By Andrew Macdonald
The newly created federal riding of Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish could see a race between current Liberal MP Jaime Battiste and Conservative Adam Rodgers.
Battiste’s current riding is becoming part of Sydney-Glace Bay, and Glace Bay is home to fellow Llberal MP Mike Kelloway, which could lead to Battiste running in CB-Canso-Antigonish.
The new riding was created by an electoral boundaries committee between 2022-24.
In 2022, The Macdonald Notebook ran an opinion piece that a historical political wrong enacted in 1997 was finally being corrected by the non-partisan federal electoral commission.
I refer to the 1997 creation of Central Nova, in which New Glasgow is the biggest town, and is currently held by retiring Liberal politico Sean Fraser.
Redistribution in ‘97 took the Town of Antigonish and lobbed it into Central Nova, removing it from the Strait of Canso region.
As I argued in my opinion piece, Antigonish has more in common with the Strait Region, and more in common with Cape Breton from a political, economic, cultural and religious perspective.
Folk in Cape Breton’s Inverness and Richmond counties attend to the regional hospital in Antigonish where they also shop.
Even from a religious perspective, Antigonish was founded by Catholics, while Pictou County was founded by Protestants.
And, so the federal electoral boundary commission is in effect creating the old riding of Cape Breton Highlands-Canso, which between 1969-1997 included the town and county of Antigonish.
The new riding will be called Cape Breton-Canso-Antigonish. The next election will be fought with the new riding boundaries.
Grit political Titan Allan J. MacEachen saw to it in 1984 that John B. Stewart would get a Senate seat. Allan J was MP for CB Highlands Canso between 1969-1984. A federal electoral commission says a version of CB Highlands-Canso is being created for the next federal vote.
Allan J’ MacEachen Liberals controlled CB Highlands-Canso from 1969-1984, while Tory Lawrence O’Neil held the seat for one term between 1984-88.
O’Neil is now a family court judge. As an MP in the 1980s, he pushed forward a private members’ bill intended to ban abortions. It did not go anywhere in terms of being legislated.
A real political showdown in the new riding of CB-Canso-Antigonish could pit two Dal Law School buddies against each other.
The proposed new riding has received approval in Parliament, really a rubber stamp process because the independent electoral commission’s report is ironclad.
Current Cape Breton MP Jaime Battiste lives in the new CB-Canso riding. He is a Liberal MP, who became Nova Scotia’s first Indigenous person to go to Ottawa. It could be that he might face an electoral battle with Dal Law chum Adam Rodgers who lives in the shiretown of Guysborough, part of the new riding.
Guysborough lawyer Adam Rodgers wants to be on Pierre Poilievre’s ticket in the next federal election. The Notebook photo
Rodgers is seeking the Tory nomination in CB-Canso-Antigonish. In that race, he is squaring off against Fiona MacLeod and former Tory MLA Allan MacMaster.
Rodgers was a Tory contender in 2015 in the old riding of CB-Canso.
“Jaime Battiste, who was a friend and classmate of mine at Dal Law, now lives in the new riding of CB-Canso Antigonish riding, so potential for a switch,” noted Rodgers in a previous interview.
Rodgers is back practicing law after a one-year suspension forced by the Nova Scotia Barrister’s Society, because his former law partner stole $1M from clients
I think Rodgers was railroaded by the Bar Society since he did not steal any money and in fact, immediately reported it when he found out the ex-partner was taking clients’ trust fund monies.
Rodgers appeared before the electoral commission in 2022, arguing Antigonish should be part of a Cape Breton riding, along with Guysborough, Inverness and Richmond.
At the same hearing, Liberal MP Sean Fraser argued that Antigonish should remain with New Glasgow. Fraser likely wanted to protect his Liberal support base in Antigonish.
Central Nova MP Sean Fraser, PM Justin Trudeau and ex- Premier Stephen McNeil announced $300-million in road twinning money for the 104 HWY. in 2018. Fraser has argued that Antigonish remain with Central Nova – instead, it is going back to its historical roots with Cape Breton in a new riding to be called CB-Canso-Antigonish. The Notebook photo
At the hearing, Rodgers also argued “that Antigonish is also a retirement destination for many people from the Strait area, whether it is to the RK MacDonald Nursing Home, or just downsizing to an apartment in the town. Some folks like to be closer to St. Martha’s Regional Hospital.”
Rodgers’s arguments have been adopted to create the new CB-Canso Antigonish riding
“I had presented this very redistribution idea to the Electoral Boundaries Commission when they did their consultation session in Antigonish, so I was pleased to see that they agreed with my position,” writes Rodgers to The Notebook. “Most of the people at that session (including Sean Fraser) were there to advocate for keeping Antigonish and Pictou together, but my presentation focused on how Antigonish is a focal point, and leader of sorts for the Strait area, with the hospital, university, professional services, and shopping opportunities.
“CB Antigonish looks much more winnable now for the Conservatives than at any point in the past 25 years. When I decided to run in 2015, there were fewer than 100 members, and now there are nearly 1,000. The (national Conservative) leadership vote was overwhelmingly in favour of Pierre Poilievre, despite him not really having anyone in the riding pushing his candidacy.
“In fact, the last Conservative candidate, Fiona MacLeod, was a Jean Charest supporter. All of the provincial ridings within the proposed boundaries are held by PC MLAs.”
The 2021 ridings saw Mike Kelloway take CB-Canso for the Liberals. He lives in Glace Bay, which is being moved to a new riding to be called Sydney-Glace Bay.
It is more than likely that Kelloway will run in his hometown riding which forms Sydney-Glace Bay. Glace Bay had been part of CB-Canso, which is the riding Kelloway was elected to in 2021.
Jaime Battiste is a CB Island Liberal MP. He lives in the new proposed riding of CB-Canso-Antigonish. Facebook
Battiste lives in Eskasoni, which is mostly part of the new riding of CB-Canso-Antigonish.
In a news chat with The Macdonald Notebook, Rodgers says he appeared before the electoral boundaries commission arguing that Antigonish has more in common with Cape Breton Island than Pictou.
“There is St. Martha’s Regional Hospital which serves Guysborough, Inverness and Richmond counties. Then you have ST FX University, which many people in the Strait go to, where to go to school, or watch an X hockey game or football,” Rodgers tells me.
He says the Strait region residents also go to Antigonish to shop because it is a regional service centre for the four counties that make up the Strait region.
“Cleve’s used to have the retail sports market, basically from Sydney to Antigonish tied up. People would go to the mall in Antigonish – not so much today with online shopping, but historically that has always been the case,” adds Rodgers.
A federal electoral boundaries commission has recommended Antigonish go back to its historical roots in the Strait region to form a new federal riding of CB-Canso-Antigonish. Contributed
Rodgers says even as a youth growing up in the shiretown of Guysborough, he would often go to Antigonish including for religious retreats.
Antigonish, as well as Inverness and Richmond and Guysborough counties, is Catholic, and Pictou County was mostly Protestant settled.
“When I was coming up through school and going to youth group events for the Catholic Church that is what it was, the Diocese of Antigonish, and you would see people from Inverness, from Sydney and all over. You would not be coming from the other direction (Pictou and New Glasgow),” says Rodgers.
He is enthused the riding could actually go Tory.
“When I ran in 2015 (under then PM Stephen Harper), it took me three days to get signatures for the Tory nomination, because there were only 100 members in the Conservative party in the riding at the time, and now we have 1,000 members that signed up over the course of the party’s leadership race in 2022,” he says.
