Nova Scotia’s ‘Bernie Sanders of the North’ leads NDP back to left-wing roots
HALIFAX — The way Gary Burrill tells it, his journey to socialism began at a clapboard church in Harbourville, N.S., a small fishing community on the shores of the Bay of Fundy.
His father was a preacher there — a remarkable one, Nova Scotia’s NDP leader says.
On Sunday afternoons, the two would head to the small church, where Burrill would sit, the wooden pew hard on his small back. He was usually the only child in the room, but he was always enraptured by his father’s sermons.
“At that time, he was at the height of his power,” Burrill said in an interview from his downtown office overlooking Halifax harbour.