Looking back is looking forward ...
Jean Laroche | CBC Online News | July 5

Thursday, June 17, 1999: that's the day John Hamm led his Tory troops against the budget of Russell MacLellan and put an end to 16 months of minority rule by the Liberals.

The budget, with its centerpiece $600-million Health Investment Fund, became the focus of a 39-day campaign that turned a bare Liberal minority into a commanding Tory majority.

Four years later, Hamm is hoping for another big win. This time, however, he's fighting on his government's record, not attacking someone else's.

The Hamm government puts balancing the budget in 2002 at the top of its list of accomplishments. When the Tories took power in 1999, the Liberal government of the day was overspending by $500 million a year.

Other accomplishments include creating an energy department, expanding the community college system and creating an arms-length body to handle business loans and grants.

During their four years in power, the Tories have also privatized agriculture services, axed dozens of civil service jobs, pulled the province out of the steel and oil businesses, and ended the practice of building schools with the help of private companies.

As they did in 1999, Tory strategists are banking on Hamm's personal popularity to carry his party to a second mandate.

The Tory mantra has been and continues to be: John Hamm does what he promises to do.

In 2003, he delivered the promised 10-per-cent tax cut to Nova Scotians. There's also a $155 rebate cheque waiting for each taxpayer -- what his opponents say amounts to a $155 rum bottle.

In this election, Hamm faces two new leaders of the opposition parties.

Darrell Dexter has been leader of the NDP since the summer of 2001. The 45-year-old lawyer won the job again in a contested leadership race last summer.

Liberal leader Danny Graham is the new kid on the block. The 41-year-old former government lawyer is not only hoping to form the government, he is trying to win a seat in the Legislature. His attempt to unseat the current minister of health, Jane Purves, is expected to be one of the most hotly contested constituency battles of the upcoming election.

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