N.B. Tories and Liberals in virtual dead heat
Voters in New Brunswick turned their backs on the province’s entrenched twoparty system for the first time on Monday, electing enough third party candidates to leave the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives in an apparent dead heat in what is sure to be a minority parliament.
About two hours after the polls closed, the Liberals and Tories were both leading or elected in 21 ridings each, while the upstart People’s Alliance had four and the Greens three. A total of 25 seats is needed for a majority in the 49-seat house.
The province has had virtually no experience with minority governments. The last time a third party held the balance of power in the legislature was in October 1920.
As many polls had predicted, the leader of the People’s Alliance, Kris Austin, won his seat in Fredericton-grand Lake, a breakthrough for a party that was contesting its third election and had never won more than three per cent of the popular vote.
The party’s “common sense” platform took aim at official bilingualism, saying the dual systems in health care and school busing are costing the province too much money.
“This is what victory looks like, folks,” Austin said Monday night, who said he’s willing to work with any party “that has some of the ideas that we have been pushing.”
“Part of being a minority government is negotiation, it’s compromise, it’s working with all other parties,” he told a cheering crowd.
As well, Green Leader David Coon took Fredericton South, as expected. Coon made history by winning the party’s first-ever seat in 2014.
“It looks like I’m going to be joined by other Green MLAS,” he told supporters. “I know for sure we will be able to applaud each other’s speeches.”
During the 32-day campaign, the telegenic leader of the Liberal party, Premier Brian Gallant, offered a big-spending platform, a strategy borrowed from Justin Trudeau’s winning 2015 campaign. By contrast, Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs — a 64-year-old former Irving Oil executive — campaigned on a tightfisted platform that calls for “common-sense ideas that don’t cost much.”
Higgs and Gallant both won in their ridings.
As the incumbent premier with the most seats, Gallant would traditionally be given the first chance to form a government by the lieutenantgovernor. It’s not unusual for minority governments to survive by seeking compromises with the other parties.
However, the Tories and one of the third parties have the option of combining forces, either through a coalition or less formal arrangement, which would set in motion a high-stakes process that could see the Liberals returned to the opposition benches.