Who will be the next minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs?

PC Premier指定的蒂姆·休斯顿似乎面临困境。他必须任命部长Office of African Nova Scotian Affairswith no African Nova Scotian members in his caucus to choose from.

This comes as Tuesday’s election saw arecord numberof four Black MLA candidates voted into the provincial legislature.

过去曾有两名非洲新任斯科舍省事务部长 - 巴里·巴内特（Barry Barnet）和莫琳·麦克唐纳（Maureen MacDonald）。

当该办公室于2003年首次成立时，PC总理约翰·哈姆（John Hamm）任命Barnet为就职部长。当时，立法机关中没有黑人MLA服务。

In 2006, the NDP’s Percy Paris was elected and sat as the sole Black MLA. Paris was just the third Black MLA to be elected, having been preceded by Liberal MLA Wayne Adams and NDP MLA Yvonne Atwell.*

Barnet served as minister of African Nova Scotian affairs until 2009 when the NDP won a majority government, and Paris was then sworn in as the new — and first Black — minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs.

巴黎一直担任部长，直到2013年，他被巴黎与普雷斯顿MLA Keith Colwell发生争执后被白人NDP MLA MAUREEN MACDONALD取代。

MacDonald served for only a few months before the Liberals won a majority government in 2013. Liberals Stephen Gough and Tony Ince were now the only two Black MLAs in the legislature. Ince was sworn in as minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs and has served in the role ever since.

What are the options?

Though provincial cabinet minters are usually appointed from the governing party’s elected caucus, technically speaking, it’s not a rule.

According to thelegislature’s website:

“Membership in the Executive Council is by appointment, and as such, a member does not necessarily have to be an elected Member of the House of Assembly.”

And so technically speaking, if he wanted to, Houston could appoint a Black minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs.

As former NDP cabinet minister,Graham Steeleonce pointed out:

“The premier doesn’t even have to be an MLA. The last time we had a non-MLA premier in Nova Scotia was Russell MacLellan, for a few months in 1997.”

If he wanted, Houston could appoint one of thenewly elected Black MLAs- Ali Duale，Suzy Hansen或Angela Simmonds。

If he wanted, he could choose to keep Ince, who has served two terms as the minister and will now be serving his third term in the legislature.

他可以选择任命参加这次选举的三个黑色PC候选人之一 - Archy Beals，Lisa Coates或Darrell Johnson。

If he wanted to, Houston could appoint any number of qualified and respected non-elected members of the Black/African Nova Scotian community who have extensive background and expertise in issues dealing with so-called African Nova Scotian affairs.

审查员试图联系总理休斯顿，以获取有关此故事的意见。我们没有听到。

Who’s saying what?

The Examiner also attempted to contact the four Black MLAs now elected to the legislature. Aside from Ali Duale, who was unable to provide input due to a scheduling conflict, we were only able to reach Angela Simmonds.

We asked Simmonds if she thinks Houston should appoint someone Black and/or one of the newly elected Black MLAs. Simmond said:

If they’re particularly thinking about how they move forward with building a relationship and being collaborative, then, you know, maybe they’re already thinking about that themselves. And if they are, I give them full credit for that. If they’re not, I look forward to asking some questions as opposition.

What I would say is that I wouldn’t want anyone to be pigeonholed into, by virtue of just of their race or gender, to be minister of a department just by those qualifications alone.

You know, if they’re not even having that conversation amongst themselves as leaders and as a group that it’s not possible within their own House of Assembly, I think that still speaks to a broader question. If they are considering it, I’d be hopeful that maybe they’re aware that there’re some gaps they need to identify.

审查员询问西蒙兹是否会接受约会。

我现在可能没有最好的答案，因为……作为律师，我必须知道所有信息。

但是我想进一步了解这需要什么。

那么现在怎么办？

过去的选举是许多历史悠久的第一大选举之一。据说这三个主要政党已经运行most diverseslate of candidates in history. Of the candidates, a record total of 11 were Black.

考官是first to highlightthat for the first time in Atlantic Canada, one riding — Preston — was guaranteed to elect a Black MLA. The three main parties all chose to run a Black candidate in the Preston riding.

It was also highly touted that, coincidentally, Preston hadreturnedto a “protected riding” status this election, in an effort to increase the overall percentage of Black voters in the riding.

All of these aspects were highlighted and pointed to as measures meant to increase and promote Black representation and diversity in provincial politics.

那么现在怎么办？

休斯顿的困境发生在全球黑人生活事项运动之后，去年在整个省就在像哈利法克斯,Truro,Wolfville,Windsor,阿默斯特,Kentville,two在新格拉斯哥,Digby,Cape Breton,Yarmouth，以及整个海事的其他地方。

It comes in the wake ofcriticism, just last year, for the previous government’s announcement of a hand-picked racial justice “design team”, to which there have been no updates since.

Houston’s dilemma also comes in the immediate wake ofactivists and leaders in the Black communityand a newly elected Black MLA (Angela Simmonds) and a Black Halifax police officer saying that警察的种族概况在该省仍然发生在dependent report.

休斯顿最近在哈利法克斯的游行广场的解放日庆祝活动中与黑人PC候选人达雷尔·约翰逊（Darrell Johnson）和丽莎·科茨（Lisa Coates）交谈，以及著名的黑人社区成员，例如Gamechangers 902的Derico Symonds，参议员Wanda Thomas Bernard参议员里德（Reid）以及摄影师和音乐制作人Keke Beats。

It will be interesting to note what, if any, sort of counsel he seeks from Black community members such as these with respect to the appointment, and what specific details of those conversations will be made public.

In response to the question of who Houston should appoint, on the Black Nova Scotia NewsFacebook页面, former two-time provincial PC candidate, Irvine Carvery, who is Black, said:

There is precedent to appoint a minister from outside the elected officials … But he is definitely not going outside his own party. I believeTim Halman[PC MLA for Dartmouth East] was the official critic for the office.

[MLA Brad Johns是办公室的官方评论家]。

休斯顿肯定是他任命他选择的任何位置的人的权利。That said, it’s hard to fathom reasoning that would make sense in the minds of Black Nova Scotians as to why any number of talented and qualified Black Nova Scotians, including the four Black MLAs, would be passed over for a white person to oversee affairs pertaining to African Nova Scotians.

Asked if she empathizes with Houston in his dilemma, Angela Simmonds said:

当您计划任职几年时，我不会对政治决定表示同情。这不是他第一次跑步。因此，我认为，如果我们正在研究我们的省以及我们需要如何前进，应该已经考虑了它。

*We incorrectly identified Yvonne Atwell as a Liberal MLA. That error has been corrected.