Candidate Spotlight: Tammy Scott-Wallace

A longtime newspaper editor and reporter hopes to become the next Progressive Conservative MLA in Sussex-Fundy-St. Martins.

Tammy Scott-Wallace spent the first 10 years of her journalism career working at newspapers in Nova Scotia.

She has spent the past 17 years living in Sussex, where she worked at the Telegraph-Journal and the Kings County Record.

Scott-Wallace said her 25 years as a journalist has allowed her to learn more about the people she hopes to represent.

“I really got to understand them and gain a real understanding of what is important to them and what makes them happy and what makes them afraid for their futures,” said Scott-Wallace in an interview.

“I had decided that this was a direction I wanted to follow probably knowing that Bruce Northrup was retiring in this riding and I was ready to set my pen aside and serve as a voice in a different type of way for the people of this riding.”

The riding of Sussex-Fundy-St. Martins was the site of protests earlier this year after the Blaine Higgs government proposed reforms which would have seen the emergency room in Sussex closed at night.

Higgs later reversed those plans but other political parties have accused the PC leader of having a secret agenda when it comes to health care.

Scott-Wallace said Higgs’ willingness to walk back the reforms and promise not to reduce ER services drew her to the party.

“It was that reversal of decision and his commitment to talk to the people and continue to talk to the people that really made me feel most secure that our hospital is going to be safe. I believe him when he says that,” she said.

“That was such a poorly communicated announcement for our hospital and I appreciated the fact that Blaine Higgs acknowledged that. He didn’t put the closure of the emergency room on a shelf to do later. He cancelled that completely and he reiterated it and he’s continuing to reiterate that there’s no closure of ERs, that the ERs are not where our biggest challenges in health care it.”

The hospital is one of the issues Scott-Wallace has heard daily during the election campaign, but it has not been the only one.

She said parents have also expressed concern about sending their kids back to school during a pandemic and what it might look like.

“It’s one step at a time for all of us. We will continue to communicate and the Blaine Higgs team will continue to communicate with families on what they can expect and what is to come as it unfolds,” said Scott-Wallace.

Scott-Wallace said outgoing MLA Bruce Northrup served the riding well for 14 years and has given her his full support.

“He’s been spending time with me on the campaign trail and he’s been sharing his knowledge and his contacts,” she said. “I’m feeling a lot of people’s support who were there with Bruce for 14 years and who believed in him and the PC Party.”

Voters will head to the polls on September 14.