Preston communities, and then east along the Atlantic coast through Lawrencetown, Porters Lake and Chezzetcook to Musquodoboit Harbour. The urban cores of Halifax and Dartmouth lie outside the boundaries; most of what surrounds them on that side of the water lies inside.

Candidates

Peter Stoffer (NDP) — Stoffer was born at Heerlen, in the Dutch province of Limburg, in 1956, the year his family emigrated to Canada. He worked in airline customer service before taking the riding in 1997, and by 2008 was seeking a fifth term. He held the New Democrat critic portfolios for Veterans Affairs and for Fisheries and Oceans, and had become one of the most persistent voices in the Commons on benefits and compensation for former service members — a constituency with real weight in a riding built around the harbour's military installations.

David Montgomery (Conservative) — Montgomery, who worked in sales and lived at Windsor Junction, was the Conservative candidate.

Carolyn Scott (Liberal) — Scott, retired and living at Eastern Passage, stood for the Liberals.

Noreen Hartlen (Green) — Hartlen, self-employed and living in Dartmouth, carried the Green Party nomination.

About the Riding

Close to 87,000 people lived in the riding in 2006, most of them in its northern quarter. Lower and Middle Sackville, Beaver Bank, Windsor Junction, Waverley and Fall River form a continuous suburban belt served by Highway 102 and the retail strip along Sackville Drive. The name descends from a military post of 1749, but the houses are recent and almost entirely a product of Halifax commuting; school capacity, transit, interchanges and the cost of a long daily drive dominate the agenda there.

Defence work runs through the middle of the riding rather than past it. The Shearwater airfield and the Eastern Passage and Cow Bay communities that grew up beside it sit inside the boundaries, and many more residents commute across the harbour to the dockyard at CFB Halifax. The Afghanistan mission, veterans' pensions and post-service health care were live subjects at the door in 2008, and they were the sitting member's signature file.

East of the Prestons the character changes again. Lake Echo, Porters Lake and West Chezzetcook sit at the transition, and past them the riding becomes a strip of coastal settlement facing the open Atlantic. Lawrencetown's beach draws surfers year-round. Musquodoboit Harbour, near the eastern limit of the riding, is the service centre for the shore, with a hospital, an RCMP detachment, schools and municipal offices.

The two ends have little in common but the member who represents them. The suburban north worries about growth; the coastal east has been losing people since the groundfish collapse of the early 1990s, and what work remains is in the inshore fishery, aquaculture, small woodlot forestry and seasonal tourism along the Marine Drive. Fisheries management, fuel costs and the gap in infrastructure between the suburban and rural ends filled out the local campaign.