A look at Nova Scotia’s new premier, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Houston

For the first time since 2009, Nova Scotia will have a Progressive Conservative premier.

Tory Leader Tim Houston led his party to victory with a campaign that promised to spend massively on health care. Houston had repeatedly called the province’s health-care system a “complete failure.”

“There isn’t a single problem to fix but a chain of failures,” the 51-year-old former chartered accountant said during the campaign.

Houston is from Halifax but moved to Bermuda in 1995, where he worked as a chartered accountant until 2007. 

He was first elected to the legislature in 2013 and became Tory leader in 2018. Houston lives in Pictou County, N.S., with his wife Carol. They have two children.

His party’s plan for health care includes $430 million in new spending in the sector during the first year of its mandate.

Houston promised to hire an additional 600 nurses and 1,400 continuing-care assistants if elected. His platform also included a promise to directly fund about 40 per cent of the cost of fertility treatments for people who want to become parents. 

The party’s platform is estimated to cost $553 million during the first year of the party’s mandate, and Houston said he would run deficits for five years to pay for improving the health system.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 17, 2021.

The Canadian Press