The Independent NS Initiative is comprised of a group of concerned citizens committed to educating voters about the electoral process, with a focus on independent candidates for election as Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) across NS, in the next election. We are not a political party. Nor, are we associated with any political party. We exist simply to:
- educate voters about a ‘new way to vote’
- to help communities recruit an Independent Candidate to represent them
- to offer guidance to communities on running town hall meetings
- and to provide Independent Candidates with information about their MLA career.
Independent NS was founded because 45% of voters did not vote in the last provincial election. That is almost 350 thousand voters; people who lost faith in the democratic system because it no longer represented them.
The founding directors of the Independent NS Initiative Peter Mac Isaac, Paul Westhaver, and Michael Zareski extend an invitation to every Nova Scotian to join a movement to change the political governance model from the top-down authoritative control through the party system to a bottom-up citizen control through ongoing and meaningful grass roots participation.
Peter has dedicated over 30 years of his life protecting the Nova Scotia ecosystem as a provincial game warden, forest fire fighter and wildlife specialist and has produced three seasons of a popular international fishing and hunting television series. His expertise and experience as a certified firearms and survival expert, owner and operator of a film production company, and a law enforcement officer are valuable assets to the movement. Running unsuccessfully for the NS Progressive Conservative Party in 2012 and serving as a past president of the federal Conservative Party Halifax West he gained insight into the broken political system. Peter is deeply concerned over the corruption and incompetence in the failed party system and the planned destruction of our country. He is taking a stand and will not back down.
Paul’s involvement with the movement came as a result of earlier investigations into the temperament of the people of Nova Scotia regarding the state of party-oriented management system. A solution oriented Professional Engineer with a broad career exposure, he is dedicated to process analysis, improvement, and renewal. He sees the current state of affairs of the Nova Scotia governance model as antiquated and designed to enable corruption to the point where popular apathy is essential to maintaining the rigid, top-down party system, a party system where the parties are for all practical purpose indistinct from each other.
Michael, the former Deputy Minister of the Department of Government Services for the Province Nova Scotia whose bombshell testimony at a Public Accounts Committee in 1990 and subsequent revelations which confirmed that Nova Scotia politics was a patronage cesspool resulted in the resignation of both the sitting Premier and his Minister of Health. Not only did he turn the modus operandi of the Conservative party on its head leading to its fall from power, he was an anathema to all political parties as they all operated the same way. Michael’s exposure of corruption resulted in the establishment of sweeping reforms leading to more openness and transparency in the way government operates. He knows firsthand the price to be paid for speaking truth to power and continues to be dedicated to the cause of honesty, integrity, and transparency in government.
We are routinely asked “How can an independent get anything done?” The answer is a simple one. Currently the province is hostage to a party that is in place with only 38% of the approval of those who actually voted. That party has a 32 seat majority with seven of them being won by slim margins. The opposition controls 23 seats. As few as 5 more independents could currently push the government into a minority position where they can no longer run roughshod over the other MLA’s and would be forced to collaborate and concede to the wishes of the rest of the province. As few as ten independents in the next election responsible only to those who elected them can decisively give the power back to the people where it belongs, dramatically changing our broken political landscape. Power no longer in the hands of broken parties run by tyrants who are controlled by back room unelected appointed people you don’t know and never see.
Independent NS offers educational materials to people in all constituencies of NS, along with a template to help and encourage them, to look for a worthy candidate to represent them, and only them, in the NS Legislature. Independent representatives will have a free vote on all new laws, not restricted to voting as they are told how to vote by the party whip and leader. They can table legislation that helps all of us without biased party approval. Ideas like recall for lying to constituents routinely and removing pensions for politicians after two years of service for starters have already been suggested.
They will be able to work collaboratively with all other independent MLA’s to come to consensus focused on what the VOTERS actually want, not what a party leader dictates. People no longer want to be held hostage by top-down governance, where politicians only meet with the public at election time, then, after the polls close, introduce all kinds of laws the public never heard of, nor supports and the voters are currently powerless to stop from being jammed down their throats.
Join us in this Grass Roots Initiative from the bottom up, as we spread the word about a “New Way to Vote…. Electing trusted persons in our communities to represent us as Independent MLA’s in the NS Legislature. Building Collaborative Independent Voices for all 55 NS Ridings.