{"id":23062,"date":"2021-08-21T13:45:15","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T16:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=23062"},"modified":"2021-08-21T13:45:15","modified_gmt":"2021-08-21T16:45:15","slug":"election21-macdonald-pleased-hants-east-voters-chose-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=23062","title":{"rendered":"ELECTION21: MacDonald pleased Hants East voters chose him"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;139&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;78&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>EAST HANTS:<\/strong> The newly elected PC MLA-elect for Hants East is \u201chappily surprised\u201d his party won a majority government in the provincial election on Aug. 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John A. MacDonald was speaking a day after the election, where he defeated Liberal Michael Blois by 89 votes (3,328 to 3,239). Abby Cameron of the NDP had 2,142 votes cast in her name, while Green Party\u2019s Simon Greenough finished with 199 votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MacDonald said he knew it was going to be a close race, just not as close as it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI knew it was going to be tight, but I didn\u2019t think it was going to be this tight,\u201d he said a day after the Aug. 17 election outside his Lantz home. \u201cI\u2019m pleased that the people of Hants East have agreed that the PC plan is what we need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MacDonald ran four years ago against Liberal Margaret Miller. She won by 800-plus votes, so he knew it would be a close race this time with Miller not re-offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI knew all three of my opponents were great candidates,\u201d he said. \u201cAbby put in a great campaign, Simon, if he keeps going in politics, I think he can do really well, and Michael and his team worked very hard to get him elected. Everybody was working it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate group=&#8221;2&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;111&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said with only a win by 89 votes that means he has work to do to show those who voted a different way that the decision to elect him was the right one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTim (PC Leader Tim Houston) was able to show N.S. with a PC majority,\u201d said MacDonald. \u201cRight now, as soon as we get sworn in, we\u2019re going to start making the changes we need too<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>VIDEO Interview with PC MLA-Elect John A. MacDonald.<\/strong> <strong><em>Video edited by: Dagley Media<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Interview with Hants East PC MLA-elect John A. MacDonald\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rugnrVsoj0o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;92&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With MacDonald\u2019s win, this means that the council position he had representing Lantz-Milford will now be vacant. He said he will be resigning his seat and the Municipality of East Hants will be in charge of holding a Special Election in the not-too-distant future to replace him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MacDonald said Hants East had two pieces taken off it and put as other boundaries, but the people of the riding came out and spoke their minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt was a toss up between me and Michael and I had 89 more people that decided I was the one for it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He thanked Blois, Cameron, and Greenough<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate group=&#8221;6&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate group=&#8221;7&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blois called the campaign an adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018I\u2019d be lying to you if I didn\u2019t say I was disappointed,\u201d said Blois in a video message posted on his election Facebook page. \u201cI really am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSupporting Hants East on all levels and shaping a positive future for us all. This is exactly what I wanted to do, because I would have been great at it.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is a democratic process and that\u2019s how it goes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blois congratulated MacDonald for his win adding he knows he will work hard for the community. Blois also congratulated Cameron and Green Party candidate Simon Greenough saying it was a pleasure to run alongside them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He thanked his campaign team, family, and supporters as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;133&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cameron congratulated MacDonald for his win, saying she knows he will work hard to do what\u2019s best for Hants East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s someone who has been dedicated to the communities of Hants East for a long time,\u201d said Cameron in a statement to The Laker News. \u201cI know he will serve them well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI wish John success and hope the PC government can make quick work of putting their solutions in place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She was proud of her first ever foray into politics, especially since she had a small team of volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFor a first campaign with only a handful of volunteers, I\u2019m incredibly happy with my showing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cameron thanked Blois and Greenough for running great campaigns, and also her partner, family, and the people of Hants East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Houston government will be sworn in on Aug. 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;84&#8243;]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;123&#8243;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[adrotate banner=&#8221;139&#8243;] [adrotate banner=&#8221;78&#8243;] EAST HANTS: The newly elected PC MLA-elect for Hants East is \u201chappily surprised\u201d his party won a majority government in the provincial election on Aug. 17. John A. MacDonald was speaking a day after the election, where he defeated Liberal Michael Blois by 89 votes (3,328 to 3,239). Abby Cameron of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[965,12],"tags":[196,1673,2282,2491,1254],"class_list":["post-23062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-hants","category-featured","tag-east-hants","tag-hants-east","tag-john-a-macdonald","tag-n-s-pc","tag-tim-houston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}