Howard Michael Epstein (born January 17, 1949) is a Canadian politician, lawyer and part-time law professor.

Early life and career

Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he is an environmentalist, serving as the director of the

Ecology Action Centre The Ecology Action Centre (EAC) is a non-profit environmental organization founded in 1971 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, credited with launching the province's first recycling program. EAC's 40 employed staff and 300 volunteers work with researchers, ...

in Halifax from 1991-1994.

Political career

First elected to

Halifax City Council Halifax Regional Council (french: Conseil régional d'Halifax) is the governing body of Halifax, known as the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM). Halifax is governed by a mayor-council system, where councillors are elected from sixteen geographi ...

in 1994, he was re-elected in 1996 with the formation of the Halifax Regional Municipality. Epstein sat as the Councillor for District 14 (Connaught-Quinpool), representing the city's West End. On March 24, 1998, Epstein was elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly for the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

representing the provincial riding of

Halifax Chebucto Halifax Chebucto is a provincial electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. It is one of several ridings within the Halifax Regional Municipality. It encompasses the neighbourhood kno ...

. He was re-elected in the

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

general elections. Prior to June 2009, he was the NDP Critic for Conserve Nova Scotia, Intergovernmental Affairs, Gaming and the Heritage Property Act. Epstein was shut out of the Cabinet by Premier Darrell Dexter when the NDP first formed government in June 2009. He was shut out of Cabinet a second time when Dexter shuffled his cabinet on May 30, 2012. Epstein was the Ministerial Assistant for the Department of Community Services, specifically co-operative housing and other housing programs. On January 15, 2013, Epstein announced that he would not be re-offering in the

next Nova Scotia general election The 42nd Nova Scotia general election will be held on or before 15 July 2025 to elect members to the 65th General Assembly of Nova Scotia. During the 2021 election, the Progressive Conservatives included a commitment in their platform to introd ...

. On March 20, 2015, Empty Mirrors Press published Epstein's political memoir "Rise Again: Nova Scotia's NDP on the Rocks" an account of his 15 years in provincial politics, the history of the New Democratic Party in Nova Scotia, and his analysis of the successes and failures of the Dexter NDP government during its term in office."Rise Again: Nova Scotia's NDP on the Rocks"

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Epstein, Howard Living people Schulich School of Law alumni Canadian environmentalists Nova Scotia New Democratic Party MLAs People from Halifax, Nova Scotia Jewish Canadian politicians 1949 births Halifax Regional Municipality councillors 21st-century Canadian politicians