What-I-learned-eBook-2

1. The Election of 2013: “The Arse Is Right Out Of ’Er”

2. Learning to Be a Politician

• Getting to Know Nova Scotia

• Learning the Ropes At Province House

• Helen MacDonald and the By-election Of 2001

3. What Does an MLA Actually Do?

• Legislative Work

• MLAs’ Background and Experience Do Not Equip Them For Legislative Work

• All Substantial Decisions On Bills and Budgets Are Made Elsewhere

• Party Discipline Drives All Real Debate Behind Closed Doors

• Summing Up the Legislative Work

• Constituency Work

• Losing My Secret Strength

4. Eight Years in Opposition

• Building Darrell’s Image

• Finding My Stage: The Public Accounts Committee

• The Big Blow-Up: MLA Expenses

• The Rules of the Game

5. Election 2009: The Honeymoon Begins

• Election Night: Victory Enjoyed and Defeat Foretold

• The Aftermath of the Election

• Becoming a Cabinet Minister

• The Worries Of a New Finance Minister

6. Inside The Dexter Government

• The Cabinet

• The Premier’s Office

• Treasury Board

• Policy and Priorities

• The First Eight Months: Wasting the Honeymoon

7. The MLA Expense Scandal: The Honeymoon Ends

• The Auditor General’s Report

8. So You Want To Be Finance Minister?

• The Laws of Finance

• Back to Balance

9. The Choices We Made: Balance, Spending, Taxes

• Balancing the Budget

• Reducing Expenditure

• Raising More Revenue

• Could We Lower the HST?

10. Resigning As The Minister of Finance

• Same Old, Same Old

• When I Decided to Resign

• How and When I Resigned

11. Returning To Cabinet

• Why I Came Back

• What I Saw When I Got There

12. The End

• What Went Wrong?

• What Comes Next?

• Where is Politics Going?

• Political Parties

• Better Politicians?

• Engaged Citizens

Appendix: The News Conference I Never Held

Acknowledgements and Further Reading