Nova Scotia MLAs head back to the House on Oct. 12
The Nova Scotia legislature will reconvene on Oct. 12, the Thursday immediately following Thanksgiving Day.
The governing Progressive Conservatives will be giving thanks for an expanded majority in the 55-seat legislature when MLAs renew acquaintances at Province House.
Premier Tim Houston and the PCs will welcome MLA Twila Grosse to the House. Grosse, a longtime community activist with a 36-year background in finance at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport, won the Preston seat in an Aug. 8 byelection.
The byelection was made necessary by the April 1 resignation of Angela Simmonds, who was first elected to the seat during the PCs sweep to victory in the August 17, 2021, general election.
Simmonds ran unsuccessfully for the Liberal leadership on July 9, 2022, falling short to Yarmouth MLA Zach Churchill, who now holds the party reins. The Liberal party had held the Preston seat and previous variations of it for the past 20 years.
The Preston victory gives the PCs 32 seats in the House, twice as many as the Opposition Liberals, while the New Democratic Party holds six seats. Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin, the MLA for Cumberland North, is the lone Independent in the House.
Claudia Chender, elected unopposed as leader of the NDP on June 25, 2022, will begin her third House session as party leader when the legislature reopens.
The 14-day spring session of the legislature ended on April 12. Six government bills were passed and the Progressive Conservatives pushed through a $13.4-billion fiscal 2023-24 bugdet en route to adjournnig the session.
