Meet Shannon Miedema, Liberal Candidate For Halifax
By Andrew Macdonald
In recent issues, The Macdonald Notebook covered the kick off campaigns for NDPer Lisa Roberts and Conservative, Mark Boudreau.
Those articles are now in The Notebook archives.
This story is about the Liberal contender in Halifax, Shannon Miedema, who won a decisive nomiation involving four candidates.
The Liberals have held the seat since 2015, when Andy Fillmore went to Ottawa. He held the seat for three terms, and resigned to successfully run for Mayor of HRM.
The NDP held the seat from 1997-2015, first with the late great Alexa McDonough, and then Megan Leslie, who was elected in 2009 and who lost the seat in 2015.
As of Saturday, April 5th, 2025, poll aggregator 338Canada.com was showing Halifax as a “safe” Liberal seat.
On a question of why Miedema is running to become MP, she says: “First of all, we’re in a pivotal moment as a nation, it’s a very important election, the most important one in my lifetime.”
“I am worried about Trump, the threats he is making to our economy, to our sovereignty. We really need strong leaders to step up in moments like this,” Miedema tells The Macdonald Notebook.
Miedema logged 15 years toiling for Halifax Regional Municipality, her last job title with the municipal government was as director, Environment & Climate Change.
“I love Halifax, I have been working for Halifax almost my whole career.”
At HRM she worked across the municipality helping communities in the region better prepare for climate change.
“I have been working very closely with communities across the municipality to better prepare ourselves for extreme weather events. So in 2023 we had wildfires, hurricanes and flash floods all in the same year, so that we can be more resilient in the face of what is happening and what is to come.”
New Liberal leader and prime minister, Mark Carney has eliminated the controversial carbon tax on fuel.
I asked Miedema if she is satisified with that decision.
“What I will say about that is that the Liberal party really needed to listen to Canadians on the consumer carbon tax. And, it was really divisive. There were a lot of people that were telling (government) it was not working for them,” says Miedema.
“Whether that it was not the right time. Whether that it was poorly communicated or misunderstood, at the end of the day it did not matter, (government) had to find a new path forward.”
The Liberal candidate says “she is glad” the government “listened to what they were hearing across the country. Then she says: “But that does not mean (government) does not have to still find solutions to meet our commitments and help us actually be an economic leader in a cleaner future.”
Recently, new Liberal leader Mark Carney had a campaign stop at Halifax’s Irving Shipyard.
“He announced more national military funding to address the shortage of workers in the Canadian Armed Forces, by modernizing the recruitment process, giving them a raise, building new on base housing, and improving access to care.”
Those Carney election promises came on the heels of his announcement of more warship building at the Halifax Shipyards at an additional cost of $8 billion, on top of the current $60 billion warship building here in Halifax.
While 338Canada.com is projecting a Liberal win in Halifax, Miedema says “it doesn’t” effect how she is campaigning to win the seat.
“It does not (effect the campaign) because as we know everything can shift in a blink in politics, and so we are just laser focused in doing the hard work day in and day out. And, gettting to as many doors as possible and talking to as many people as possible, and doing as many events as we can,” she tells The Macdonald Notebook.
“At the end of the day, the poll that matters is on election day,” adds Miedema.
That reminds me that John Diefenbaker, 1960s prime minister once quipped: “polls are for dogs.”
The Halifax Liberal campaign manager is Kelsey Lane. “We have a great team.”
Lane spent four years working in the office of Steven Guilbeault, former Environment minister. “She is really strong on policy. I have actually known her, because she used to work in Halifax at the Ecology Action Centre and she was really focused on positive change for clean energy and for cycling – we had a working relationship together.”
Her PR needs are being handled by St. Francis Xavier Univeristy grad, Kegan Palmer. He worked on campaigns for Central Nova’s Sean Fraser, while a student. When Fraser was appointed to cabinet, Palmer became regional advisor.
Shannon Miedema is the Halifax Liberal candidate. (Contributed).
