This past weekend I was lucky enough to enjoy another trip to Cape Breton. I love going back there and feeling the positive energy towards this campaign.

During this trip, I went non-stop from sunrise to sunset. Cape Breton was certainly one of the places to be this weekend for Progressive Conservatives.

Cape Breton Centre constituency association had their dinner and auction – candidate of record, Louie Piovesan sure has made great headway in this area. As well, North-Side Westmount held their AGM with a packed house.

On Sunday night, we hosted a meet and greet in Sydney. It was great to have so many people engaged in the leadership selection process come out to chat. Our team met many new friends with diverse backgrounds and diverse priorities they would like to see the province address. We talked about everything from film tax credits, to education and health care, to economic development.

I also met with a group of local entrepreneurs, who spoke to me about the barriers that still exist in starting up small businesses. It’s discouraging to hear about their challenges considering that over the past 20 years, governments have spent millions of  dollars on economic development in the CBRM with minimal results.

Where is the accountability?

History is riddled with examples of politicians sending one-offs of funding as band-aid approaches, only to discover that it was not a good use of taxpayer dollars. I want to change things by actually listening to entrepreneurs and asking them what they need to get started.

Some politicians have a tendency to make promises that sound great, but in reality, won't be achieved.

I’ll be direct with you – we need to move away from this old style of politics. The politics built around making promises, getting peoples’ hopes up, only to put those promises on the backburner once a political win is obtained.

Not only does this go against the values of our Progressive Conservative Party; it’s not right, plain and simple. That’s not how to treat people.