NEW GLASGOW – A Truro man making a bid for the leadership roll for the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia was in Pictou County Thursday to drum up support.
Jamie Baillie announced earlier this year that he was putting his hat in the ring for the Tory’s top job, which will be decided at the leadership convention in October and is currently the only person who has announced intentions to run for the position. Well-known as former premier John Hamm’s chief of staff, Baillie is currently the head of Credit Union Atlantic.
“Running the premier’s office under John Hamm has given me a unique combination of business and government experience, which is a rarity and a gift,” Baillie said.
Calling 2010 “a very rough year for politics in Nova Scotia,” it’s one of the things that has prompted Baillie’s decision to run for the leadership.
“I believe the political system can be an honest, dedicated career choice,” he explained, adding that he “wants people to know I believe that.”
Politics is the only way to make a decision for the province, he said, but currently things are “stuck in the mud.”
“I’m convinced the NDP are taking exactly the wrong direction for Nova Scotia,” he said, pointing to the provincial debt and HST increase as examples of that. “We can’t go on like this.”
The father of two young girls, Baillie says he wants to make a better Nova Scotia so his daughters will have the option of staying and working in the province when they’re older.
Keeping Nova Scotia’s young people at home will be a priority if he’s elected leader, he said. He also wants to rebuild the public’s trust in the party, put the Nova Scotia Tories at the forefront of political reform and offer voters a “strong contrast to the direction the NDP are leading Nova Scotians down.”
“I’m quite confident that there will be every reason we’ll be able to attract voters again,” he said.
Baillie has a strong connection to Pictou County – his father was born here, and his namesake, James H. Baillie, is a former mayor of Pictou.
“I know Pictou County well – I learned to drive on the back roads,” he chuckled. “I have a great feeling of connection to this part of the province.”
That will translate well for the county’s future under a Baillie-led government, he added. One of his targets would be to balance the budget, and Pictou County is a good example of the way to do that.
“Pictou County has a great industrial base, and we’ll need to have that again,” he said. “We’ll need to target population growth and job growth, keep our young people home after graduation and make sure there are jobs for them.”
Baillie has already garnered the support of some local Conservatives, including Hamm and Pat Dunn, who lost the Pictou Centre seat in the last provincial election.
“I’ve known Jamie for a number of years and he has 100 per cent of my support to try to acquire the leadership,” Dunn said. “I’m quite confident all of his skills will lead us in the right direction.”
The leadership will be decided during the leadership conference Oct. 29-30.
