New Democrats outspent rivals in Pictou West byelection loss
PC Marco MacLeod won the seat in May and was re-elected last month
Nova Scotia's NDP outspent their political rivals in a failed attempt to win the Pictou West seat in last spring's byelection, according to a report released Monday by Elections Nova Scotia.
New Democrat Melinda MacKenzie's campaign filed expenses totalling $54,205.99 for the May byelection, roughly $2,000 more than the $52,257.47 that Progressive Conservative Marco MacLeod's campaign spent.
The Liberals spent less than half of that — $22,834.04 — on their candidate Mary Wooldridge-Elliott's campaign.
MacLeod garnered 4,159 votes, easily retaining the seat held previously by PC MLA Karla MacFarlane. She stepped down from the Speaker's job and later resigned her seat for health and personal reasons.
MacKenzie finished with 949 votes, Wooldridge-Elliott got 548 votes and Green Party candidate Clare Brett received 82 votes.
Because the Liberal and Green candidates did not garner at least 10 per cent of the votes, they were not eligible to have any of their expenses covered by taxpayers.
The PC and NDP campaigns each received the maximum reimbursement of $23,526.18 based on a per-voter formula.
The expenses were roughly on par with what two of the main parties spent on their Preston byelection campaigns in August 2023. The Progressive Conservatives spent $49,214 on Twila Grosse's successful campaign while the Liberals spent $47,101.52 trying to get Carlo Simmons elected.
The New Democrats put a lot more money — $70,390.30 — into that race trying to elect Colter Simmonds to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.
Grosse won the byelection by garnering 1,950 votes. Simmonds finished second with 1,145 votes and Simmons was a close third with 1,021 votes.
In this fall's rematch for the Nov. 26 general election, Grosse retained the seat, outdistancing Simmonds by 925 votes and Simmons by 1,400 votes. MacLeod also retained his Pictou West seat last month, topping his closest challenger by more than 3,500 votes.
Candidates who ran in the Nov. 26 election must file expense reports by Feb. 28. Campaigns who do not file on time are subject to a fine of $50 a day.
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