'We can't turn back now,' Higgs says, as he calls election
P.C., Liberal leaders launch campaigns ahead of Oct. 21 vote
New Brunswickers will head to the polls on Oct. 21 to decide whether to give the Progressive Conservatives under Blaine Higgs another four-year term in government.
Higgs visited Government House on Thursday morning and spent a half hour with Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy, who signed the writs for a provincial election.
He portrayed the campaign as a choice between his sound fiscal management — including six straight years of budget surpluses — and a potential Liberal-Green "coalition" that might undo that progress.
"My entire foray in politics," he said, acknowledging he hadn't planned to stay in office this long, "is about we can't turn back now."
Higgs
spent spent a half hour with Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy on Thursday morning
in Government House, where she signed the writs for a provincial
election. (Alix Villeneuve/Radio-Canada)
Higgs launched the campaign on the same day the Angus Reid Institute released a survey showing him with the lowest approval rating, 30 per cent, of any premier in Canada.
"If people say 'you're done,' I'm done," Higgs told reporters.
"It's because of that determination, that desire for a bigger, better, brighter future for our next generation — that's what keeps us going."
The PC leader took office in 2018 with a minority government and won a majority two years later.
A victory on Oct. 21 would make him the first premier to win a third term since Liberal Frank McKenna in 1995.
He's arguing that years of balanced budgets have freed up money for health care and other services, that would otherwise have needed to be spent on debt interest.
Liberal Leader Susan Holt launched her campaign in Bathurst, where she has served as an MLA since winning a byelection there last year.
She's running in Fredericton South-Silverwood this time.
Liberal
Leader Susan Holt launched her campaign in Bathurst, where she has
served as an MLA since winning a byelection there last year. (Radio-Canada)
At a stop in Miramichi, Holt countered Higgs's recent promise to reduce the provincial sales tax by two points by pledging to remove the tax from N.B. Power bills as soon as her government takes office.
That would save the average household $192 per year, Holt said.
"Unlike the Higgs tax cut, this is a commitment that will provide affordability relief that New Brunswickers need right now," she said.
Holt said the earliest the change could take effect would be April 1, 2025, because the province must give the federal government advance notice.
She would give Ottawa that notice immediately upon taking office, she said.
At Government House, Higgs warned voters that a Holt government could lurch to the left if it lacks a majority in the legislature and needs to rely on the Green Party for support.
He said that would leave New Brunswick with a government similar to the unpopular federal Liberal government of Justin Trudeau, which was propped up by the NDP under Jagmeet Singh until recently.
"We cannot let Susan Holt and [Green Leader] David Coon do to New Brunswick what Trudeau and Singh have done to Canada," Higgs said.
Coon told reporters last week his party was preparing a list of conditions it would put to the Liberals if they need Green support in the legislature.
"It's important to prepare for any possibility," he said, at the Green campaign launch on Wednesday. "We have a long list now, from some brainstorming.
"It's called our platform," added Green candidate Kevin Arseneau, an MLA since 2018.
Five other registered parties are contesting the Oct. 21 election, including the NDP, which last elected an MLA in 2003, and the People's Alliance, which won two seats four years ago.
Advance polls will be open on Oct. 12 and 15.
Elections New Brunswick released a statement reminding voters they can vote at the returning office in their riding at any time.
Ballots won't be available until after the candidate registration deadline on Oct. 1 but people can vote by write-in ballot before then.
In the statement, chief electoral officer Kim Poffenroth reminded voters that a newly redrawn electoral map is in effect and urged people to check which of the 49 new ridings they live in.
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N.B. election campaign kicking off for Oct. 21 vote
PC Leader Blaine Higgs hopes to secure 3rd term in power
New Brunswick's provincial election campaign is finally getting underway this morning.
After more than a year of political turmoil within the Progressive Conservative government — and after coming close to triggering an early election a year ago — Premier Blaine Higgs is launching his bid for a third mandate.
He met with Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy at 10:30 a.m. to formalize the dissolution of the legislature and send New Brunswickers to the polls on Oct. 21 to elect 49 new members.
A win would make Higgs the first New Brunswick premier to secure a third term since Frank McKenna in 1995.
The Progressive Conservative leader held no public events Wednesday.
Blaine Higgs speaks outside Government House on the first day of the
election campaign. If re-elected, he would become the first premier to
win a third term in New Brunswick since Frank McKenna. (Chad Ingraham/CBC)
Nor did Liberal Leader Susan Holt, who is looking to end Higgs's six-year tenure and return her party to power.
Holt also opted against any final pre-campaign events on Wednesday, instead releasing a short promotional video attacking the PC record on health care and the cost of living.
"The choice in this election has never been more clear," she said.
Leader
Susan Holt says a Liberal government would start aiming for fiscal
reform immediately if elected and says her party is aiming higher than a
transfer of heavy industrial taxes to municipalities. (Chad Ingraham/CBC)
The Greens, the only other party with seats in the legislature heading into the campaign, held its launch in Fredericton Wednesday.
Leader David Coon said his party is aiming to take power despite its third-place standing.
He pointed out that the Greens have defied predictions in the past — when he was elected as the party's first MLA in 2014, and when it elected a total of three MLAs in 2018 and again in 2020.
"To my amazing candidates and their volunteers, when they say a Green government cannot be elected in New Brunswick, flash a big smile and keep knocking on those doors," he told an outdoor rally that included most of the party's candidates.
"It's going to be bye-bye, Blaine Higgs."
Two other political parties are hoping to reverse their declining fortunes during the campaign.
The People's Alliance elected three MLAs in 2018 and two of them — including leader Kris Austin — were re-elected in 2020, only to defect to the governing PCs in 2022.
The party was de-registered and then re-registered.
New leader Rick DeSaulniers, a winner in 2018 who lost his seat two years later, is running against Austin in Fredericton-Grand Lake.
Rick DeSaulniers, former Fredericton-York MLA, was acclaimed as the People’s Alliance of New Brunswick's leader in 2022. (Jonathan Colicott/CBC)
Meanwhile, first-time NDP Leader Alex White faces an uphill climb to elect a party MLA for the first time in more than two decades.
The party won only 1.7 per cent of the popular vote last time.
Three new political parties have also registered for the first time to run candidates in this campaign.
Tanya Roberts, the leader of the Social Justice Party of New Brunswick, is a former investigator for WorkSafeNB who is fighting her termination from the agency.
She says she organized the party to fight for whistleblowers in provincial organizations who try to expose cover-ups.
"The oversight bodies are there but nobody's actually providing the oversight," Roberts said in an interview this week.
She claims her party can win the election.
"I'm not here for second place," she says. "We're going to have a hard reset on the government."
A co-founder of the Libertarian Party of New Brunswick, on the other hand, said the party is unlikely to win any seats this time, but is laying the groundwork for 2028.
The party began as an idea for a non-profit organization to espouse a vision of smaller government, local community decision-making and the elimination of taxation, said François Provost.
"Do I think a party was the answer to what is needed?" he said.
"I don't think so, but it's useful to have one if you want to change things."
The third new party, the Consensus N.B. Party, wants to have more collaborative decision-making in the legislature.
Leader Lenny O'Brien said he was inspired by the four-party co-operation that existed for COVID-19 policies when Higgs had a minority government.
When Higgs called an early election in 2020 to win a majority, "the system exposed itself for what it is," O'Brien said —too focused on power.
He decided a new party was needed to work toward the eventual complete end of party politics.
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