The politics of Nova Scotia take place within the framework of a Westminster-style parliamentary constitutional monarchy.

[2] The role of the Crown is both legal and practical; it functions in Nova Scotia in the same way it does in all of Canada's other provinces, being the centre of a constitutional construct in which the institutions of government acting under the sovereign's authority share the power of the whole.

[4] The Canadian monarch—since 8 September 2022, King Charles III—is represented and his duties carried out by the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, whose direct participation in governance is limited by the conventional stipulations of constitutional monarchy, with most related powers entrusted for exercise by the elected parliamentarians, the ministers of the Crown generally drawn from among them, and the judges and justices of the peace.

When established in 1758, the General Assembly consisted of the Crown represented by the Governor (Lieutenant Governor post-confederation), the appointed Nova Scotia Council holding both executive and legislative duties and the elected House of Assembly (lower chamber).

In 1928, the Legislative Council was abolished and the members pensioned off, resulting in a unicameral legislature with the House of Assembly as the sole chamber.