Housing, school curriculum, emergency mental health care feature on the campaign trail

Welcome toCBC's Election Notebook, your source for regular updatesandessential news from the campaign trail.

It's Day 15of Nova Scotia's 31-day provincial election campaign.

After casting his ballot Friday, Liberal Leader Iain Rankin released thesecond offive promised planks of his party's election platform. The first was on the topic of health care. The second was on the topic of affordability and equity.

Housing featured heavily in the new platform document, with a promise to create a 10-year housing strategy, among other programs recommended in the Affordable Housing Commissionreport.

The platform also highlighted some programs already announced by the Liberals leading up tothe election call. They include affordable child care, an expansion of the Office of Equity and Anti-Racism, and support for home energy retrofits.

Tories on school curriculum

Leaders of Nova Scotia's other two major political parties highlighted items from their previously released platforms on Friday.

For PC Leader Tim Houston, it was his plan to introduce new curricula to all grades that focuson Mi'kmaw, African Nova Scotian and Acadian history and culture.

"Simply saying that we are diverse and asking that we celebrate our diversity and our differences isn't enough," he said at a media briefing.

"A PC government will revamp our curriculum in our schools so that every child knows they belong in Nova Scotia and have a place in Nova Scotia. A truly inclusive education experience stresses equity and makes it a focus of the learning process."

Houston was joined by Sura Hadad, the PC candidate for Bedford South, and Darryl Johnson, PC candidate for Cole Harbour.

Johnson, who is Black, said racism can be experienced starting at a young age, and so children should learn about it in school from a young age.

"Teaching our kids about diversity in their early years and throughout their school career will help them open their minds and their hearts," he said.

The PC platform proposes updating the curriculum in four other areas: financial literacy, civics, environmental stewardship, and physical activity and healthy living. The party estimates the total cost of curriculum-related changes at just shy of $2.5 million. The costs include professional development for teachers, new materials and a $5,000 healthy-living grant for each school.

NDP on emergency mental health care

NDP Leader Gary Burrill touted his party's plan to introduce an emergency mental health and addictions service. In lieu of police or paramedics, mental health social workers, psychologists and psychiatric nurses would be available to respond to emergency needs in all parts of the province, 24 hours a day.

Burrill sat down Friday with Julie Melanson,who is running for the NDP in Halifax Armdale, andMichael Liegis, a Halifax man who is recovering from addiction.

Liegis said he overdosed nearly two years ago and wound up in hospital. He said when he was discharged, he felt "cast away" without support, despite expressing fear about using drugs again.

"I needed compassion, understanding just to be humanized.Because the person that showed up there almost two years ago was not the person you see sitting here today. I was a shell of a man. I was 158 pounds I'm 210 now my skin was grey and my fingernails had stopped growing," he said.

"I looked the part, but I was still a human being."

Liegis said he detoxed at a friend's home and later moved into a transition house.

The NDP has costed the emergency response program at $3.75 million annually. Burrill said the plans fit in with his party's goal of increasing mental health spending until it reaches 10 per cent of the overall health budget, as is recommended by the World Health Organization.

In the province's 2021-22 budget, health care accounted for $5.3 billion. Mental health and addictions spending got $336.5 million of that, or about sixper cent.

Early voting numbers continue to rise

At the end of day Thursday, 9,741 ballots had been cast at early polls and 2,559 write-in ballots had been requested. The sum of those figures, 12,300, is about three times the number of early votes cast at the same point in the 2017 election.

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How to vote

Checkwhether you are registered to vote with Elections Nova Scotia.

Once registered, you can vote in advance of election day by requesting a mail-in ballot or by visiting a returning office or advance polling station.

On election day, polling stations will be open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. AT.

More information on voting is available fromelectionsnovascotia.ca.

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