14 | Atlantic Business Magazine | January/February 2010 T DARRELL H DEXTER E BY: ELEANOR BEATON Moments after I sit down to inter - view Darrell Dexter , I learn there has been a change in plans. I It seems to be happening to him a lot N lately. Consider the headlines of recent political columns which have blasted Dexter for his seeming openness to cutting services and raising taxes , the C two things he swore he wouldn ’t do in the landmark June election that saw him crowned the first NDP premier east of Ontario: Dear Darrell , the honeymoon R is over , laments Dan Leger , director of news content for the Chronicle Herald. Or , as veteran journalist Stephen E Kimber writes : They were lying. We knew they were lying even while they were still telling them. We voted for them M anyway. My headline would go something like this: Och , Darrell , I hardly knew ye. I had arranged to get an hour of face time with Dexter in order to write a consid - E ered , in-depth profile of the man. Soon after sitting down, Jennifer Stewart, his N press secretary , sternly informs me I have 20 minutes. On the scale of changes of heart , this is low-priority and Dexter deals with it in much the way he seems to deal with everything: T briskly. He sits down , runs a hand through his famously grizzled hair and A starts answering questions. It is late in the day , and Dexter is pale , tired- looking and verging on hoarseness. But he conducts himself with the discipline L of the former military man he is , marshalling information , delivering it I clearly , managing expectations , staying on message. Five months into the job S he ’s long coveted , and Darrell Dexter is already an old pro in what experts like to call “change management. ” T NDP leader Dexter laughs during his first media conference as Premier- Designate at his party caucus office in Halifax. (Paul Darrow\Reuters) Online extras: ABMonline.ca | 15 THE PREPARATION auto insurance , better care for seniors , and affordable electricity . As far as politicians go , Dexter is It doesn ’t hurt that he conveys a sense neither particularly suave nor especially of straight-talk – even about his personal silver-tongued. In fact , his lack of life. Shortly before the spring election , he pretence prompts Deputy Premier Frank revealed to the Halifax newspaper The Corbett , one of Dexter ’s closest political Coast , the existence of a half-brother 2010 confidants , to call him the “anti-politi - living in England. His brother , Dennis cian. ” But what he lacks in overt charm , Mackie , was the product of a brief affair he makes up for with what former between Dexter ’s father and a British federal NDP leader Alexa McDonough woman when he served overseas during Portrait of a Premier calls his “deadly earnestness ”. He is so World War II. In a campaign marked by Parents : Elvin (father, a sheet metal worker) earnest , in fact , that asking his friends certain instances of nastiness (most and Florence (mother, grocery store clerk) . and confidants to come up with a notably the release of topless photos of surprising or little-known anecdote an NDP candidate leaked by a Liberal Birthplace: Born and raised in Milton, Queens TOP CEO about the man is futile. What people campaign worker ), Dexter seemed to County, Nova Scotia. remember about him is generally related sense that honesty was the best defense. Siblings : Six children, including Darrell . to his tirelessness and deeply-felt sense But even the broadest appeal in the AWARDS of responsibility , whether it be handling world might be hard-pressed were it not Wife/Children : Married to Kelly Wilson. One recounts at the end of a long by-election , for true political savvy. Just as Obama son, Harris (19). or campaigning until late in the evening understood and leveraged the power of Schools Attended : Bachelor of Education, to get a friend elected. social media to amass political power , Bachelor of Laws, Dalhousie University; And yet , there is something in the Dexter ’s spring campaign was a social bustle of his bearing that connotes a media leader; for example , surfers who Bachelor of Journalism, University of King ’s complicated energy. He is a passionate Googled Tory leader Rodney College . sports fan , especially of basketball. On MacDonald or Grit Stephen McNeil the court , McDonough says , he’s during the election were automatically 50 Career : Served in the Canadian Navy as a MARK YOUR CALENDAR command information officer for Maritime Forces competitive to the point of being routed to the NDP homepage. And just scrappy. He is a quintessential middle- as Obama ’s historic win galvanized a Pacific and as sub-lieutenant on HMCS Yukon and Join us for our 12th annual celebration of corporate leadership excellence. of-the-road kind of guy , whose normalcy nation – if not the world , for a brief Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 50 CEO awards gala will be dedicated to HMCS Qu ’appelle; former chair of the Dartmouth is at the heart of his great appeal. moment in time – Dexter ’s victory Downtown Development Corporation; elected Born in the small town of Milton , injected Nova Scotia ’s fetid political showcasing our region’s most accomplished and civic-minded corporate Dartmouth City councillor in 1994. Queen ’s County , Darrell moved to scene with a breath of fresh air. “Who citizens. And one truly exceptional individual will be named CEO of the Year Hobbies : Basketball, golf, reading and travelling . Halifax in grade two when his father ,a would believe that NDP orange would sheet metal worker , landed a job at the cover Nova Scotia? ” Dexter mused in his for all of Atlantic Canada. Darrell’s Master Plan: My goal is to make life Halifax shipyard. For most of his child - victory speech , his normally devout better for Nova Scotia families. Already my hood , he spent the school year in Halifax expression erased , at last , by an elated government has implemented a number of and his summers at his grandparents ’ grin. Bored , exhausted and disenchanted measures to do just that. For example, we intro - home in Milton. He was popular and by politics as usual , scores of Nova demonstrated early some of his Scotians who had never considered duced a new home construction rebate to stim - legendary energy , playing sports and voting NDP decided to give the rumpled , Atlantic Business Magazine’s 2010 Top 50 CEO Awards Gala ulate the economy and keep our skilled trades - working a part-time job as a paper diligent , hard-working lawyer from Cole people here at home …. We’ve also stimulated carrier. When his was in grade nine , his Harbour a chance. It was hard not to feel Wednesday, May 12, 2010 the economy and created thousands of jobs by family moved back to Milton where he happy for him. He had spent 10 years maximizing federal infrastructure dollars. (We) attended Liverpool High School and , by sweating on the Opposition benches , World Trade and Convention Centre, Halifax will fast-track funding increases for transition his own admission , scraped by doing as eight of them as party leader , for this day. houses across Nova Scotia, the first time in little work as possible. A few years ago , “We have never had a premier come one of his closest high school friends told into the office who was as prepared for more than a decade these groups will see a a CBC-TV reporter he remembered the job as Darrell is. ” Alexa McDonough , bump in funding. In October, we removed the Dexter saying in high school he ’d one former leader of the federal NDP and Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 50 CEO Awards are generously sponsored by: provincial portion of the HST on basic home day be the “NDP premier of Nova current acting president of Mount Saint electricity, saving millions of dollars in energy Scotia. ” Dexter has said he doesn ’t Vincent University , first met Dexter costs for Nova Scotians. We hired Dr. John Ross remember it. He did , however , state in when he worked on her 1979 federal to advise the province on ways to improve his yearbook that his life ’s dream was to election campaign. She was immediately emergency health care, and we established become a millionaire. struck by his eagerness to learn. “He is a perpetual researcher … he ’s a student of ministerial accountability for emergency Dexter ’s experience growing up both in the city and in a small working class history , of politics , a student of life. ” In departments …. Our government is on track to town seems to have informed his polit - Dexter ’s case , “ student of life ” can be meet our other commitments to improve life for ical view. For years , Dexter campaigned construed as a euphemism for a young families, including establishing a community on basic , no-nonsense issues that deeply adulthood spent pursuing a number of land trust, drafting a five-year paving plan and affected the lives and pocketbooks of different career avenues. When he first establishing a suburban priorities team. average Nova Scotians, such as public entered university , he was a reluctant 16 | Atlantic Business Magazine | January/February 2010 201010 TTOPOP CCEOEO 500AAWARDSWARDS MMARKARK YOUURR CAALENDARLENDAR Join us for our 12th annual celebration of corporate leadership excellence. Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 50 CEO awards gala will be dedicated to showcasing our region’ s most accomplished and civic-minded cor porate citizens. And one truly exceptional individual will be named CEO of the Year for all of Atlantic Canada. Atlantic Business Magazine’s 2010 Top 50 CEO Awards Gala Wednesday, May 12, 2010 World Trade and Co nv ention Centre, Hal if ax Atlantic Business Magazine’s Top 50 CEO Awards are generously sponsored by: student , scraping through his first year at the University of Kings College with four You Asked, credits.