DARTMOUTH - Claudia Chender's one-year anniversary as leader of Nova Scotia's New Democratic Party coincided with the arrival of carbon pricing across Canada, and while she is unsure as to whether her party would have supported such a move if it held power at this time, she is blaming Premier Tim Houston for refusing to take the necessary steps to carve out a better deal for Nova Scotians who are now struggling to pay higher prices for gasoline, diesel and home heating oil. 

Interviewed by TELILE 24/7 host and LJI journalist Adam Cooke, Chender pointed out that Houston's PC government did not submit a formal response to the federal government in terms of a carbon-pricing strategy for Nova Scotia, and instead provided a list of other provincial renewable-energy measures just prior to an August 31, 2022 deadline for that response. Houston and his fellow Maritime Premiers also made one last pitch for an emergency meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the issue, days before the July 1 implementation of carbon pricing across the country. 

"The premier abdicated his responsibility," the NDP leader declared. 

"He got mad instead of getting smart and proposing to Ottawa a made-in-Nova-Scotia to price carbon, so he didn't, and that's why [the province's response] was rejected."

Chender also criticized Houston for "picking fights with the federal government" concerning Nova Scotia's participation in the Atlantic Loop hydroelectric project, and suggested that the PC administration has a combative style that is not properly addressing rural health care concerns or affordability issues such as rising fuel and grocery prices. 

"We have always stood for the notion that government should be for everybody, not just for some," Chender said of the NDP. "But now we have a government that rewards their friends and punishes their enemies. That's old-school Nova Scotia politics, and I think people are tired of it, and I think they're ready for something different." 

As she campaigns in the recently-vacated riding of Preston with the hopes that a seventh NDP MLA will be elected in a by-election on August 8, Chender is hopeful for continued growth in a party that has now been out of power in Nova Scotia for nearly ten years. 

"I think it's really time for a change of course, so that individual Nova Scotians' experiences can improve," she added.