Harold Connolly

Who was Harold Connolly?

Harold Joseph Connolly was a Nova Scotia journalist, newspaper editor, and politician who served as the province's 15th Premier in 1954.

Connolly was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, the son of Richard Joseph Connolly and Annie Duffield. He was educated at St. Mary's College. As a newspaperman, he worked for the Halifax Chronicle before serving as editor of the Daily Star.

He was first elected to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly in a 1936 by-election as a Liberal in Halifax North after Gordon Benjamin Isnor was elected to the House of Commons. He was appointed to cabinet in 1941 as Minister of Industry and Publicity. He served as Minister of Industry and Trade from 1945 to 1950, when he became Minister of Public Health. When Premier Angus L. Macdonald died in 1954, Connolly became the province's premier and the Liberal party's interim leader. A Catholic, he was defeated by Henry Hicks at the party's leadership convention when Protestant delegates formed a united front against a Catholic leader, a move that caused a severe religious split within the party that contributed to its defeat two years later at the hands of Robert Stanfield's Progressive Conservatives.