Live updates: N.S. election night 2024
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Nova Scotia legislature building11:27 p.m.
Roundup of Halifax-area ridings
NDP candidate Rod Wilson has won the Halifax-Armdale riding, securing the district for the NDP for the first time since the Liberals took it over in 2013. Wilson beat incumbent Liberal candidate Ali Duale and PC candidate Craig Myra.
Wilson and Myra were in a tight race for much of the evening, with Wilson only narrowly beating Myra.
Wilson based much of his platform on improving healthcare in his district. He has worked with the Nova Scotia Health Authority to create services for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and has held leadership roles with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia.
The last time the NDP held Halifax-Armdale, Graham Steele won over the Liberals by 3,136 votes in 2009.
The NDP’s Suzy Hansen was re-elected in Halifax Needham. For her second term as MLA, her top priorities are affordable housing, taking the HST off household essentials, and reliable health care.
Hansen had a strong lead in the polls all evening against PC’s Trayvone Clayton and Liberal’s Jon Frost.
The Halifax Needham district has been an NDP riding for the past 26 years. It is made up of Halifax’s North End, east of Windsor Street and north of Cogswell Street.
Progressive Conservative incumbent candidate Brendan Maguire maintained his lead in the Halifax Atlantic riding with 1,572 votes. With 33 of 38 polls reporting, Maguire took an overwhelming lead over second-place NDP candidate Cathy Cervin, who had 929 votes.
In third place was Liberal candidate Phil Chisholm with 382 votes, and the Green Party’s Gadfly Stratton sat in fourth place with 44 votes.
If Maguire secures the victory in Halifax Atlantic, it will be the first time the riding has voted PC since 1988.
NDP candidate Lina Hamid leads by 400 votes with just one more poll to report in the Fairview-Clayton Park riding. Hamid has 39 per cent of the vote over the Progressive Conservative candidate Nicole Mosher’s 32.4 per cent. Incumbent Liberal Patricia Arab has 28.7 per cent. Hamid sits at 2,414 votes; Mosher has 2,003 votes and Arab has 1,773.
NDP’s Krista Gallagher has won Halifax Chebucto with 55 per cent of the vote.
Gallagher took home 3,321 votes, with her nearest opponent Tonya Malay (PC) taking 1,415 votes.
NDP candidate and leader Claudia Chender has taken the Dartmouth South riding in a landslide win, collecting 3,815 votes with 35 of 37 polls reported. Chender defeated PC candidate Bea MacGregor and Liberal candidate Barb Henderson. Chender was also declared the leader of Nova Scotia’s new opposition party.
Incumbent Lisa Lachance has won the riding of Halifax Citadel Sable-Island with 53 per cent of the vote, 40 of 43 polls report.
She defeated her closest opponent Eleanor Humphries (PC) by over 1,600 votes.
The voter turnout was just over 35 per cent.
-Signal staff
11:14 p.m.
Churchill concedes defeat
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill said the election results are not what his party hoped for.
With two polls left to report in his Yarmouth riding, Churchill congratulated Progressive Conservative candidate Nick Hilton.
“This loss belongs to me and me alone,” said Churchill in his speech on Tuesday night. “We got knocked down but we will get back up.”
As polls draw to a close, it appears Progressive Conservative candidate Nick Hilton will be the new MLA for the riding of Yarmouth. His win ends Zach Churchill’s four-term tenure as MLA of the riding.
With just two polls to be counted, Hilton holds 1,852 votes compared to Churchill’s 1,674. NDP candidate Gillian Rowley has 125 votes and Green Party candidate Adam Randall has 42 votes.
Hilton’s first provincial election sees him with 50 per cent of votes in his riding.
Churchill was the official opposition to Tim Houston’s Progressive Conservative government. He was MLA for his riding since 2010 after winning a byelection with 51 per cent of the vote. In 2021, he won with 56 per cent.
-Eamon Irving
10:39 p.m.
Chender celebrates party’s gains
NDP leader Claudia Chender celebrated her party’s gains with a cheering crowd in her speech at the NDP gathering in Halifax tonight.
“People across this province, including I’m guessing most of you, cast their vote for a government that actually cares about all Nova Scotians,” she said.
The NDP is projected to be the province’s official opposition, a change in fortune from the third-place position it has held since 2013.
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Claudia Chender delivered a boisterous speech celebrating the NDP’s new status as official opposition at the NDP gathering in Halifax on Tuesday night.Chender said this was indicative of the rising influence of the NDP.
“We had hoped for a different result tonight, make no mistake, our vision for a different kind of government has struck a nerve. And I am here to tell you that the Nova Scotia NDP is on the rise,” she said.
She said she was “very proud to be the first woman elected as leader of the official opposition,” but said it was important to remember the women in politics who had come before.
She ended her speech with a commitment to work for Nova Scotians, saying “we will show up to work next week and every day to work towards better, to fight for you and to hold Tim Houston and his giant band of MLAs to account.”
-Linus Mulherin, Jennifer Waugh
10:35 p.m.
Gallagher takes Halifax Chebucto
New Democratic Party candidate Krista Gallagher has said in a Facebook post she is ready to take her seat in the legislature and congratulated her opponents in the riding of Halifax Chebucto.
The NDP has 2,302 votes with 28 polls of 36 reporting, a margin of 1,161 votes over Progressive Conservative candidate Tonya Malay.
Gallagher took over the NDP candidacy from MLA Gary Burrill, who did not seek re-election. Burrill was the leader of the NDP from 2016 to 2022.
Liberal Party candidate Gerard Bray remains in third place with 957 votes and the Green Party candidate Jonathan Bradet-Legris has 87 votes.
Gallagher is originally from the Annapolis Valley and is an entrepreneur who owns two Local Source markets on Windsor and Agricola streets.
-Mark Pero
10:30 p.m.
Raucous atmosphere at Houston HQ
Progressive Conservative supporters are jubilant as they celebrate Tim Houston’s campaign in Pictou East. With music and excited conversations, the party at the Pictou Wellness Centre is lively, with news networks having called a PC majority government almost an hour ago.
As the clock struck 9 p.m., the crowd cheered as they gathered around TVs. Supporters whistled, sang and danced to loud music. Party supporters cheered enthusiastically every time the PCs won a seat.
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Progressive Conservative supporters cheer on Tim Houston at the Pictou East riding on Tuesday evening.The loudest cheers came from supporters when news networks projected Houston to win.
-Kendra Gannon, Emily Enns, Laura Flight
10:26 p.m.
NDP’s Lachance doubles up nearest opponent
NDP Incumbent Lisa Lachance now has more than double the votes of her nearest opponent, with 34 of 43 polls reporting.
Lachance leads with 1,722 votes, Eleanor Humphries (PC) follows in second with 838 votes with Rob Grace (Liberal) following in third place with 686 votes and Karen Beazely (Green) with 94 votes.
The voter turnout in Halifax Citadel-Sable Island so far is 20.6 per cent.
News networks declared the NDP the official opposition at about 10pm.
-Alex Walsh
10:14 p.m.
Hansen leads in Halifax Needham
With a voter turnout of nearly nine per cent, NDP candidate Suzy Hansen is ahead in the polls by 783 votes.
Liberal candidate Jon Frost and PC candidate Trayvone Clayton are vying to break the NDP’s 26-year reign in Halifax Needham.
Hansen is running for her second term in the district. Halifax Needham is made up of Halifax’s North End.
It is home to Africville, Northwood, the NSCC Institute of Technology, Canadian Forces Base Halifax and the shipyard. A few of the residential neighbourhoods are Hydrostone, Uniacke Square, Convoy Place and Mulgrave Park.
-Anna Rak
10:11 p.m.
Wilson, Myra in tight race in Halifax Armdale
NDP candidate Rod Wilson and PC candidate Craig Myra continue to lead a close race with 1,261 and 1,126 votes, respectively. Incumbent Liberal candidate Ali Duale falls further behind with only 810.
Thirty-three of 38 polls have reported, for a total of 3,197 votes cast, out of 14,350 eligible voters. In 2021, 54 per cent of voters made it to the polls, for a total of 7,634 votes.
CBC has forecasted a PC majority for the province, and an NDP opposition. There has never been a PC victory in Halifax-Armdale.
-Gabrielle Drapeau
10:08 p.m.
NDP projected as new official opposition
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The NDP has been projected as the new official opposition.Spirits are high at the NDP election night gathering on the Halifax Waterfront, with networks having determined the party will be the province’s official opposition.
Party faithful cheered at the Halifax Marriott hotel, as Claudia Chender was announced winner of Dartmouth South.
The NDP is currently leading in 10 ridings, including sizeable leads in Dartmouth North and Halifax Citadel-Sable Island.
The sign under Chender’s podium was changed from “Leader of the NDP” to “Leader of Your Official Opposition” upon the announcement of the new position for the party.
A change in government status would boost the fortunes of the NDP, which lost government in 2013 and had settled into a consistent third place behind the province’s Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties.
-Jennifer Waugh, Linus Mulherin
10:05 p.m.
Hamid increases her lead
NDP candidate Lina Hamid now has 1,451 votes, having increased her lead over PC candidate Nicole Mosher’s 1,125, with 38 of 46 polls reporting. Liberal Patricia Arab, the incumbent, trails with 826 votes in the Fairview-Clayton Park riding.
In 2021, eligible voters cast 7,544 ballots, making up a 47 per cent turnout. To this point, 3,452 ballots have been cast.
-Jack Sponagle
9:59 p.m.
Gallagher has solid lead
The New Democratic Party candidate in Halifax Chebucto, Krista Gallagher, leads Progressive Conservative candidate Tonya Malay, with 792 votes with three polls reporting.
Elections Nova Scotia reports the NDP candidate has a 336-vote margin over Malay, who is in second place.
The Liberal candidate, Gerard Bray, is in third place with 393 votes and Green Party candidate Jonathan Bradet-Legris is in fourth place with 25 votes.
The current MLA, former NDP leader Gary Burrill, won just under 52 per cent of the vote in the 2021 election.
Turnout in the 2021 election was 60.5 per cent, with 7,739 voters casting ballots. The riding had 12,796 eligible voters in the 2021 election.
Halifax Chebucto is in Halifax’s west end.
-Mark Pero
9:52 p.m.
NDP’s Lachance has lead
Lachance is the incumbent MLA and deputy speaker, she was first elected to the legislature for Halifax Citadel-Sable Island in August 2021.
Her opponents are Eleanor Humphries (PC), Rob Grace (Liberal) and Karen Beazley (Green).
Lachance has 835 votes with 16 of 42 polls reporting. Her nearest competitor Eleanor Humphries follows with 24.9 per cent of the votes.
Born in Montréal, Lachance has been living in Halifax permanently since 2008. She became the first gender non-conforming MLA in Nova Scotia, and since 2013 has been serving as the president of Wisdom2Action – a corporate consulting firm.
Lachance is a spokesperson for environmental and climate concerns, 2SLGBTQ+ affairs and Acadian affairs.
-Alex Walsh
9:48 p.m.
Chender takes commanding lead
NDP candidate and leader Claudia Chender has an overwhelming lead in the riding of Dartmouth South.
She currently holds 1,875 votes with 33 of 36 polls reported. Bea MacGregor of the Progressive Conservative party has 570 votes and Barb Henderson of the Liberal party trails with 229 votes.
Chender served as House leader for the NDP and caucus spokesperson for education, justice, status of women, economic development, and natural resources and renewables before becoming leader.
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NDP supporters observe results coming in at a watch party at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel.-Indra Egan
9:42 p.m.
Hilton takes narrow lead over Churchill
Progressive Conservative candidate Nick Hilton has a narrow lead over Liberal party leader Zach Churchill in the riding of Yarmouth with 31 of 36 polls reporting, Hilton has 1,554 votes compared to Churchill’s 1,359 votes.
NDP candidate Gillian Rowley trails substantially with 108 votes. Green party candidate Adam Randall has 37 votes.
Churchill was first elected MLA in 2010 in a byelection, winning 51 per cent of the vote. In the 2021 election, he won his fourth consecutive term with 56 per cent.
This is Hilton’s first provincial election. After working as a nurse at Yarmouth Regional Hospital for more than 20 years, he was elected councillor of the Municipality of Yarmouth in 2020.
-Eamon Irving
9:40 p.m.
NDP’s Wilson leads in Halifax Armdale
NDP candidate Rod Wilson is leading in the polls in the riding of Halifax-Armdale, with 910 votes. PC candidate Craig Myra is in a close second place with 847 votes. Incumbent Liberal candidate Ali Duale is trailing with 611 votes. Twenty-four of 37 polling stations have reported, with 16.98 per cent of eligible voters having cast their ballots.
Wilson based much of his platform on improving health care in his district. He has worked with the Nova Scotia Health Authority to create services for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and has held leadership roles with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Nova Scotia.
The Liberals have held this riding since 2013, when they took it from the NDP. The PCs have never won this riding.
-Gabrielle Drapeau
9:37 p.m.
Maguire takes a lead
Progressive Conservative candidate Brendan Maguire is leading in the Halifax Atlantic riding with 819 votes. Maguire, formerly belonging to the Liberal party until February, is the incumbent for the riding. The riding hasn’t voted PC since 1988.
With 18 of 37 polls reporting, NDP candidate Cathy Cervin holds second place with 424 votes. Liberal candidate Phil Chisholm has 149 votes, and Green Party candidate Gadfly Stratton has 21 votes.
–Maria Collins
9:33 p.m.
Health care on Pictou County minds
Pictou County residents say health care, affordability, and education concerns are at the top of their minds.
Greg MacDonald, a lawyer at Patterson Law, said a big problem in the province is access to health care.
“We got some big problems there. A lot of people don’t have a family doctor and the wait times are bizarre,” said MacDonald.
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Greg MacDonald outside a polling station in Pictou.MacDonald says Tim Houston’s government has made progress on this issue and he’s willing to give the Progressive Conservatives a second chance.
“One thing that’s impressive about him is he’s not afraid to say, ‘I was wrong.’ We’re going down this path to attempt at a fix,” said MacDonald. “It’s starting to happen; I think things will improve.”
Another resident, Cindy Thompson, said her main concern is affordability.
“We got to do something with these taxes and this housing crisis,” said Thompson.
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Cindy and Devon Thompson outside a polling station in Pictou.She’s not only worried about affordability for herself, but for her son as well.
“He’s like, ‘How am I ever going to live on my own,’ because everything is so expensive?”
Dakota Westaway, a first-time voter, feels the same way. He says housing was on his mind when he walked into the polls today.
“I’m still young, so it’s also quite an impactful thing for me,” said Westaway.
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Dakota Westaway outside a polling station in Pictou.Charles MacKinnon, a custodian at North Nova Education Centre, said education is one of the issues most important to him.
He said there’s been a lack of educational program assistant and teachers in the school, which can negatively affect the teaching and learning environment.
“There’s no consequences for what kids do anymore, because we have such a lack of support,” said MacKinnon.
-Kendra Gannon, Emily Enns, Laura Flight
9:27 p.m.
NDP’s Hamid has narrow lead in Fairview Clayton Park
NDP candidate Lina Hamid is narrowly ahead of Nicole Mosher of the Progressive Conservative party with incumbent Liberal Patricia Arab in third.
Hamid, who is a senior manager at the United Way, has 41.4 per cent of ballots cast, as the vote count nears 2,000.
Mosher, who ran in the 2021 election, is in second with 33.9 per cent, and Patricia Arab has under 25 per cent, after winning the riding in the past two elections.
Hamid has 707 votes, Mosher trails with 579 and Arab has 423 votes up to this point.
– Jack Sponagle
9:14 p.m.
Chender takes lead in Dartmouth South
NDP MLA and leader Claudia Chender is leading in the polls with 663 votes.
Chender won 58 per cent of the vote in the 2021 election. She is running against Bea MacGregor of the Progressive Conservative party and Barb Henderson of the Liberal party.
This is the first time in history that the candidates in the provincial riding of Dartmouth South are all women.
Dartmouth South includes downtown Dartmouth, Penhorn and Woodside. It includes both ferry terminals and is bordered on the north by the Circumferential Highway and on the west by Lake Banook and Thistle Street.
-Indra Egan
9:14 p.m.
Candidates in Halifax Atlantic
The candidates for the Halifax Atlantic riding are incumbent Brendan Maguire, Cathy Cervin and Phil Chisholm.
Progressive Conservative candidate Maguire has held the riding since 2013 as a Liberal. In 2021, he won the riding by 55 per cent of the vote. Maguire joined the conservative party in February. The riding hasn’t voted Conservative since 1988.
Cervin, the candidate for the NDP, is a retired family doctor and former Dalhousie professor. She has worked for social justice, equity and diversity.
Liberal candidate Phil Chisholm has a degree in mechanical engineering and wants to improve Nova Scotia’s economic growth and lower the tax burden.
-Maria Collins
9:10 p.m.
Six incumbents seek Halifax peninsula seats
Six incumbents are running for re-election in the core ridings of the Halifax peninsula, with one guaranteed new face in the riding of Halifax Chebucto.
NDP candidate Krista Gallagher is running for the first time, taking over for current NDP MLA Gary Burrill, who won 52 per cent of the vote in 2021.
Liberal incumbent Ali Duale, who is running in Halifax Armdale, won 41 per cent of the vote in 2021.
Brendan Maguire is the incumbent in Halifax Atlantic, where he is running for the Progressive Conservative Party. Maguire was elected in 2021 as a member of the Liberal Party, when he won 55 per cent of the vote. He joined the Progressive Conservative Party in February 2024.
Suzy Hansen is the NDP incumbent in Halifax Needham. She won by 59 per cent in the 2021 election.
The Halifax Citadel-Sable Island incumbent is Lisa LaChance, NDP, who won her seat in 2021 with 42 per cent of the vote.
In Dartmouth South, NDP candidate and leader Claudia Chender is running for her third term after winning 58 per cent of the vote in the previous election.
In Fairview-Clayton Park, Patricia Arab of the Liberal Party is running for a fourth term in office after winning 39 per cent of the vote in 2021.
-Indra Egan
9:00 p.m.
Advance turnout was down from 2021
Fewer Nova Scotians were taking advantage of advanced polls for this election. Emily Enns reported on the advanced poll turnout on Monday for the Signal.
As of 6 p.m. on Monday, Elections Nova Scotia reported 160,626 early votes, which represents 20.4 per cent of eligible voters.
In comparison, 166,403 voters cast an early ballot in the 2021 election. That was 21.7 per cent of registered voters.
The mail-in voting process was affected by a national postal strike. The strike posed barriers to those voting from outside the province. Remote voters still had the option of voting by fax or by email.
-Laura Flight
8:39 p.m.
Rents, early election call decisive for these voters
The Signal headed to the polls today to ask Halifax residents what the biggest issues were for them during this election.
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Elyse Whitman said she wanted someone in office who would maintain the current rent cap.“Housing. I definitely want someone who’s going to keep in place the rent cap,” said Elyse Whitman.
Rent can only increase by five per cent per year under the current rent cap, which is set to last until December 2027.
Gerald Rouselle, a retired member of the Canadian Forces Fire Service, said that the early election date was the main reason he was heading out to vote.
“I think that the premier should have finished his term,” he said. “Period.”
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Gerald Rousselle said he was upset by the premier calling an early election.The election was called for late November by the current Progressive Conservative government. An amendment to the provincial Elections Act that was passed in 2021 set the fixed election date as the second Tuesday in July every four years.
-Linus Mulherin
8:34 p.m.
Housing on voters’ minds
The housing crisis was on the minds of Halifax Chebucto residents as they cast their ballots on Tuesday.
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Melanie Van Dine said she was most concerned about housing and the high levels of homelessness in the city.“Halifax is in a really big housing crisis, especially with the homeless issue,” said Melanie Van Dine, when asked what she was thinking of when heading to the polls. “I’d really like to see that solved.”
She added that she thought it was her duty to vote.
“I just think it’s so important for young people, especially, to vote.”
Housing was also a top priority for local student Jesse Cormier. “Everywhere you go you see tents, just everywhere. You’ve never seen this this widespread,” he said.
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Parker Babineau thinks housing and food security are the most pressing issues and the two go hand in hand.Parker Babineau, a musician, said housing and food security were his top priorities when casting his ballot.
“I’m split between housing and food security, really. They’re kind of one and the same. You need food, you need a place to live.”
- Linus Mulherin
8:27 p.m.
The Signal is on top of the election
It is election night and everyone in Halifax is waiting expectantly to see how it goes. The Signal will bring you live updates on Halifax-area ridings and the ridings for the provincial leaders.
The Signal’s reporters are on standby to bring you the latest coverage from the election.
We have 191 candidates nominated in 55 electoral districts.
The Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia, led by Tim Houston, is contesting all the province’s ridings, with 55 candidates.
Nova Scotia’s Liberal Party, led by Zach Churchill, also has 55 candidates.
Nova Scotia’s New Democratic Party, led by Claudia Chender, has 54 candidates
The Green Party of Nova Scotia has 23 candidates, while a new party, Nova Scotians United, didn’t nominate any candidates.
- Tamunopekere Adekoya
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