AMHERST – Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin wants to help create a new reality in Nova Scotia.
The rookie Cumberland North MLA became the fourth person to throw their hat in the ring for the leadership of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party during an event on Tuesday night in Amherst.
“We all know of the problems with our health care system and our economy where there are no jobs for people. We need to turn things around and we can do that,” the 48-year-old East Amherst resident said. “We have billions of dollars in resources that are untapped and I’m going to be encouraging responsible development of those natural resources.”
She joins Pictou East MLA Tim Houston, Kings North MLA John Lohr and former PC MLA and cabinet minister and CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke in the race for the party’s leadership.
Smith-McCrossin grew up in a farming family and she is concerned about how Nova Scotia has lost the ability to feed itself. She said there is too much farmland sitting idle across the province.
“Right now we only produce 13 per cent of the food we consume here in the province. I’d like to get that to 50 per cent,” she said. “That will inject about $1 billion into our provincial economy and create 16,000 jobs.”
A nurse and wife of an Amherst physician, Smith-McCrossin is very familiar with the provincial health care system. She’s concerned with the lack of physicians on the provincial health authority board and she added she would work toward lifting the moratorium on new nursing home beds and would support the construction of additional hospice facilities throughout the province.
“We can’t have people dying on stretchers in noisy emergency departments. We have to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” she said.
Smith-McCrossin grew up just outside Amherst and graduated from high school in Pugwash. She has worked as a nurse and was president of the Amherst Rotary Club when it started the Amherst Refugee Project that brought two Syrian families to the community.
She also owned Damaris Spa and Wellness Centre and Simply For Life/Manasseh Food Market in downtown Amherst before selling both businesses recently. She also has a masters in business administration.
Smith-McCrossin became Cumberland North’s first PC MLA in more than a decade last May when she defeated incumbent Liberal Terry Farrell. She also hopes to become the latest premier from the Amherst area since Roger Bacon, who served as premier for several months following the resignation of John Buchanan in 1990 and the selection of Donald Cameron to the party leadership in 1991.
She doesn’t believe being a first-time MLA will hurt her chances.
“I realize I’m new to politics, but I see that as a strength. I don’t have any baggage,” she said. “I have a lot of passion, goals and energy. I see a vision for a better Nova Scotia and I want to work toward that.”
Twitter: @ADNdarrell
