Sydney-Membertou MLA Derek Mombourquette will serve as interim leader As Zach Churchill steps down, we remind ourselves that he ignored equalization as much as any politician. Only a few years ago, the Liberals had a majority government in Nova Scotia and the PC’s had a majority government in New Brunswick. We recently watched as the Province of New Brunswick changed from a PC majority to a Liberal majority government. This at a time when everyone seems to be fed up and tired of the federal liberals. What does this mean? As Nova Scotia was swept with a blue wave, New Brunswick does the opposite. What does this tell us about the government itself? People are sick and tired of the party system in Canada. It seems to work for big business and not the Canadian people. Is Canada just one big corporation with politicians being the directors and managers? If equalization fairness has shown the NSEF anything, it is that ignoring the questions of our organization does not make the problem go away. We are going nowhere, and we will continue to hold all of you accountable and we demand nothing but transparency. If any governing party in power in Canada supported accountability and transparency, they would appoint citizen oversight committees to watch, monitor and oversee the actions of the government. Now that the Liberal party in Nova Scotia holds only 2 seats in the provincial Legislature, how long before the province will vote them back in because we are sick and tired of the PCs. Time will tell and history will repeat itself for sure but how much will we suffer in the interim? Trying to get the Justice Minister of Canada to speak on equalization and to explain their program has not been successful thus far. When the government is unable to meet and explain the programs that the Canadian taxpayers fund, there is a serious problem. It appears to us that the federal government only exists to pander to corporate Canada. During the negotiations of bill 340, Zach Churchill and others wasted an excellent opportunity to draw attention to the specific category that funds the municipal deficiency and our ability to provide equal service and equal taxation rates. This category, this year is funded to the tune of $650 million for the province of Nova Scotia, so why is the province only funding $30 million to the struggling municipalities. Where is it being spent? The five towns that dissolved in Nova Scotia were unnecessary. The NSEF