Scheer looks to break Liberal hold on N.B.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer is on a campaign-style swing through New Brunswick as the party seeks to make gains in a province and region where it was shut out last time.

The Liberals captured all 32 House of Commons seats in Atlantic Canada during the 2015 election, including 10 in New Brunswick.

“There’s a real sense that although the Liberals went 32 for 32 in the last election, that the people of Atlantic Canada have gone zero for 32 since then,” Scheer said Monday in Fredericton.

Scheer held a town hall meeting Monday evening in the city and drew loud cheers from a large crowd when he said there are about seven months until Canadians get an opportunity to choose a new government in October.

“I meet more and more people who tell me they are tired of paying for Justin Trudeau’s mistakes. They are tired of the massive deficits and the runaway spending,” he told the crowd. “They know that these massive deficits will mean only one thing, that their taxes will go up.”

Scheer took questions on a long list of issues, ranging from help for disabled veterans and people suffering with mental health, to pipelines and interprovincial trade.

He also vowed to axe the federal carbon tax.

“We know that the carbon tax is going to hurt families and working Canadians, small businesses and people who don’t have the ability to get a special deal from the government like large industrial emitters got,” Scheer said.

Some of the loudest cheers came when Scheer vowed to help small businesses if his party forms a government.

Today, he is scheduled to speak to a business audience before meeting with Premier Blaine Higgs and his cabinet. He is also holding a policy brainstorming session with Conservatives from across Atlantic Canada. Higgs became the region’s lone Tory premier last fall.