By Eric Bourque
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
When the list of candidates for the leadership of Nova Scotia’s Progressive Conservative party is finalized, Chris d’Entremont’s name won’t be on it.
The Argyle MLA announced recently that he will not run for the leadership.
Commenting on his decision, d’Entremont cited the time commitment that is required of the party leader, a commitment he says would take him away from his family and from his own riding.
“Whoever ends up being the new leader of the party is going to put a lot of time (into the job),” he said.
D’Entremont earlier had indicated that he would announce by mid-to-late March whether he would seek the party leadership, but he opted instead to make his intentions known sooner.
Word that he wouldn’t enter the Tory leadership race came the same week Karen Casey, the party’s interim leader, announced she wasn’t running for the party’s top job.
Casey, the MLA for Colchester North – and a former cabinet minister – became interim leader last June after the resignation of former party leader and Nova Scotia premier Rodney MacDonald, who stepped down following the party’s loss to the NDP in the 2009 provincial election.
D’Entremont was first elected in 2003 and was re-elected in 2006 and 2009.
He held various cabinet responsibilities while in government, including health, community services, agriculture/fisheries and Acadian affairs.
Aside from representing the constituency of Argyle, d’Entremont is, at least for now, the sole MLA for Yarmouth County, given the recent resignation of Richard Hurlburt, his former colleague in the Tory caucus.
The Progressive Conservatives will choose their new leader during a convention to be held Oct. 29-30 in Halifax.
The last leadership convention for Nova Scotia’s PC party, in 2006, resulted in MacDonald’s surprise win.
Prior to that, in 1995, John Hamm captured the party leadership.
Earlier conventions saw Donald Cameron win the leadership in 1991 and John Buchanan win it in 1971.
G.I. Smith became leader in 1967, succeeding Robert Stanfield, who had held the job since 1948.
