Parties scramble to find candidates to run in election
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 26, 2009 | 9:29 PM ET
CBC News
All four parties vying to form the next government in Nova Scotia scrambled and struggled before Tuesday's nomination deadline to find candidates to run in all 52 ridings.
Elections Nova Scotia confirmed that 212 candidates, including four Independents, are running for a seat in the June 9 provincial election.
The deadline for candidates to file their nomination papers was at 2 p.m. AT on Tuesday.
Chief electoral officer Christine McCulloch said three Liberal party candidates were the last to meet the deadline. The last candidate to file papers did so with only an hour to spare, McCulloch said.
Liberal party staff member Joe Archibald was parachuted into the riding of Cumberland South to run against Tory incumbent Murray Scott.
“I’m campaigning and living out of a car,” Archibald told CBC News on Tuesday. “I’m late into the race so I didn’t have the months to get prepared for it like everyone else, so it’s a campaign out of my car — my fuel-efficient Ford Focus.”
Brad Armitage, who started the election campaign working for Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil, decided to run as a candidate for the party in the riding of Halifax-Fairview.
Armitage was seen standing near federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff during a rally held in Dartmouth, N.S., on Sunday.
“He decided that… he wanted that seat, so we granted his wish,” McNeil said Tuesday.
Cory Hann moved back to his hometown of Sydney, N.S., from Halifax to run as a Progressive Conservative party candidate in the riding of Cape Breton Nova.
Hann, 22, was also working on another candidate’s campaign before he was coaxed to run himself.
“I had the party approach me, mostly due to my passion for politics,” Hann said.
Restaurant owner Paul Comeau agreed to run for the New Democratic Party in the riding of Clare only after he was coaxed and convinced to do so.
“My first preoccupation, of course, is to keep my business open during the campaign,” Comeau said when reached by phone Tuesday.
