CP NewsAlert: Polls close in New Brunswick election and ballot counting begins

By Hina Alam, The Canadian Press on October 21, 2024.

FREDERICTON – New Brunswick voters have cast their ballots after an election race that focused on health care and affordability but was notable for the stark contrasts between the Liberal and Progressive Conservative campaigns.

Tory Leader Blaine Higgs, who is seeking his third term as premier, ran on his plan to deal with the high cost of living, promising to lower the provincial harmonized sales tax by two percentage points to 13 per cent.

Higgs’s main rival, Liberal Leader Susan Holt, spent much of the 33-day race pitching her plans to fix a health-care system racked by a doctor shortage, overcrowded emergency rooms and long wait-times for treatment.

But what made the campaign unusual were the two leaders’ remarkably dissimilar campaign styles.

The 70-year-old premier led a low-key campaign, during which he did not attend any scheduled public events on at least 10 days and was absent from the second leaders debate on Oct. 9.

Holt, 47, facing her first provincial election as leader, missed only two days of campaigning and submitted a 30-page platform that includes 100 promises, a far heftier document than the Tories’ two-page platform with 11 campaign pledges.

At dissolution, the Conservatives held 25 seats in the 49-seat legislature. The Liberals held 16 seats, the Greens had three, there was one Independent and there were four vacancies.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.

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