The only NDP premier elected east of Manitoba was in Halifax yesterday with the goal of keeping it that way.
Liberal MP Bob Rae spoke at a downtown Halifax Liberal rally and took shots at Darrell Dexter’s NDP.
Rae was NDP premier of Ontario from 1990 to 1995 before eventually switching to the Liberal party. Rae repeatedly said a government must rule from the centre because “that’s where most people are” and presented the Liberals as the most centrist party.
“The test that has to be applied in this province as it is everywhere is who’s going to govern on behalf of the broadest public interest of the province,” he said.
Rae was attempting to attack the NDP for its close ties to unions — something he himself used to have to defend. Rae wouldn’t say the NDP would be beholden to unions, as Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil has.
But he did say of NDP-supporting unions, “they have an agenda. It’s not necessarily an agenda that everybody wants to disclose to the world, but it’s there.”
The Conservatives have often brought up Rae’s name in their attacks on Dexter, saying an NDP government would load up massive debt as Rae’s government did. Dexter noted this himself yesterday while dismissing Rae’s criticism.
“If there is one model of government we won’t be following, it’ll be Bob Rae’s,” Dexter said.
