N.S. premier tones down rhetoric toward Ottawa [Video]

On the heels of a resounding election victory one month ago, Nova Scotia’s premier is adopting a more measured tone when it comes to assessing his province’s relationship with the federal government.

Tim Houston’s Progressive Conservatives were returned to power Nov. 26, capturing 43 of the legislature’s 55 seats after a campaign during which he attacked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government on a number of fronts. In fact, he justified his decision to call a snap election and ignore the province’s fixed-date election law — which had set the vote for July 2025 — by claiming he needed a strong mandate to stand up to Ottawa.

But in a recent end-of-year interview with The Canadian Press, Houston was more conciliatory, saying a Dec. 9 meeting at his Halifax office with Trudeau was conducted with “a spirit of collaboration.”

“We started to see right away that the tone was different,” …