Leadership, Trust, and the Media – Expert Panel Insights
Jo-Ann Roberts
NS – Green Party Deputy Leader
Jo-Ann is an award-winning journalist who is passionate about democracy, public broadcasting, and fighting climate change. She spent 20 years as a CBC Radio host and covered the 2010 Winter Olympics, the NHL Riots in Vancouver, and more elections than she can count. She’s been a candidate in four elections in the past 6 years—a runner-up but never a winner. She is also the former Interim Leader of the Green Party of Canada. She hopes her book, Storm the Ballot Box, How To Start A Voting Revolution Before It’s Too Late, which will be out in May 2025, will start a conversation that gets Canadians excited about voting and demanding improvements to democracy.
Jacques Poitras
CBC News
Jacques has been CBC’s provincial affairs reporter in New Brunswick since 2000. He grew up in Moncton and graduated from Carleton University. Before joining the CBC, he covered Parliament in Ottawa for the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. Jacques has reported on every New Brunswick election since 1995 and won awards from the National Newspaper Awards, the Radio Television Digital News Association, the Atlantic Journalism Awards and Amnesty International. He is also the author of five non-fiction books about New Brunswick politics and history, including The Right Fight: Bernard Lord and the Conservative Dilemma and Irving vs. Irving: Canada’s Feuding Billionaires and the Stories They Won’t Tell.
Elizabeth has served as MLA for Cumberland North in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly since 2017. She was first elected as a PC; however, in 2021, after the party ousted her for standing up for the citizens of Cumberland North, she decided to stay and sit as an Independent. She was re-elected as an Independent later that same year. Elizabeth is committed to building a stronger Cumberland County and is passionate about influencing public policy to improve healthcare, grow the economy, and improve government services. She proudly gives a strong voice to the concerns and issues of her constituents and never shies away from asking the tough questions.
Elizabeth Smith-McCrossin
NS MLA – Independent
Moderator:
Alex Marland is Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership at Acadia University. His next book, “No I in Team: Party Loyalty in Canadian Politics” (2025) co-authored with Mireille Lalancette and Jared Wesley, argues that party discipline in Canada has evolved into message discipline.
Atlantic Provinces Political Studies Association 