A politics professor at the University of New Brunswick says it was a notable election campaign for several reasons.
J.P. Lewis, who teaches on the Saint John campus, said the Progressive Conservative campaign was quieter and made fewer promises than other parties.
“It may be a more traditional campaign for an incumbent government, but considering it’s a close race, it’s a bit surprising sometimes when they weren’t making as much noise,” Lewis told our newsroom on Friday.
“I think we would expect that from the government, the party that is the government that’s running. But at the same time, it’s been such kind of slim pickings.”
But Lewis said this should not come as any surprise to anyone who has followed PC Leader Blaine Higgs in the past.
He noted that as finance minister in the Alward government, Higgs complained about campaign promises because they were stuck with the pledges and made the government more expensive.
“Also, when you’re the sitting government, you can run on your record. So you don’t necessarily have to be introducing a lot of new things,” said the politics professor.
When it comes to the campaign by Liberal Leader Susan Holt, Lewis said she really distanced herself from the Liberal brand.
“I assume it’s because the Liberal brand is so unpopular across the country due to the unpopularity of the federal government and the prime minister,” he noted.
Key issues remained consistent
Lewis said the key election issues did not change even as the campaign carried on, with cost of living, education and health care being key themes for all parties.
“We’ve heard a lot about access to family doctors and that was there at the start of the campaign and it’s there at the end,” he said.
As for election night itself, Lewis expects the election will probably be decided in the province’s three largest cities and that there will be close races in a number of ridings.
“I think the Saint John area is really interesting because of the lack of Progressive Conservative incumbents, especially incumbents who were cabinet ministers,” said Lewis.
They include Arlene Dunn in Saint John Harbour, Trevor Holder in Portland-Simonds and Dorothy Shephard in Saint John West-Lancaster.
“In all those ridings, people still tend to vote for party or leader. Candidate effects can vary, but it definitely has to have an impact on enthusiasm at the riding level, getting volunteers out, name recognition of new candidates.”
Polling stations across the province opened at 10 a.m. on Monday and will remain open until 8 p.m.
Our news team will have extensive coverage of the election results on our website once the polls close.
We will have reporters with Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs in Quispamsis and Liberal Leader Susan Holt in Fredericton throughout the evening.
