PC candidate Twila Grosse wins Preston byelection

Twila Grosse of the PC Party will be the next MLA for Preston, taking a riding held by the Nova Scotia Liberal Party for the past 20 years.

Grosse had 45.2 per cent of the vote, according to the Elections Nova Scotia website.

• PC Party: Twila Grosse – 1,950 votes.
• NDP: Colter Simmonds – 1,145 votes.
• Liberal Party: Carlo Simmons – 1,021 votes.
• Green: Anthony Edmonds – 101 votes.
• Nova Scotians United: Charles Bobby Taylor – 95 votes.

Voter turnout was just under 39 per cent.

The byelection was required following the resignation of former Liberal MLA Angela Simmonds in April. Simmonds, who left politics for the private sector, was first elected in 2021.

With a field of five candidates, the campaign was perhaps most notable for the ongoing back and forth between the Tories and Liberals for the parties’ respective campaign advertising.

The Liberals complained to Elections Nova Scotia at the beginning of the campaign for taxpayer-funded radio and web ads the Tories were running about the federal government’s carbon tax. Those ads were ruled out of order and the Tories were told to stop them.

Then the Tories complained about signs and flyers the Liberals were distributing that suggested the Tory government supported a potential construction and demolition waste site in Lake Echo because they were unwilling to take a position on it.

The chief electoral officer ruled those materials were misleading and violated the Elections Act and ordered the Liberals to take them down. When the party refused, Elections Nova Scotia called in the RCMP.

Meanwhile, the Liberals also complained about Tory campaign signs encouraging people to vote against the Liberal carbon tax, signs the provincial Liberals said are misleading because they confuse the federal and provincial levels of the Liberal Party.

Elections Nova Scotia ruled there wasn’t enough time left in the campaign to pursue that matter.

Heading into the byelection, the governing Progressive Conservatives held 31 seats in the provincial legislature, followed by the Liberals with 16 seats, the New Democrats with six and one Independent.