A two-poll day means fresh Poll Tracker results

The latest election news, analysis and insight delivered each weeknight.

All the latest as New Brunswick parties head into the weekend

Shane Magee · CBC News · Posted: Sep 14, 2018 6:00 PM EDT | Last Updated: September 14, 2018

Good evening,

We've updated our Poll Tracker with new data and the results can be found below.

Several of the leaders held announcements today, but then spent the evening at the Rogers TV/Brunswick News debate that started at 5:30 p.m.

Advanced voting kicks off Saturday, and Elections NB says it is ready. All 700 vote tabulation machines were tested before they were sent out across the province in hopes of avoiding a repeat of 2014.

Language issues have been divisive in this election in the country's only officially bilingual province. The CBC recently brought together people of various professional and political backgrounds to talk about the role of language in the debate. You can read about that here.

Last night, we started delivering this newsletter directly to the email inbox of those who signed up. Click here to sign up.

Top headlines

NB Power rate freeze could cost more than Liberal calculation
- Figures show the cost of a four-year rate freeze for residential and small business customers to NB Power will be as much as $27 million more than the New Brunswick Liberals have calculated.
Doctors, nurses join election debate on improved health care
- Doctors and nurses in New Brunswick are entering the election debate over health care and are calling on the next government to make hiring more family physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses and specialists a top priority.

The pulse

Our Poll Tracker was updated with new data from two polls earlier today.

CBC poll analyst Éric Grenier updated the tool that combines publicly available poll results to track trends and make seat projections.

CBC's Poll Tracker was updated today with data from two newly released polls. (CBC News)

A note of caution: This is the first time we've had polls from both Forum Research and Léger Marketing. That means we don't have previous numbers to compare these results to and see trends.

With that in mind, Grenier notes the latest data suggests that support for the People's Alliance cracked double digits for the first time in publicly-released polls.

With these numbers, Grenier says the Liberals continue to be in a good position to form a majority government because of the weakness of PC support.

Here's the latest seat projection:

A projection of seat counts based on publicly available polling results on Sept. 14. (CBC News)

Riding profile: Fredericton Hanwell-West

This riding was created in the 2013 redrawing of the electoral map from the former York and Fredericton-Silverwood ridings.

It covers farm fields, city subdivisions, seniors' housing, mobile home parks and the Kingsclear First Nation.

The CBC's Catherine Harrop explored the issues at play and talked to several of the candidates.

One name will likely be familiar to voters across the province.

F ormer NDP leader turned PC candidate Dominic Cardy will be on the ballot, making this his fourth time seeking to become an MLA.

Cardy ran in the riding in 2014 as NDP leader, coming within 470 votes of PC candidate Brian Macdonald. Macdonald announced his departure from provincial politics in May.

The other four candidates include Liberal Cindy Miles, NDP candidate Olivier Hebert, Green Party candidate Susan Jonah and People's Alliance candidate Jason Paull.