The Savage Years: The Perils of Reinventing Government in Nova Scotia

Agar Adamson is the author of Letters of Agar Adamson, 1914–19 and former chair of the Department of Political Science at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

When the Liberals under John Savage gained office in June 1993, Nova
Scotia was on the threshold of modernizing its politics and its
administration. The focus of this book by four Nova Scotia professors of
political science is the means by which the Savage government attempted
to expedite this process.

The essays on the various policy initiatives related to budget, health,
education, training, and municipal reform are a mixed bag. Some lack
sufficient detail. For example, the chapter on municipal reform neglects
to give the details of the file that the Liberals inherited from
Cameron’s Conservatives. Omitted from the coverage of health policy is
any discussion of cutbacks and the price they exacted on the province.

On the other hand, the essays do give the reader insight into the
political culture of Nova Scotia in the 1990s. Particularly good is the
portrait of Savage, a Welsh-born family physician who had little
experience beyond municipal politics (he served as Mayor of Dartmouth)
and was an outsider in the Liberal Party. His strong Welsh accent
provoked a number of xenophobic hate calls to his office. To his
everlasting credit, Savage attempted to rid his party, and Nova Scotia,
of its excessive and backward tradition of patronage. Unfortunately, his
efforts came to naught: his successor reverted to the old style of
patronage.

The book, which would have benefited from more rigorous fact-checking
(for example, Robbie Harrison is not a lawyer), includes a useful
bibliography, an index, and a chronology of events between 1988 and
1997.