Politics

How Autocracy Creeps In

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Last week I wrote the following (I “published” it – you may have received it before I deleted it, I could not get the formatting right!):

For many months I’ve been more and more uncomfortable with the decisions being made by NS Premier Tim Houston. I was not, I am not, a Houston supporter, but I was willing to give him an opportunity to “fix” health care, while believing it was difficult, if not impossible, given the complexity of the problems. There are other aspects of NS life also needing serious government decision-making besides health care – housing, for example, unban development, transportation, the economy, interprovincial trade…. The list goes on and on.

Nova Scotia is no different than other provinces. These are the problems facing every Canadian province and likely every US state! So it’s been interesting watching Houston as he “tackles” these problems. What’s become more and more worrisome is the secrecy, the lack of transparency, that’s becoming the norm over the decisions being made in my province. We’re also seeing executive overreach in some of the moves being made by Houston!

My concerns were confirmed today in an article by Michael MacDonald: ‘Control-mania’: Nova Scotia premier accused of executive overreach with new bill in the Canadian Press.

Attempts by governments to reduce public scrutiny and stifle criticism are becoming increasingly common, said Tom Urbaniak, a political science professor at Cape Breton University. “This populist movement that we’re seeing across the democratic world weakens institutions that can provide objective information in favour of spin and propaganda,” he said in an interview.

“We’re seeing a significant scaling back of the access to information regime in Nova Scotia,” he said. “It will make it much easier for the executive, the cabinet, to decide whether a request is too broad or frivolous or vexatious.”

Last week Houston refused to respond to questions from the press. He’s curtailed full debate of many issues in the legislature.

Slowly, but surely, in many small, often unnoticed ways, the pubic right to accurate information about decisions being made by our provincial government are being limited.

Our auditor general has called out the current Conservative government over a variety of spending decisions and indiscretions. Houston’s latest move has been to include a provision in a new omnibus bill that allows the firing of the auditor general without cause effectively undermining that important oversight should information detrimental or embarrassing to the government be made public!

“The ability to remove the auditor general without cause, combined with the ability to control our public reporting, impacts the independence, integrity and objectivity of the office,” Adair (our current auditor general) told a news conference.

“These changes could mean any report the government doesn’t like wouldn’t be made public.”

Such secrecy ensures the NS public doesn’t learn about what could be a growing number of questionable, perhaps detrimental, decisions this government is planning – we simply won’t know what’s really happening as our government moves forward.

This is how autocracy creeps up on us.

A few days ago pubic response forced Houston to rescind the bill which included unilaterally being able to get rid of the Auditor General without cause!

Today, in The Coast Daily, Julie, the editor echoes what’s been rattling around in my head!

Good morning Halifax,

The PC Party of Nova Scotia’s latest message to its supporters asking for money is bone-chilling—and if you were slightly concerned that this government is trying to uproot democracy, clearly your concerns are valid. 

In a fundraising letter last week, MLA Leah Martin—obviously towing the party line—wrote to supporters:

“Will you pitch in here right now to help us withstand NDP attacks, overpower the special interests and professional protesters, bypass the media when we need to and stay on track with our plan to make it happen for Nova Scotia?” 

Ummm, make what happen for Nova Scotia? Fascism?

This narrative that the media is the enemy is untrue, cowardly and a kick in the teeth to voters. Citizens have a right to know the policies and activities of their government, and the media has the right to ask tough questions about those policies and activities. 

But premier Tim Houston has completely limited the media’s access to elected officials, allowing them to only answer questions during times organized by the government in a room they control across the street from the legislature. It gives big “we’re scared of scrums” energy to me—bitching out of the way politicians in Nova Scotia have answered questions for literally ever.

So, to review: This government was elected based on YOUR votes and now they want YOU to pay for them to ensure YOU don’t know what they’re doing.

I don’t know where Houston is getting his audacity. It can’t be from the confidence people have in him, because most people voted for nobody. It can’t be from feeling powerful, because his trips to meet with Trump’s underlings had zero impact on tariff decisions. It can’t be from feeling popular, because he had to walk back his auditor general bill after being so unanimously publicly criticized. 

Where then? 🕵️

Hope your day makes more sense than all of this!

– Julie

I have no idea what I can do about this personally, except to copy this post and send it along to the premier! He needs to know people are watching and aren’t happy with his attempts to hide what he’s doing. He needs to understand the citizens of NS deserve to be informed about the basis for decisions he’s putting forth.

I sure don’t like how this is beginning to look – small potatoes in comparison to what’s going on in the US, but hints of Autocracy are here, nevertheless!

Feb 27 2025

I sent a note with a copy of this blog entry to The Honourable Tim Houston, last evening. I’ll eventually get a form reply. No guarantee any actual person will read the piece. JMN

Amaryllis

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Double Amaryllis

I bought this bulb in late November, planted it mid December. The photo on the package showed a single petal layer, but I’ve got a mix between single and double! There isn’t a full third layer of petals and it looks like there’s a single stamen! So likely an infertile flower – but lovely to look at. Two more blooms to come and maybe a second stalk (likely not). The stalk on this flower is quite short – not a bad thing since when the stalks become long, the plant has a tendency to overbalance and topple over. That’s not going to happen with this short stalk.

Not much else going on. Almost finished a pair of socks – this evening I anticipate. Then I plan to use the leftovers for another pair of socks – I’ve pulled out some contrasting solids that I will interleave with the variegated yarn to make sure I have enough for a smaller pair of ladies socks.

The holiday baking is nearly all consumed (well, not all of the fruitcake). That will be consumed over the year either to take to the knitting group or for a friend; I am able to avoid snacking on it, thank goodness.

Just about to open my fabric stash and sort through the batiks. There are some lovely batik fat quarter bundles I’ve seen online, but there’s no point in buying more until I see what I have already.

My life goes on calmly in spite of the political craziness all around. Canada amalgamating with the US – I swear, I’ll sign up to help organize a resistance group. The Prime Minister responded with “a snowball’s chance in hell” but where is Poilievre! Not a peep – where does he stand on this massive insult? Does he think it’s a great idea? How is he planning on dealing with trump 2.0? Not a word – just screaming anti-Trudeau garbage! And people consider that leadership? It’ll be interesting to see who steps up to lead the Liberal Party. The Liberals can’t win this coming election in the spring, but they don’t have to suffer a Mulroney massacre, either, if they can choose someone who knows how to offer a strong positive message and organize people and policy.

Back to resistance – a month ago I joined an American resistance organization – Indivisible: A Practical Guide to Democracy On The Brink – to eavesdrop on the discussion and to access their resources. This is one of many groups that sprang up in the run-up to the November US Election. This one has grown considerably since November. I’m lurking to have access to their “Strategies, Tactics, & Tips For How Everyday Americans Can Fight Back Together Wherever We Live”. We’re going to need those tactics if Canadians are stupid enough to give Poilievre a substantial majority government! Those of us opposed to his way of doing politics are going to have to organize dissent in a substantial way. Interested in joining me?

I don’t have a vote

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At the top of my email this morning was the daily offering from Steve Brodner – a shocker: https://substack.com/home/post/p-147061422?source=queue

“Christians, get out and vote! Just this time! You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It will be fixed, it will be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians. I love you, Christians. You got to get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you don’t have to vote.” [trump speaking in Florida 7/26/2024]

I searched “Did trump actually say christians get out and vote…” – just to confirm he’d said it as Brodner quoted. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe Brodner, I was interested in finding out more about the context and whether any of the major news outlets would bother to report the comment. 

I definitely found headlines, so trump’s rantings are garnering some attention. They need a lot more attention. Given the overall context of his “speeches” I’m taking the words at face value – vote him into office and that’s the end of meaningful presidential elections. I suppose he could be saying that he’ll have changed the political reality to such an extent that even if there were to be elections whether Christians vote or not won’t matter because any election would simply be pro forma. 

I’m on the sidelines in this US election. I don’t have a vote. I’m Canadian. I’m fascinated with the way the election has changed since last Sunday when Biden announced he was passing the torch to Kamala Harris. Energy was palpable almost immediately. I am hoping she can maintain and grow support for her campaign because trump winning the election would be horrific. At least that’s how I see it from my vantage point in Nova Scotia, Canada. 

Not only would a trump win be dreadful for the US, it would change lives in Canada in some expected and many unexpected ways. The economic impact would be felt here instantly. But more egregious would be the way in which our political conversation would change – becoming even more partisan, more vicious, more divisive on all sides. We don’t need that.

So I watch the campaign with more than a little concern. I read trump’s words as invoking a dictatorship – support me this time and that’ll be the end of it – I’ll make sure you’ll never need to vote again.

I’m hoping Harris can build and sustain momentum – the US needs her to win. The rest of the world needs her to win.

Go Kamala, go girl! 

But I don’t have a vote….

[PS: If you don’t know much about it check out Project 2025 – it’s the GOP/Trump blueprint for a trump presidency – the document itself is 900 pages long, but this synopsis will fill you in.]