John Hamm Quotations

The people of Nova Scotia voted against Sunday shopping and we have a responsibility to make sure that there are not loopholes in the legislation and regulation that would allow activities that are contrary to the spirit of the plebiscite,

He mentioned the file to me and I said minister on this file I can't tell you what to do. Do what you think is right.

We can do what we can do to make sure people aren't being gouged; that the price is fair and is being determined by demand and not gouging,

The people of the province want the government to be focused on energy. It is something that is very troubling to many, many Nova Scotians, and we are going to focus on energy.

Had I not been sensitive to the perceived conflict, I would have been far more aggressive in promoting the file.

That was the way it was presented to me and to my (police) chief,

We don't need three years to prove the obvious. Canadians believe this is the next step and I believe the summit will convince the federal government that this should happen quickly.

We really didn't have the presence in Ottawa we should have. That kind of base would have made the job easier, and perhaps we would have been able to do it more effectively.

We kept our shoulder to the wheel and our eye on the ball. And to the best of our abilities, we kept mostly to our promises, kept mostly to our time lines and almost always to our dollar commitments,

While I'm comfortable in my job today, and maybe I would be tomorrow, looking four or five years ahead, I began to say to myself, 'I have to be realistic. It's time for fresh leadership'.

We feel like we followed the proper guidelines.

Putting our numbers together with his number, I think there should be a framework in which we can all nicely work.

As premier, I am proud of our record,

It's extremely distressing when signed agreements are not adhered to, ... We have a philosophy in Nova Scotia as a government, and I think the philosophy is shared by most Nova Scotians: If you have a contractual commitment, you keep it.

I've done a lot of thinking, and as I said earlier: it's time,

In one declaration prior to the last election, the prime minister named a figure of $8 billion,

By coming here collectively, is to generate an enthusiasm that individually we could not generate.

I am prepared to sit down and listen to their concerns. Where that leads at this point I wouldn't want to fathom a guess,

All Nova Scotians have been shocked and moved by the terrible destruction and suffering on the Gulf Coast of the United States, ... The victims have been in our thoughts and prayers all week.