In Monday’s Morning File, Tim Bousquet introduced readers to the Examiner’s newest reporter, hired through the Local Journalism Initiative, Matthew Byard. Byard (whose last name coincidentally rhymes with “hired”) has been brought on to cover African Nova Scotian communities in HRM and across the province.

Byard’s first article for the Examiner, published Tuesday afternoon, covers an historic first for the province.

“For the first time in Nova Scotia history,” he writes, “there is a riding in the upcoming provincial election where all of the candidates for MLA are Black.” Byard continues:

In the riding of Preston, which encompasses Nova Scotia’s most predominantly Black community, Angela Simmonds (for the Liberals), Archy Beals (for the PCs), and Colter Simmonds (for the NDP) are all vying to replace Liberal MLA Keith Colwell, who has served four terms as the riding’s MLA since 2003.

Colwell, who was the riding’s sole white candidate in the last election, announced that he would not be reoffering earlier this month, just two days before it was announced that Angela Simmonds would be running for the Liberals instead.

It might surprise a few Nova Scotians that this is still uncharted territory. Especially for an area like Preston, which has the highest population density of Black people in Atlantic Canada. Still, it’s worth noting that the riding of Preston contains more than just the community of Preston. The riding itself is still believed to contain more white voters than Black voters.

Read Byard’s first full piece here to find out more about the individual candidates, as well as Byard’s take on what a field of Black candidates could mean for African Nova Scotian issues — “topics such as Afrocentric education, racism in the justice system, racism in healthcare, specific allegations of racism toward RCMP and municipal police forces, racism within municipal services, any specific correlation between racism and the hot topic of mental health and mental health services, or even racism in of itself beyond general talking points” — in the upcoming election. Particularly in the riding of Preston.