The Atlantica Party (AP) supports making the election cycle predictable by legislating fixed elections dates in Nova Scotia. AP also supports calling the election day Joseph Howe Day.
Nova Scotia is the only province in Canada without some form of fixed election dates. However, there are many benefits to a standardized election cycle:
- It would not allow the Premier to "game" the election date, coinciding with fake good news such as political handouts and creating an unfair advantage.
- It would avoid "gotcha elections," of which this current election is an excellent example. A "gotcha election" leaves parties, Elections Nova Scotia and community groups scrambling to organize, prepare media, nominate candidates and so on. All except the Premier's party, of course. So "gotcha elections" are half-hearted disorganized affairs where valuable time is lost, not debating the issues.
- Elections Nova Scotia supports fixed election dates as a cost-saver since they can plan more efficiently if they know the timing of things rather than reacting to snap election calls.
- The date could be set to maximize voter turnout, for instance, in the fall and not in the middle of summer.
Of course, fixed election dates are a good thing. But what is perplexing about this discussion is no one, until this article, has pointed out under our current system, you CANNOT have truly fixed election dates. Currently, government operates on confidence; an election is called if confidence is lost (for example, a major bill is defeated). That can happen anytime. As long as we stick with the notion of confidence, we cannot have fixed election dates. The Atlantica Party is committed to eliminating confidence and introducing truly fixed election dates.
This policy is part of the Atlantica Party's Political Revolution.
Also see: "The Atlantica Party will make Nova Scotia MLAs Recallable".
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The Atlantica Party was established in 2006 to promote a political revolution in Nova Scotia to fix our broken political system and empower the voter. It is the only political alternative committed to making Nova Scotia a "have" province.