Premier Tim Houston dissolved the Nova Scotia legislature on October 27, 2024, calling a snap election for November 26 — eight months before the fixed election date of July 15, 2025 that his own government had legislated. Houston cited the need to avoid a clash with a potential federal election and positioned the campaign as a referendum on opposition to Ottawa's carbon tax. Opposition leaders attacked the early call, with Liberal leader Zach Churchill calling it "a needless election that's going to cost Nova Scotians $13 million for no good reason." Turnout fell to 45% of eligible voters, the lowest in Nova Scotia history and the first time participation dipped below 50%.

Results

The PCs won a commanding supermajority with 43 of 55 seats and 52.8% of the popular vote — the first time since 1984 that a Nova Scotia party exceeded half the popular vote and the best seat result in PC party history. The NDP gained three seats to finish with 9, while the Liberals collapsed from 17 to just 2, the worst result in their history. Independent Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin held Cumberland North. The PCs gained vote share in every single electoral district.

The Liberal devastation was total outside two pockets of survival. Leader Zach Churchill lost his own seat of Yarmouth by just 14 votes — confirmed at 16 after a judicial recount. Only former premier Iain Rankin in Timberlea-Prospect and Derek Mombourquette in Sydney-Membertou survived. The NDP swept urban Halifax and Dartmouth, taking all nine of their seats in the metro area plus Cape Breton Centre-Whitney Pier, while flipping Sackville-Cobequid, Halifax Armdale, and Fairview-Clayton Park from other parties.

Party Leaders

Tim Houston (PC) converted his 2021 upset into a historic supermajority by running on his government's record while positioning aggressively against federal policies. Born April 10, 1970, in Halifax to a military family, Houston grew up on bases across Canada — Summerside, Trenton, Comox — before returning to Nova Scotia when his father was posted to Shearwater. He earned a Bachelor of Commerce from Saint Mary's University and his Chartered Accountant designation, then moved to Bermuda to work with Deloitte and in the reinsurance industry. After returning to Pictou County in 2007, he served as CFO of an online training company. He won Pictou East in the 2013 general election, captured the PC leadership on October 27, 2018 after the first ballot when opponents conceded, and stunned the province by winning a majority in 2021. In 2024 he was re-elected in Pictou East with 78.6% of the vote. His second-term platform touted roughly 250 new doctors recruited since 2021, a province-wide school lunch program serving approximately 75,000 students, and promised continued opposition to the federal carbon tax.

Zach Churchill (Liberal) led his party into an electoral disaster from which he did not survive. Born May 25, 1984, and raised in Yarmouth, the descendant of Lebanese immigrants, Churchill earned a Bachelor of Arts from Saint Mary's University and served as National Director of the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations before winning Yarmouth at age 26 in 2010. He held multiple cabinet portfolios under Stephen McNeil and served as Minister of Health and Wellness under Iain Rankin. He won the Liberal leadership in July 2022, making the 2024 contest his first general election as leader. His platform promised 80,000 new homes by 2032 and a new Annapolis Valley hospital, but the campaign never gained traction against Houston's incumbency advantage. Churchill lost Yarmouth by 14 votes to PC candidate Nick Hilton and resigned as Liberal leader on December 10, 2024.

Claudia Chender (NDP) led the most successful NDP campaign in a generation and became the province's first permanent female Leader of the Opposition. Born July 29, 1976, Chender — three of whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors — earned a Bachelor of Arts from Dalhousie University and a law degree from the University of Victoria. She worked as a legal educator with the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society before winning Dartmouth South in 2017 and was elected NDP leader on June 25, 2022. Her 2024 platform centred on opening 15 new collaborative family doctor clinics per year, building 30,000 affordable rental homes, and affordability measures. The NDP's nine seats — up from six — made it the Official Opposition for the first time since 2006.

Campaign Issues

Health care remained the dominant issue despite Houston having made it his signature cause in 2021. The family doctor wait-list had grown from roughly 75,000 when Houston took office to over 160,000 by mid-2024, and emergency rooms across the province continued to face closures and overcrowding. Houston countered by citing hundreds of new doctors and nurses recruited, arguing the crisis required more time to fix. Both the NDP and Liberals promised rapid expansion of collaborative care clinics.

Housing affordability emerged as a close second. Houston's 5% cap on rent increases was criticized as insufficient, and his refusal to reform fixed-term leases — which allowed landlords to impose unlimited increases at lease expiry — drew particular fire from the NDP and Liberals. The NDP promised 30,000 affordable rental homes; the Liberals pledged 80,000 new homes overall.

Houston's aggressive opposition to the federal carbon tax anchored the PC campaign's anti-Ottawa messaging, resonating particularly in rural and South Shore communities. Fishing communities along the South Shore were also angry about the federal government's handling of illegal lobster harvesting disputes, further eroding Liberal support in traditionally safe seats.

Notable Outcomes

The record-low 45% turnout was attributed to the race's perceived inevitability — polls had shown the PCs well ahead from the start, and Elections Nova Scotia's decision to forgo printed voter information cards due to a potential Canada Post strike added logistical confusion.

The Liberal near-wipeout was unprecedented. Dropping from 17 seats to 2 — with the leader losing his own seat by 14 votes — left the party as the legislature's third force behind the NDP. Churchill's resignation triggered an interim leadership under Mombourquette. The NDP's ascent to Official Opposition, despite finishing third in popular vote behind the Liberals, illustrated the efficiency advantage of their concentrated urban support under first-past-the-post.

Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin's re-election in Cumberland North was historic in its own right — originally elected as a PC in 2017 and removed from the PC caucus in 2021 for her involvement in a border blockade during COVID-19, she became the first independent re-elected to the Nova Scotia legislature.