This is one of three profiles of the MLAs who want to be the next leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party. We profile Randy Delorey here and Iain Rankin here.
Since he was a teenager, Labi Kousoulis has zealously minded his family’s business.
Now, the 49-year-old Haligonian says he has accrued the life lessons and professional experience to help you mind yours.
“No matter who you are, I will work very hard for all Nova Scotians, whether you’re urban, rural, whatever you’re background is, a new Canadian, new Nova Scotian or your family has been here for hundreds of years,” Kousoulis said of his bid to win the Liberal leadership and the accompanying premiership in Saturday’s convention.
Kousoulis, who lives near Saint Mary’s University in south-end Halifax with his wife Jill and their daughters Alexandra, 4, and Olympia, 2, is contesting the top Liberal job against former cabinet colleagues Randy Delorey and Iain Rankin.
In his second term as member of the legislature for the Halifax Citadel-Sable Island riding, Kousoulis touts his education and a strong business development background as requisite tools to fill the premier’s chair Stephen McNeil is vacating.
The very strong background comes from immigrant parents John Kousoulis and Marina Michalakos, who separately left Greece for Nova Scotia in the late 1950s, met in Halifax, married and worked hard to make a living in the restaurant business.
Labi Kousoulis and his sister, Martina, four years his senior, also worked in family-run restaurants on Quinpool and Spring Garden roads before taking over the Acadian Lines depot restaurant in 1989 after John Kousoulis’s death.
From there, it was a business degree at Saint Mary’s for Kousoulis, positions as a commercial lender with Scotiabank, dealing with farmers, woodlot owners and business owners in the Amherst area, a senior financial agent with Wilson Fuels, comptroller at TrentonWorks in Pictou County and owner-operator of a Halifax furniture store.
“With that unique experience, working the majority of my career in rural Nova Scotia and another major part of my career in Halifax, I have the understanding of both rural and urban issues and with my background and education I have a good understanding of many industries and the challenges they face,” Kousoulis said.
Along the way, Kousoulis earned a certified management accounting designation and found time to volunteer as an entrepreneurship mentor for high school students, to act as auditor for his church for 10 years, to run three Greekfests and coach youth and men’s soccer teams.
Kousoulis and his two leadership opponents were all first elected to the House in the October 2013 sweep to power of the McNeil-led Liberals. Promising an unprecedented level of transparency, McNeil has drawn considerable criticism for government secrecy, for an autocratic leadership style that sheltered cabinet ministers from leading roles and for not calling the House to session since pandemic restrictions were implemented in March.
Not surprisingly, Kousoulis defends the Liberal government on all three counts.
“With that unique experience, working the majority of my career in rural Nova Scotia and another major part of my career in Halifax, I have the understanding of both rural and urban issues and with my background and education I have a good understanding of many industries and the challenges they face.”
- Labi Kousoulis
“I truly believe that our citizens deserve to know what decisions their government is making and how they are moving forward but as well we have to balance protection of privacy and we have to make sure we are not releasing information that violates an individual’s private information,” Kousoulis said “
“In my management style, I’m more of a strategist, big thinker but that means I will lean on our cabinet colleagues a lot more to be driving their departments forward.”
Kousoulis said while other provinces had to convene legislature sittings after the pandemic took hold to pass emergency health measures, McNeil’s foresight had his Liberal government pass its pre-pandemic budget early in 2020.
“In terms of the fall, Premier McNeil had already announced he was stepping down and … for him to have gone into the legislature to start passing legislation which might not coincide with the new leader, I don’t think at that point would have been the move to make.”
Kousoulis said the province is facing major issues, the first of which is to stay on course as “probably the best jurisdiction in North America,” for its handling of the health and economic crisis.
“We can see an end in sight right now but we don’t see an end for our small businesses and if they shut down, we are going to face higher unemployment, we are going to face Nova Scotians struggling and the cost will be much greater over the next five to 10 years than to help those small businesses get through the pandemic today.”
Kousoulis has promised a $60-million property tax relief program to help small businesses and a tax rebate for struggling tourism operators. He also wants to tackle the housing crisis with reworked taxation and by implementing a rent cap that will protect signed leases from rent hikes of more than four per cent year over year.
“In the last years, the cost of an apartment has doubled in construction, which means we collected double in HST and means the city (HRM) collects double in property tax but we’re not in the middle of these discussions to make life more affordable for Nova Scotians and we have to be at the table.”
Kousoulis said work on a provincial budget is in its final stages, but if selected by the party to be premier, he would weave his platform promises into the budget and into new spring legislation.
“I can assure Nova Scotians that we would have a spring session, we would introduce the budget and we would move forward.”
