Minority outcome in tight election

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 elected in 21 ridings each, with the PCs leading in one, while the upstart People’s Alliance were elected in three seats and the Greens also took 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 October 1920 when two farmers’ parties managed to win 11 seats between them.

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, adding 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 his supporters. “I know for sure we will be able to applaud each other’s speeches.”

During the 32-day campaign, the 36-year-old, 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 tight-fisted platform that calls for “common-sense ideas that don’t cost much.”

Higgs and Gallant both won in their ridings.

As the incumbent premier, Gallant would traditionally be given the first chance to form a government by the lieutenant-governor. It’s not unusual for minority governments to survive by seeking compromises with the other parties.