PCs Retain Sussex-Fundy-St. Martins

The Progressive Conservatives will continue to represent the riding of Sussex-Fundy-St. Martins.

Former newspaper editor Tammy Scott-Wallace won the riding with more than 56 per cent of the votes.

Scott-Wallace said Monday night she was surprised to see the riding declared so early in the evening.

“I wasn’t expecting that news quite so quickly, but I’m over the moon, absolutely, and I’m just so thrilled to be given this opportunity to represent the people of this riding,” she said.

Unofficial results from Elections New Brunswick show Scott-Wallace with 4,366 of the votes.

People’s Alliance candidate Jim Bedford received 1,321 votes while Liberal Cully Robinson had 971 votes.

Tim Thompson of the Green Party received 969 votes and Jonas Lanz with the NDP had 129 votes.

Scott-Wallace said she knows this was a difficult campaign in a lot of ways, especially because of COVID-19.

“It was very much a social media campaign, I wasn’t able to get out and knock on doors and meet as many people as I’d like to, so I really asked people to put their trust in me and that was awesome without them even having an opportunity to meet me,” she said.

The future of the Sussex Health Centre is a topic that was brought up through the campaign after PC leader Blaine Higgs proposed reforms which would have seen the emergency room closed at night.

Higgs later reversed those plans but other political parties accused the leader of having a secret agenda when it comes to health care.

“Some of the other campaigns really did revolve around the hospital and there was a lot of fear on what would happen with our hospital, so I know that when people gave me their vote, they very much gave me their trust and that means the absolute world to me,” said Scott-Wallace.

The MLA-elect said a lot of conversations still need to be had about the future of health-care, which she described as a “serious issue” this election.

Scott-Wallace said there also needs to be a plan in place to help the region rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic.