N.S. Liberal MLA Brendan Maguire joining PCs, named minister of community services
Premier Tim Houston says Trevor Boudreau stepping down as minister for health reasons
Nova Scotia MLA Brendan Maguire crossed the floor on Thursday, leaving the Liberals after 10 years to join the governing Progressive Conservatives and also become the minister of community services.
Premier Tim Houston made the announcement at a morning news conference in Halifax. Maguire, who represents the district of Halifax Atlantic, will replace Trevor Boudreau, whom the premier said is stepping down as minister due to health reasons but will remain as an MLA.
Maguire, who grew up in foster care and was homeless for a period when he was a teenager, said the Department of Community Services is "near and dear to my heart" and he will bring a unique perspective as minister.
"If you would have told me 15 years ago, 20 years ago — 30 years ago, when I was a ward of the court — that I was someday going to be part of the decision making in Community Services, I wouldn't have believed you," he told reporters.
"I've had people my entire life tell me that I wasn't going to make it, I wasn't going to do it. And now here I am — after spending pretty much my entire youth, teenage years and part of my young adult [life] being a ward of the court and being in the system — to being able to effect change."
A change in view
Few opposition members have been fiercer critics of Houston and his government than Maguire, particularly on issues such as housing, poverty and the Tories' decision to freeze income assistance rates in each of their first two budgets.
But that all changed on Thursday.
The premier, Maguire said, has tackled "generational issues" such as housing, health care and cost of living with a "sense of urgency and will that is unmatched."
He reached the point where it was becoming difficult to disagree with the government's approach, he told reporters.
Maguire said Houston approached him over the weekend about joining the PC caucus and stepping into the role of community services minister.
He said he wasn't dissatisfied with the Liberal Party or with Leader Zach Churchill, but said "the No. 1 thing that I heard during the last election was, 'I'm voting for you in spite of your party.'"
WATCH | Political scientist weighs in on Brendan Maguire's move:
With Boudreau deciding to step down from cabinet, Houston had 12 backbenchers in his caucus who were elected in the last election that he could have picked from. But he said Maguire's lived experience and passion for the file made him the right person for the job.
"[He] is someone who has brought solutions forward and has worked with our government in the interest of all Nova Scotians regardless of party lines," he said.
"He's like a dog with a bone and when he says he will do something, he rolls up his sleeves and he gets to work to get things done and people who get things done are my kind of people."
The move means the Tories pick up what was one of the safest Liberal seats in the legislature. The seat count at Province House now stands at 33 Tories, 15 Liberals, six NDP and one Independent. Funding for Maguire's seat will begin going to the Tories as of April 1.
Churchill told reporters that Maguire informed him of his decision about 10 minutes before the news conference with the premier. He wished his former caucus colleague well and said he hoped it would mean positive things at a time when so many people are finding it difficult to get by.
"I certainly hope that it can help people who are struggling right now, who are struggling to make ends meet, people whose income assistance has been frozen, people who are more food insecure than they were two years ago, people that are homeless," said Churchill.
"Hopefully his presence in that caucus and the values I know he has can have a positive impact there."
Several weeks ago, Maguire resigned from his position as the Liberals' representative on the public accounts committee. Churchill said there was no indication from Maguire at that time or any other time that he was unhappy with the party and its direction.
Sources tell CBC that Maguire started making overtures to the Tories several months ago, but it was only recently that it became apparent that a jump could be possible.
Maguire was first elected in 2013, and won again in 2017 and 2021. He was minister of municipal affairs under the previous Liberal government of Iain Rankin, which lost to the PCs in the 2021 election.
The last MLA to cross the floor in Nova Scotia was Chuck Porter. Porter left the Tories in 2014 to sit as an Independent, before joining the Liberals in 2016.
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