Paul MacEwan

Paul MacEwan (8 April 1943 – 2 May 2017) was a politician from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.

His 33 years in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly made him the longest constinuous serving Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) in Nova Scotia history.

He was a contentious politician, who seemed to court controversy.

MacEwan was closely associated with the work of Jeremy Akerman, who served as the leader of the Nova Scotia NDP from 1968 to 1980.

Akerman won the party leadership by four votes in 1968, at a convention where MacEwan persuaded eight uncommitted youth delegates to support Alkerman.

MacEwan was elected first as a candidate of the social democratic Nova Scotia New Democratic Party (NDP) in the 1970 provincial election.

He ran in Cape Breton Nova, a heavily blue collar riding (electoral district) that was home to the Sydney Steel plant and many coal miners.

On 13 October 1970, he and Akerman were the first two NDP MLAs elected in Nova Scotia's history.

The 1970 election saw the ruling Progressive Conservatives (PCs) defeated after 14 years in power.

They were replaced by the Liberals headed by Gerald Regan.

During his first term as MLA, MacEwan wrote Miners and Steelworkers: Labour in Cape Breton, a history of union activities and political activism in the area, published in 1976.

He was also the author of Confederation and the Maritimes which came out later in 1976, and The Akerman Years: Jeremy Akerman and the Nova Scotia NDP, 1965-1980, published in 1980.

During the years of Akerman and MacEwan, the NDP advanced by one seat in each election contested, and had four MLAs elected by 1978.

So much so, he was kicked out of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party (NDP) while he was a sitting member of the assembly in 1980 and caused them to lose official party status without him.

Just after the 1980 federal election, in May, Akerman stepped down as the Nova Scotia NDP's leader.

At this time, there was a growing rift between the Cape Breton Island and Mainland wings of the party.

This rift exploded in June, when MacEwan, the NDP MLA for Cape Breton Nova, was expelled from the party due to his constant public airing of internal party disputes.

His public accusations included the implication that Akerman resigned due to "Trotskyist elements" from the mostly mainland-based provincial council.

To make this situation worse for an incoming leader, the NDP's four MLAs, all from Cape Breton constituencies, voted 3–1 to keep him in the caucus.

Len J. Arsenault – the MLA for Cape Breton North – and a leadership candidate, being the only negative vote.

MacEwan's expulsion became one of the dominant issues during the leadership race that autumn.

In late September, Akerman was appointed to a top Nova Scotia civil service job that required him to both resign from the Legislature and terminate his membership in the NDP.

James 'Buddy' MacEachern, a leadership candidate, and MLA for Cape Breton Centre, was made the interim leader on 2 October.

The newly elected leader, Alexa McDonough, had to settle the Paul MacEwan question.

On 9 December 1980, she managed to get her former leadership rivals to vote MacEwan out of the caucus and party.

Since she did not have a seat in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, the party was left with just two seats, because MacEwan was now an independent, and Akerman's seat was left vacant due to his resignation.

For the 1981 Nova Scotia general election, MacEwan ran for re-election in the Cape Breton Nova electoral district as an independent candidate.

He was the only independent elected to the legislature that year.

As for McDonough's NDP, although she got elected in the Halifax area, the party lost the rest of their Cape Breton seats and official party status in the House of Assembly.

He formed his own political party, the Cape Breton Labour Party, to contest the 1984 provincial election.

He served one-term as its leader, before the party disintegrated because of financial issues.

He eventually joined the Liberal Party of Nova Scotia, and became a Liberal member of the legislature.

After MacEwan left the NDP, he established the Cape Breton Labour Party, which presented itself as a rival political party to the others participating in the 1984 provincial election.

In 1993, he became the Speaker of the House of Assembly.

His term as the speaker was marked with many controversies around bias and partisanship.

His final years in the legislature saw him take prominent roles as Party Whip for the Liberals.

After several health issues, he decided to not run for office again in 2003.

He retired and lived another 14 years before finally succumbing to health issues in 2017, at age 74 in Sydney.

He was the son of Horace Frederick MacEwan and was educated at the Sydney Academy, the Nova Scotia Teachers College, Saint Francis Xavier University, Mount Allison University, and Cape Breton University, from which he held a B.A. degree.

He then worked as a teacher in Sydney.