Donald William Cameron

Donald William Cameron (born May 20, 1946) was the 22nd Premier of Nova Scotia, Canada, from February 1991 to June 1993.

His administration was known for a smaller cabinet, supporting anti-discrimination measures, and amending the human rights act to extend protection to gays and lesbians. His government also privatized Nova Scotia Power Incorporated, the largest privatization move in Canada at the time. Cameron also introduced merit-based hiring codes, signed on to the Atlantic Procurement Agreement and introduced mandatory testing in grades 3, 6, 9 and 12 with public release of test scores. Cameron's government established a non-partisan electoral boundaries revision commission in an attempt to end gerrymandering.

Cameron began the practice of non-political appointment of judges, deregulation of gasoline prices and made investments in double-stack rail service from the Port of Halifax (benefitting the TrentonWorks rail car plant in his riding) as well as four-lane highways. His efforts in ending party patronage marked a change in politics in Nova Scotia that his successors, John Savage, and John Hamm were able to continue, making appointments a more transparent process.

Cameron is also remembered as an aggressive supporter of a disastrous development project. He was instrumental, first as a local MLA, then as Industry Minister in the Government of John Buchanan, and then as Premier, in the development of the Westray Mine in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.

Concerns — expressed by many — appeared in the provincial media regarding the safety of those working in such a mine. While coal mining typically releases explosive methane gas, the location of the mine was in an area of Pictou County that had an unusually high level of methane. Despite this, and despite the opposition from federal bureaucrats, opposition politicians and a Government of Canada crown agency responsible for coal mining in Cape Breton, the Cape Breton Development Corporation (Devco), Westray Mine was developed through the late eighties and opened in 1991 with significant provincial and federal government assistance.

On May 9, 1992 a methane gas explosion killed 26 miners.

Cameron's government is also remembered for continuing the Buchanan policy in supporting development of the controversial Point Aconi Generating Station project.

In 1993, the government of Donald Cameron was defeated by the Nova Scotia Liberal Party under John Savage, ending 15 years of Tory rule. Despite campaigning against patronage and implementing many anti-patronage practices during his tenure as Premier, Cameron himself later accepted a traditional patronage appointment for Maritime politicians in Boston, Massachusetts as Canadian Consul General to New England.^[1]

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