“At the end of the day, this falls on my shoulders,” an apologetic Liberal Leader Zach Churchill told reporters Tuesday night after his party was dealt a devastating loss in the Nova Scotia election.
Not only did the Liberals drop from the official Opposition to a third-place party, but Elections Nova Scotia results show Churchill lost his own seat in the riding of Yarmouth to Tory candidate Nick Hilton by 14 votes.
“This loss is on me. I’m the leader of the party. It was my job to gain a seat and I didn’t do that,” Churchill said.
According to Elections Nova Scotia, an automatic recount is only triggered if there are fewer than 10 votes between the first- and second-place finishers on the ballot. If there isn’t an automatic recount, the candidate can petition for a judicial recount if they believe there are grounds for one.
Tim Houston’s Progressive Conservatives won a decisive majority government in Tuesday’s vote. With most polls reporting, the Tories were elected or leading in 43 of the province’s 55 ridings, the NDP had nine, the Liberals had two and there was one Independent.
The PCs expanded their majority — having had 34 seats at dissolution — while NDP Leader Claudia Chender becomes the first elected female Opposition leader in the province.
For Churchill, his political future and whether he will remain party leader is unclear. He said Tuesday night he intended to have conversations with party caucus members and his family.
As for what went wrong for the Liberals, Churchill said it’s “not an easy question to answer.”
“We were focused on the policies that mattered. I am proud of the campaign that we ran, which was built around good ideas that we think can help people. But at the end of the day, the voters wanted overwhelmingly to stick with the government in power and Mr. Houston,” he said.
“And we certainly want to congratulate him and Ms. Chender on their success.”
When asked if dissatisfaction with the federal Liberals affected his provincial party, Churchill admitted they were “fighting against headwinds there.”
“But at the end of the day, it’s my job to punch through that. It’s my job to inspire people to vote for us and to build a winning strategy. And I didn’t do that.”
Churchill was first elected to the legislature in a 2010 byelection — at the age of 26. He was the first Lebanese Canadian to win a seat in the Nova Scotia house of assembly.
After the Liberals won a majority in 2013, he held several cabinet portfolios, including health, education, natural resources and municipal affairs.
One of his most notable accomplishments was introducing Nova Scotia’s universal pre-primary program for four-year-olds, and he also served briefly as health minister during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Churchill was elected to lead the Liberals in July 2022, and this election was his first as leader of the party.
Looking back at the past 14 years, Churchill said he was grateful to have had the opportunity to represent his hometown of Yarmouth.
“This job is all about having an impact and leaving your community and your province better off than when you started, and I feel like I’ve been able to do that,” he said.
— with a file from The Canadian Press
