Newly elected Conservative vows to work on urban-rural divide

A newly elected New Brunswick Conservative is hoping to make rural issues a higher priority in Ottawa.

Richard Bragdon flipped the riding of Tobique-Mactaquac for the Conservatives in the federal election Monday night after it went Liberal for a single term. 

Liberal T.J. Harvey won the riding in 2015 against Bragdon but did not seek re-election.

"You could sense there was a real appetite for change," Bragdon said Tuesday, the day after Conservatives improved their showing in New Brunswick but could only pull off a second-place finish in the country as a whole. 

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As he knocked on thousands of doors, the real estate agent said, he noticed a "disconnect" between decisions being made in Ottawa and people living in rural New Brunswick.

People on Parliament Hill aren't even hearing the concerns of people in rural areas, he said. 

"I think that rural-urban divide, some of those issues and challenges kept coming up at the door."

Bragdon wants the rest of Canada to understand the role small towns play in the agriculture and resource sectors, developing, producing and shipping "the nation's goods." 

"Yet our region still gets overlooked," he said. "I think they're looking for a strong voice on their behalf."

In his riding, he encountered a lot of concern about the rising cost of living.  

"The prices of everything kept going up. And yet, their incomes weren't going up at the same rate to be able to keep pace."

Seniors need to be able to stay in their own homes as long as possible, he said, but rising heating costs and the carbon tax Ottawa imposed on New Brunswick are prohibiting that.

"They feel like, 'Wow, we've got less and less money left over at the end of every month," he said. "That challenge is very real." 

"The Conservatives took back three of the New Brunswick ridings they lost lost four years ago.

The members from these ridings will be sitting in opposition, but Bragdon said he plans to work with other party members to meet the needs of his constituents.