When you hire someone to do a job, you can fire them if their performance isn’t up to snuff.

But when a Nova Scotia politician does the same thing, taxpayers are stuck with the bill until the next election rolls around.

That needs to change. It’s time for the Houston government to bring in recall legislation.

The latest example is the floor-crossing of Becky Druhan, member of the legislative assembly for Lunenburg West.

Druhan was first elected as a Progressive Conservative in 2021 and re-elected under the PC banner in 2024, winning 56 per cent of the vote. Her Liberal competitor got just 30 per cent. Yet now Druhan announced she’s joining the Liberal caucus and running for the Liberal leadership.

The voters of Lunenburg West didn’t vote for a Liberal MLA. They didn’t vote for a potential Liberal premier. But under Nova Scotia’s current rules, voters have no way to weigh in until the next general election years from now.

That’s not accountability. That’s a four-year hall pass.

Recall legislation would fix it.

Here’s how it works: any constituent can start a petition. If it collects the required number of signatures from voters in the riding within a set window, it triggers a byelection.

Voters then decide at the ballot box whether to keep their representative or pick someone else. The politician can run again. They might win. They might not. The point is that voters get to make the call.

And this isn’t a fringe idea.

British Columbia has had recall legislation since 1995.

Alberta brought in its own recall act in 2022.

In the United States, 39 states allow voters to recall politicians at the state or local level.

And it works.

In B.C., MLA Paul Reitsma was caught writing fake letters to the editor praising himself and attacking his opponents. He resigned in 1998 once it became clear his constituents had collected enough signatures to recall him.

The system did exactly what it was designed to do: it gave voters a tool and the threat of that tool forced accountability.

In Alberta, voters in the village of Ryley used the province’s new recall law to punt their mayor after he ballooned the village budget and expensed $5,000 to attend meetings without council approval. Voters didn’t have to wait for an election to act. They acted right away.

That’s the kind of tool Nova Scotians need.

And it’s not just about floor-crossings. It’s about every situation where a politician breaks faith with the people who put them in office.

A premier who promises one thing and does another.

An MLA caught in a spending scandal.

Cabinet ministers who quietly hand themselves a raise on budget day.

Right now, taxpayers can do nothing but complain and wait. Recall would give them a real lever to pull.

Critics say recall would create political chaos, but the evidence says otherwise.

In B.C., more than two dozen recall petitions have been launched in nearly three decades. Only one came close to forcing out a sitting MLA. That’s not chaos. That’s a safety valve being used responsibly.

What recall really does is change the way politicians behave between elections. When a politician knows their constituents can force a byelection if they cross a line, that politician thinks twice before crossing it. Recall doesn’t punish good politicians. It disciplines bad ones.

Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he supports recall at the federal level. Premier Tim Houston should bring it to Nova Scotia.

Nova Scotians are supposed to be the boss in our democracy. Right now, they only get to act like the boss once every four years.

It’s time to give them the power to hire and fire their politicians whenever the job demands it.