One-on-one with Stephen McNeil – The Coast

The premier talks carbon pricing, university tuition and Nova Scotia’s future.

Earlier this month premier Stephen McNeil joined other Canadian premiers on the other side of the country for the much-publicized first ministers conference in Vancouver with prime minister Justin Trudeau. Those meetings covered such environment-related topics as climate change and carbon pricing, and were meant to lay the foundation for a national climate strategy. The resulting Vancouver declaration is essentially a blueprint on how to keep moving toward a national climate strategy. But while there’s agreement on battling global warming, there wasn’t much consensus in the premiers’ group regarding carbon pricing. The Nova Scotia government has said it isn’t interested in introducing a stand-alone carbon tax here.

McNeil, 51, has now been leader of the provincial Liberal party for almost nine years and premier of Nova Scotia since October 2013. While his government has faced criticism over several policy decisions in the last three years, the latest quarterly survey results from Corporate Research Associates still show the Liberals well ahead of their party rivals in the polls.

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