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Nova Scotia Politics 1945-2020: From Macdonald to MacNeil
Who has held political power in Nova Scotia? How did they get it? And what did they do with it? In his latest book, best-selling author and former cabinet minister Graham Steele takes us on a roller-coaster ride through seventy-five years of Nova Scotia politics from 1945 to 2020. The story ranges from Angus L. Macdonald, who won a crushing election victory in 1945 after a bitter falling-out with prime minister Mackenzie King, to Stephen McNeil, who provoked the first-ever teachers' strike yet won the first back-to-back majorities in thirty years. It covers premiers from the calm intellectual Robert Stanfield, to the acerbic outsider Donald Cameron, to the aloof reformer John Savage, and highlights trailblazers like Gladys Porter, Wayne Adams, and Donald Marshall Jr. Nova Scotia politics has seen an almost unnatural focus on jobs, roads, and corruption. Steele doesn't shy away from the controversial parts of our political the trial of Gerald Regan for sexual crimes; the political pressure that led to the opening of the ill-starred Westray mine; and the environmental racism that pumped effluent into Boat Harbour for fifty years. This is a book for anyone interested in modern Nova Scotia history or politics. It's for the avid politics-watcher, of course, but also for the new voter, the newcomer, the new parent, the newly retired—anyone who wants some historical depth by which to understand today's politics. Steele pulls together the threads of history, adding original stories and archival research to the existing rich vein of historical writing, and then applies his own political experience to find the through lines that tie together past, present, and future.
- GenresPolitics
246 pages, Paperback
Published April 5, 2021
4 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Graham Steele
9 books13 followersGraham Steele was a member of the Nova Scotia legislature from 2001 to 2013. He was the minister of finance and minister of Acadian affairs (2009–2012) and minister of economic and rural development and tourism (2013) in the Dexter government.
Graham is now heard regularly as a Nova Scotia political analyst for CBC. Before entering politics, Graham was a lawyer in private practice and in government.
He is a Rhodes Scholar and originally from Winnipeg. He lives in Halifax.
Graham is now heard regularly as a Nova Scotia political analyst for CBC. Before entering politics, Graham was a lawyer in private practice and in government.
He is a Rhodes Scholar and originally from Winnipeg. He lives in Halifax.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 8, 2023
Truly appreciated this book, even if it is very barebones and only begins to cover the topic.
A popular history of Nova Scotia's premiers. There's a good deal on Macdonald and Stanfield, our first postwar Liberal and Conservative premiers and probably the most important. For everyone else, it's a few very brief pages on their political rise, what they did in office (if anything), and their downfall. The interim premiers are lucky even to get a mention.
If there's an ideological difference to be found, you might say one side is the Macdonald approach (public works, mostly building and maintaining roads) and the Stanfield approach (attracting outside businesses to set up shop in Nova Scotia with things like tax breaks and anti-union legislation). But every premier uses both approaches. The downside of the public works approach is that it led to a wide scale petty corruption in the form of patronage jobs. The downside of the Stanfield approach is that millions are spent on businesses that don't take off, don't employ as many people as they say they will (and because of anti-union legislation, the jobs end up paying less), and in the end the government is on the hook for cleaning up pollution (as at the Pictou pulp mill) or takes over a failing business and keeps it running just to keep people employed (the Sydney steel mill). Ironically, as Steele points out, the economy stays about the same either way: Nova Scotia can usually be expected to do a little bit better than the rest of Atlantic Canada, and a little bit worse than the rest of the country.
The chapters on petty corruption and road politics were fascinating and far too brief.
Steele was a minister in Darrell Dexter's NDP government, but the book isn't partisan at all. If anything he's too fair and sympathetic to the premiers. There's a tendency to gloss over scandals with technical aspects as simply being controversial, and I would argue with his assertion that there are few or no political multigenerational political dynasties in Nova Scotia (part of this is that he's only counting MLAs who are related to other MLAs--but there are dynasties at the federal level as well as various business families--essentially oligarchs--whose members don't seek elected office but who end up playing a role in our political fate all the same).
Still, these are small quibbles. The book is straightforward and readable and, given how underserved Canadian history is, much-needed. I plan to seek our Steele's previous books and I hope he's able to write about Nova Scotia again in the future.
Oh, and I did a twitter thread of interesting bits here.
A popular history of Nova Scotia's premiers. There's a good deal on Macdonald and Stanfield, our first postwar Liberal and Conservative premiers and probably the most important. For everyone else, it's a few very brief pages on their political rise, what they did in office (if anything), and their downfall. The interim premiers are lucky even to get a mention.
If there's an ideological difference to be found, you might say one side is the Macdonald approach (public works, mostly building and maintaining roads) and the Stanfield approach (attracting outside businesses to set up shop in Nova Scotia with things like tax breaks and anti-union legislation). But every premier uses both approaches. The downside of the public works approach is that it led to a wide scale petty corruption in the form of patronage jobs. The downside of the Stanfield approach is that millions are spent on businesses that don't take off, don't employ as many people as they say they will (and because of anti-union legislation, the jobs end up paying less), and in the end the government is on the hook for cleaning up pollution (as at the Pictou pulp mill) or takes over a failing business and keeps it running just to keep people employed (the Sydney steel mill). Ironically, as Steele points out, the economy stays about the same either way: Nova Scotia can usually be expected to do a little bit better than the rest of Atlantic Canada, and a little bit worse than the rest of the country.
The chapters on petty corruption and road politics were fascinating and far too brief.
Steele was a minister in Darrell Dexter's NDP government, but the book isn't partisan at all. If anything he's too fair and sympathetic to the premiers. There's a tendency to gloss over scandals with technical aspects as simply being controversial, and I would argue with his assertion that there are few or no political multigenerational political dynasties in Nova Scotia (part of this is that he's only counting MLAs who are related to other MLAs--but there are dynasties at the federal level as well as various business families--essentially oligarchs--whose members don't seek elected office but who end up playing a role in our political fate all the same).
Still, these are small quibbles. The book is straightforward and readable and, given how underserved Canadian history is, much-needed. I plan to seek our Steele's previous books and I hope he's able to write about Nova Scotia again in the future.
Oh, and I did a twitter thread of interesting bits here.
November 25, 2023
A great guide to the post-war Premiers of Nova Scotia with extra insights from Steele’s MLA days and footnotes from other sources.
Educational, interesting, and shows us where the issues in our province come from and how they were created. A good pick for anyone looking to learn more about the province or more about rural politics generally!
Educational, interesting, and shows us where the issues in our province come from and how they were created. A good pick for anyone looking to learn more about the province or more about rural politics generally!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews