By Andrew Macdonald
Liberal strategist Kirk Cox, of Bridgewater says Scott Brison leaves a big political legacy, as he retires from politics, stepping down the other week as a powerful Trudeau minister of the Treasury Board.
“Oh, yeah” Cox admits he was surprised that the 22-year long Valley MP is exiting politics. “Only because I can’t remember a time when Scott Brison wasn’t an MP”, Cox tells The Notebook.
Clearwater Seafoods CEO, Ian Smith, left, with former Trudeau cabinet minister, Scott Brison in China recently.
“He’s been an MP since 1997 – that is a long time. I am surprised because I am so used to seeing him as a Member of Parliament”, adds Cox.
“Now that he has done it, you can certainly understand his rationale – I am the father of a seven-year old”, says Cox, referring to Brison as a parent of two four-year old twin girls, with his husband, Max St. Pierre.
On the future of long time Brison political aide, Dale Palmeter, Cox said: “You’ll have to talk to Dale Palmeter. I am sure Dale will have lots of options”.
On the political legacy Brison leaves behind, Cox, who co-chaired the NS Liberal effort in the last election federally in 2015, which resulted in the election of all Liberal MPs, Cox says there are many legacies.
“Well, I don’t think it is just one project. I think it is through the work he did and advocating so hard for all his projects – his legacy is that he was able to take his positions, and take each one and do that job very well in terms of his direct cabinet responsibilities, including the significant Treasury Board portfolio”, says Cox.
“He knew how Ottawa worked both officially and unofficially, and he was able to leverage his relationships and responsibilities to do all those things he worked on”.
Jim Irving of Irving Shipbuilding Inc and MP and former Treasury Board President Scott Brison. Brison has long been a darling of the regional rich and famous set.
Those files included in 2006 as an MP helping to raise funds from his billionaire friends, such as fishtocrat John Risley, to allow a not-for-profit booze, drug and gambling rehab by a single family home to house 10 people at a time at Crosbie House in New Minas.
That rehab has seen over 1,400 folk since it opened in 2006.
Brison also delivered critical funding for the 40-kilometre twinning of the 104 HWY between New Glasgow-Antigonish, and he got close to $100-million for the Ocean supercluster project in Darmouth.
Cox says the above are significant achievements, and form part of Brison’s political legacy.
“He was exceptionally good at working Ottawa. You only have to look at the role he played in the trade agreement between Colombia & Canada”, points out Cox.
“He wasn’t Trade minister at the time he did that – he wasn’t even in government, but he was able to use his role and relationships to play a leadership role in a country in terms of negotiating a deal as a backbench MP in an Opposition party”, adds Cox.
Scott Brison, left. Right is HRM councillor Steve Cragg, who is running in Lower Sackville for the Tim Houston Tories.
“That to me illustrates that Scott knew very well to take something he cared for and get it done”, Cox tells The Notebook.
“I think his legacy was to see a project through to completion and he has so many examples of that. It is not easy for anyone to step up and get things done”, says Cox.
“He was very foccussed on delivering for his constituents, and for others”, adds the Grit strategist and government lobbyist.
Brison is proud of an announcement as MP in the Pete Luckett winery in the Valley, where Brison as a Trudeau minister announced funding for research and marketing for the wine industry, a sector he has long championed.
As a Trudeau minister Scott Brison championed the Annapolis Valley wine industry, and with Ottawa funds established a wine research centre in the Valley. He is shown with wine maker, Pete Luckett.
As for the HWY 104 and the expansion of a frozen seafood cargo project at Halifax Stanfield International Airport, they are also big legacies for Brison.
Nova Scotia’s population represents just under 3% of Canada’s total. But, under the Trudeau Trade Corridors Fund the province received about 11% of the total amount allocated to date from the fund for the Highway 104 project plus the cargo expansion project at the Halifax airport.
Highway 104 is seen as an important trade corridor to Cape Breton and Newfoundland, where traffic volumes have created safety issues
It should be noted that the province was on board with it’s 50% cost sharing for the 104 project whereas the Port of Halifax did not have its necessary dollars to meet the 50% requirement under the program’s requirement, reportedly thereby rendering its application ineligible for consideration.
