Liberals launch official campaign ahead of election call

The New Brunswick Liberal Party launched its provincial election campaign on Sunday afternoon in Fredericton, alongside the nomination of party leader Susan Holt in the Fredericton South-Silverwood riding. 

Organizers estimated there were 500 in attendance at the Fredericton Boyce Farmers Market event, where Holt gathered with all 48 other Liberal candidates to drum up support ahead of election day.

The latest that vote can take place is Oct. 21, meaning the call must come in the next few weeks.

Holt's speech referenced Premier Blaine Higgs often. She outlined shortcomings in affordability and health care in the province.

While she wouldn't go so far as saying the election would be a referendum on Higgs's leadership, she believes voters will see her team and "consider the contrast" before heading to the ballot box.

"They'll look at the last six years, they'll ask themselves if they're better off," she told reporters. "No matter what the premier talks about, he's not getting results, and certainly in primary care." 

But Glen Savoie, the Progressive Conservative candidate for Saint John East, responded to Holt's comments by saying the Liberals are unlikely to deliver on their "big, splashy health promises."

"On healthcare, the PCNB continues to make incremental improvements with more doctors, more nurses, new technology and record-high funding," Savoie said in a statement. 

"Our PCNB team under Premier Higgs has balanced the budget, and paid down debt so more money can go to services like healthcare and education. New Brunswick can't afford for the Liberals to take us back into the red."

In the province's last fiscal update, the Progressive Conservative government projected a $28-million deficit in the next fiscal year. 

Despite that, both the Liberals and PCs are standing by promises made to voters ahead of the election call. 

Holt has pledged several items over the past month, including a $115.2-million spend to open 30 collaborative health-care clinics by 2028.

She's also pledged $27.4-million annually for a universal breakfast program in schools, along with a pay-what-you-can lunch to be implemented by next September. 

Holt has also said a Liberal government would also commit to delivering balanced budgets every year, implement a rent cap and remove provincial sales tax from new developments and household electricity bills. 

In July, the Progressive Conservatives promised to spend $450 million to cut New Brunswick's harmonized sales tax. 

Holt won a seat in the Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-Saint-Isidore riding in a 2023 byelection, but previously announced she would run closer to home in the upcoming election.

Local government leaders, including Fredericton Mayor Kate Rogers and Sitansisk Chief Allan Polchies, were in attendance on Sunday. 

Rogers declined to comment, while Polchies said he believes in Holt's policy direction.

Also vying for the Fredericton South-Silverwood seat is Progressive Conservative candidate Nicolle Carlin, who formerly worked as a spokesperson for Higgs and as a municipal councillor in Hanwell.

The Green Party has also put forward Simon Ouellette, a communications representative with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, as its candidate for the riding. 

Nicki Lyons-MacFarlane is the candidate for the NDP in the riding.