Zachariah John Churchill is a Canadian politician and activist from

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

who served as the leader of the

Nova Scotia Liberal Party The Nova Scotia Liberal Party (officially the Liberal Association of Nova Scotia) is a Centrist politics, centrist provincial political party in Nova Scotia, Canada and the provincial section of the Liberal Party of Canada. The party currently hol ...

and the

leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the Opposition (parliamentary), largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the ...

from 2022 until 2024. He previously served as the member of the

Nova Scotia House of Assembly The Nova Scotia House of Assembly (; ), or Legislative Assembly, is the deliberative assembly of the General Assembly of Nova Scotia, and together with the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia makes up the Nova Scotia Legislature. The assembly is ...

for Yarmouth, first elected from 2010 until 2024, and as a cabinet minister in various portfolios in the

Stephen McNeil Stephen McNeil (born November 10, 1964) is a Canadian politician who served as the 28th premier of Nova Scotia, from 2013 to 2021. He also represented the riding of Annapolis in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 2003 to 2021 and was the ...

and

Iain Rankin Iain Thomas Rankin (born April 9, 1983) is a Canadian politician who served as the 29th premier of Nova Scotia from February 23, 2021, to August 31, 2021. He serves in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly for the Nova Scotia Liberal Party, repr ...

ministries, most notably as minister of health and wellness.

Early life and education

Churchill graduated from Saint Mary's University in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He served as National Director of the

Canadian Alliance of Student Associations The Canadian Alliance of Student Associations (CASA) is a federally focused student advocacy organization. CASA currently has 24 members, who represent over 275,000 students from across Canada. With a formal partnership with the Quebec Student U ...

from 2007 to 2009, representing student organizations across Canada. In 2010, he was serving as policy analyst at the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development for the federal government before taking a leave of absence to run for the

in Yarmouth.

Political career

Churchill was nominated by the Liberal Party in the riding of Yarmouth in May 2010. He won the by-election held on June 22, 2010, which was contested by six high-profile candidates. Churchill garnered over half the popular vote, defeating

John Deveau John Deveau is a Canadians, Canadian politician. He represented the Electoral district (Canada), electoral district of Yarmouth (provincial electoral district), Yarmouth in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1998 to 1999. He was a member of t ...

, who had served as MLA for the region, and by Charles Crosby, who served as Mayor of Yarmouth for two decades, and two minor-party leaders. Churchill was re-elected during the 2013 general election. On October 22, 2013, Premier

appointed Churchill to the

Executive Council of Nova Scotia The Executive Council of Nova Scotia (informally and more commonly, the Cabinet of Nova Scotia) is the cabinet of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Almost always made up of members of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, the cabinet is s ...

as Minister of Natural Resources. On July 24, 2015, McNeil shuffled his cabinet, moving Churchill to Minister of Municipal Affairs and Minister of Communications Nova Scotia. On June 15, 2017, Churchill was shuffled into the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development portfolio. As Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, Churchill introduced major reforms into Nova Scotia's education system. This included the introduction of universal Pre-primary across the province, a Liberal campaign commitment during the 2017 election. During the

2021 Nova Scotia Liberal Party Leadership Election The 2021 Nova Scotia Liberal Party Leadership convention, leadership election took place on February 6 to elect a leader to replace Premier of Nova Scotia, Premier Stephen McNeil, who on August 6, 2020, announced his pending resignation after l ...

, Churchill supported

in his bid to become leader. After Rankin became Leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party and Premier of Nova Scotia, Churchill became Minister of Health and Wellness, serving in Rankin's cabinet until August 31, 2021. Churchill served as Health Minister during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, holding the position for six months. Churchill was re-elected for the fourth time in 2021, winning the riding of Yarmouth with 56% of the vote. In the wake of the Liberal Party's defeat in the

2021 Nova Scotia general election The 2021 Nova Scotia general election was held on August 17, 2021, to elect members to the 64th General Assembly of Nova Scotia. In a major Upset (competition), upset, Tim Houston led the Progressive Conservative Association of Nova Scotia, Pr ...

, Churchill became Deputy Leader of the Official Opposition and Health Critic. In February 2022, Churchill announced he was running for the leadership of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party. On July 9, 2022, he won the

leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a ...

. In the

2024 Nova Scotia general election The 2024 Nova Scotia general election was held on November 26, 2024, to elect members to the 65th General Assembly of Nova Scotia. The election was held under first-past-the-post voting. The incumbent Progressive Conservative Association of No ...

, Churchill led the Liberals to a third place finish with two seats, behind the PCs and NDP, one of the worst results in their history. He was

unseated Unseating is a political term which refers to a legislator who loses their seat in an election. A legislator who is unseated loses the right to sit in a legislative chamber. A landslide victory results in many legislators being unseated. Austral ...

himself by 14 votes by Progressive Conservative candidate

Nick Hilton Nicholas "Nick" Peter Hilton (born September 26, 1983) is a Canadian politician who was elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly in the 2024 general election, representing Yarmouth as a member of the Progressive Conservative Association of ...

. He resigned as leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party party on December 10, 2024

Controversy

In 2019, PC Leader

Tim Houston Timothy Jerome Houston (born April 10, 1970) is a Canadian politician who has served as the 30th and current premier of Nova Scotia since 2021, and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party since 2017. He was first elected to the Nova Sco ...

and another MLA alleged they had been accosted by Churchill. They described the incidents as verbally and physically threatening. Churchill admitted that he could be "confrontational", but denied physical altercations. In 2021,

Maureen MacDonald Maureen MacDonald (born 1954) is a Canadian academic and politician. She represented the riding of Halifax Needham in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1998 to 2016. She served as the interim leader of the Nova Scotia New Democratic Party fr ...

, former NSNDP leader, said that Churchill had become physical with a member of her caucus, an allegation Churchill denied.

Electoral record

, - , - , Progressive Conservative , John Cunningham , align="right", 1,216 , align="right", 14.31 , align="right", -19.10 , - ,

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; , ) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * * The Editors of ''Encyclopædia Britann ...

, Charles Webster , align="right", 224 , align="right", 2.64 , align="right", -3.88 , - , Progressive Conservative , Charles Crosby , align="right", 2,628 , align="right", 33.41 , align="right", -27.93 , Independent , Belle Hatfield , align="right", 673 , align="right", 8.56 , align="right", Ø ,

, John Deveau , align="right", 513 , align="right", 6.52 , align="right", -16.41

References

External links

Members of the Nova Scotia Legislative AssemblyLiberal caucus profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Churchill, Zach 1984 births Living people Members of the Executive Council of Nova Scotia Nova Scotia Liberal Party MLAs Politicians from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia Saint Mary's University (Halifax) alumni Canadian people of Lebanese descent Nova Scotia political party leaders 21st-century members of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly