New Brunswick Election Set For September 14
SAINT JOHN – New Brunswick voters will be heading to the polls for a provincial election on September 14.
Premier Blaine Higgs met with Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy at Government House on Monday afternoon and asked her to dissolve the legislature.
Higgs briefly listed a number of priority areas in his news conference, including addressing mental health and addiction issues, enhancing supports for seniors and children, and plans to support and enhance natural the environment in the province.
He also identified two areas for concern for the economy: education, “a crucial starting point for future workers and leaders,” he said, and the Covid-19 recovery already underway.
“Our economy needs to not only recover, it needs to continuously reinvent itself and it needs to renew itself now like never before,” said Higgs.
The premier says the province is ahead of the curve and needs to keep getting stronger.
“We’re on the map of recovery. We’re on it faster than most and we’re driving a safe province working with our colleagues in Atlantic Canada,” he said. “I have confidence in our ability to manage Covid and not just get back to life without Covid, because we don’t know when that is going to be. It’s to keep moving, it’s to keep progressing and it’s to keep our recovery plan going well beyond just getting back to where we were six months ago.”
The election call comes just three days after the Liberals rejected the premier’s attempts to keep the Progressive Conservatives in power for two more years with the cooperation of the opposition parties.
Speaking in Fredericton on Monday, Liberal Party leader Kevin Vickers said under Blaine Higgs, the provincial economy was ignored.
Vickers said the Liberal party will re-invest in tourism and ensure the federal-provincial infrastructure funds are invested wisely.
“We will look to transform our economy by unlocking the great potential in our technology and digital sectors,” Vickers said.
Green Party leader David Coon described an election during the pandemic as “alarming”.
He also said it’s unprecedented to have an election in a democratic jurisdiction during a pandemic.
“In a State of Emergency under the Emergency Measures Act which is where we are now, the premier is all-powerful. He can do whatever he wants,” Coon said.
Coon added, “all is uncertain at this point which is part of the problem”.
Should there be an outbreak, the Green Party leader said the premier should immediately suspend the campaign.
People’s Alliance leader Kris Austin said his party and the Progressive Conservatives do share some similarities but, they also have stark differences.
Austin said when it comes to language fairness, the PC’s are very reluctant to move on that.
“We are not going to water down our message of language fairness, lower taxes and smaller government,” Austin said.
At dissolution, the PCs and Liberals each held 20 seats while the Greens and the People’s Alliance each had three seats. There are two vacant seats — Saint Croix and Shediac Bay-Dieppe — and one Independent.
With files from Brad Perry and Tamara Steele of Country 94/97.3 The Wave, Huddle content partners.