Nova Scotia PC MLA Marco MacLeod has resigned as energy minister following “difficult conversations” on the impact of misogynistic rap lyrics he wrote over a decade ago before entering politics, according to the premier’s office.
Premier Tim Houston said in a statement Wednesday night that he had accepted MacLeod’s resignation from cabinet.
MacLeod will continue to serve as MLA for Pictou West, while Houston will take over the energy portfolio.
Speaking to reporters Thursday, Houston said he didn’t want to take part in a “pile-on” of criticism.
“People will look to make political gains off of one person’s mistake and tragedy. I’m not on that page,” Houston said.
“I’m not on the pile-on page. The guy took accountability. He apologized. He’s taking all of the steps that you can ask of a human being.”
In a handwritten statement on his Facebook page, MacLeod said he’d met with women’s groups over the past few weeks and has been “appreciative of the learning that came from this experience.”
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“I am grateful to the groups who have shared their time with me, and humbled by the folks who have spoken so openly to me about their personal experiences,” he wrote.
“I know I need to widen my lens and improve my perspective to better understand these issues and serve my constituents.”
Earlier this month, a group of gender-based violence support organizations called for the premier to remove MacLeod from his cabinet after the MLA chose not to resign amid the backlash over his music.
In particular, MacLeod faced scrutiny over a track from a rap album released in 2013, which included lyrics that made derogatory references to women and mentioned illegal drugs.
MacLeod initially responded to the criticism on social media, saying he accepted “full responsibility” for the lyrics.
Days later, he offered an emotional apology in front of reporters following a cabinet meeting in Halifax.
Houston said Thursday he did not ask for MacLeod’s resignation, but the former energy minister felt his mistake was causing a distraction from the work of government.
“He feels incredible remorse over (the song lyrics) and he’s taking steps to address that,” said Houston.
Meanwhile, opposition leaders are criticizing the premier’s handling of the controversy.
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Interim Liberal Party Leader Iain Rankin said it appears to be “a damage control situation” for government.
“I think it took too long for the premier to address it publicly,” he said.
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said the premier has mishandled the controversy.
“While I agree with the premier that we have all done things or many elected officials have done things they regret, I think the way that the premier has handled this situation has been, in a word, terrible,” she said.
“We still haven’t really had any kind of statement from the premier on the fact that this kind of language is misogynistic. While we’ve acknowledged that we have in our province an epidemic of intimate partner and gender-based violence, we have so far to go in terms of changing our culture of misogyny.”
In a statement, Adsum for Women and Children, an organization that operates an emergency shelter and offers programming for women, said it appreciates that MacLeod is “embarking on a personal journey of learning about gender-based violence in all its forms.”
Furthermore, it said it wants members of the Legislature to follow through on their commitment to calling gender-based violence an epidemic.
“This is not about resignation or provincial energy ambitions,” the statement goes on to say. “It is about awareness and action on violence, the action that is associated with an epidemic, like we saw with COVID.”
Lyrics like this (and worse) are in many famous artists’ rap songs and nobody says a thing about it. He shouldn’t have apologized, he should have told critics to go pound sand or find a real issue.
If you care about this and you vote, you need to never vote again. This was a 10 year old video, its not like he was beating his wife, who cares. The other parties will never let you live this down, and the conservatives will never achieve anything useful or beneficial to canadians.