2013 Nova Scotia general election
Canadian provincial election

The 2013 Nova Scotia general election was held on October 8, 2013, to elect members to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.
The result of the election was a Liberal victory under the leadership of Stephen McNeil, with the party winning its first election since 1998. The Progressive Conservatives, under the leadership of Jamie Baillie, improved on their 2009 results and formed the Official Opposition, despite winning fewer votes than the New Democratic Party (NDP). The NDP, which had won power for the first time in 2009 under the leadership of Darrell Dexter was reduced to third place and became only the second one-term government in the province's history, and the first since 1882. Dexter himself was defeated in Cole Harbour-Portland Valley by Liberal candidate Tony Ince.
Timeline
June 24, 2009 – The New Democratic Party under Darrell Dexter win 31 out of 52 seats. The Progressive Conservatives are reduced to 10 seats and Rodney MacDonald announces that he will step down as leader. Karen Casey is named as interim leader.
September 4, 2009 – Antigonish MLA Angus MacIsaac resigns his seat, citing family reasons.
September 10, 2009 – Former Premier Rodney MacDonald resigns his Inverness seat in the legislature.
“2013 Nova Scotia general election” enters the record as canadian provincial election. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Nova, Scotia and general can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “2013 Nova Scotia general election” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.