Lloyd Hines, former Liberal cabinet minister and Guysborough warden, dies

Former Liberal MLA and Municipality of the District of Guysborough warden Lloyd Hines is being remembered as a dedicated civil servant who worked for those he represented in office.

Hines passed away Sunday at the age of 71.

“Anyone who worked with Lloyd is really saddened by his passing,” Nova Scotia Liberal Party leader Zach Churchill said Tuesday. “He was an incredible guy. What you saw was what you got, he was a straight shooter and salt of the earth kind of person.”

Churchill said that Hines was champion for his community and the rural economy.

“He cared really deeply about our resource sectors: fishing, forestry, agriculture, mining, and knew how important they were to the rural economy, and he didn’t make any apologies about that.”

A post on the municipality’s website said Hines spent most of his life dedicated to the people of the municipality and served more than just a councillor and MLA. He served on many boards and volunteer organizations, and was elected to the first Guysborough County District School Board in 1982, serving for four years.

He was first elected to council in 1997, serving his first nine years as councillor and being chosen as warden after subsequent elections until he left municipal politics. He was elected as an MLA in 2013, and named as natural resources minister in 2015. He was returned to office in the 2017 election, and served as minister of transportation and infrastructure renewal until 2021. He was defeated in the 2021 general election.

The municipality said Hines’ “forward-looking thinking shaped our municipality into the strong, successful community that it is today.  His legacy will live on infinitely for the positive impact that Lloyd had on our communities.”

Current warden Vernon Pitts said in the statement that Hines “ was deeply respected, and it is with heartfelt grief and a sense of great loss that we mourn the passing of Lloyd as our leader, colleague, and friend.  We will always hold his memory in our hearts.”

Hines is survived by his wife Patricia, children Shannon, Sarah, Victoria, and Regan and several grandchildren.