Murphy’s Logic: Fixed election dates are in the public interest

Premier Tim Houston has been musing about the possibility of abandoning his handpicked fixed date for the next Nova Scotia election. The law says it will be a year from now, but Houston says voters shouldn’t be denied an earlier opportunity to vote on important issues.

What he really means is that he shouldn’t be denied an earlier opportunity to try to get re-elected.

The only reason Nova Scotia has a fixed election date is because Houston said it was the right thing to do. As leader of the opposition, and during the campaign to become premier, he argued premiers shouldn’t be allowed to call elections to suit their own crass political advantage. The bill establishing the fixed date was the first law introduced by Houston’s new government, by Houston himself.

Fixed election dates are a farce because premiers can simply ignore them. Many experts will tell you while there might be some early furore should Houston decide to call an early election, it won’t last because it won’t matter.

Maybe not, but it will contribute to the already widely held perception that politicians can’t be trusted to keep their promises and that in the end, they often opt to put self interest ahead of the public interest.

If there’s an early election in Nova Scotia, that will most certainly be the case.