Premier Blaine Higgs will call the provincial election Thursday morning.
A meeting with Lieutenant Governor Brenda Murphy is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at Government House in Fredericton.
Blaine Higgs has been Premier of New Brunswick since November 9, 2018.
On August 17, 2020, he called a provincial general election, the first to be held in Canada since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
On September 14, 2020, the Progressive Conservative Party (PC) won 27 seats, allowing Higgs to form a majority government. The Liberal Party (LP) had won 17 seats, the Green Party (GP) 3 and the People’s Alliance 2.
Currently, the PC has 25 deputies, the PL 16, the PV 3 and there is one independent. Four seats are vacant.
The last term of the Higgs government was marked by difficulties, despite accumulated budget surpluses. Several ministers and MPs left the party, disagreeing with the direction of the Prime Minister.
Mr. Higgs has also sparked intense tensions with Indigenous communities, much of the French-speaking population, as well as LGBTQ groups, which has significantly weakened his support within the province, according to the most recent polls.
The Prime Minister, banking heavily on his economic record to ensure his re-election, has already unveiled a flagship promise: a 2% reduction in the harmonized sales tax (HST), which would lower the rate from 15% to 13%.
The Liberals, for their part, have committed to opening at least 30 community care clinics over the next four years, a project they estimate will cost $115.2 million.
The Green Party is promising to introduce an electricity support program. The program would provide households with net incomes below $70,000 with average monthly payments of $25 to offset increases in electricity rates.
The Chiefs’ Schedule
The Progressive Conservative Party will officially launch its election campaign Thursday evening in Quispamsis.
Liberal Party Leader Susan Holt will travel to the north of the province Thursday morning, where she will kick off her party’s campaign in Bathurst. In the afternoon, in Miramichi, she will announce a measure concerning the provincial tax on residential hydro bills.
For his part, Green Party leader David Coon will make a statement Thursday morning in Fredericton about New Brunswick’s primary health care system.
