Tag: nbpoli

New Brunswick MLA quits politics 3 weeks after winning seat by 9 votes

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New Brunswick held a general election as per its fixed election date law on Sept. 22. Because it’s a fixed-date election, none of the parties or candidates were surprised by the date of this election. The result? The New Brunswick Liberals, led by 32-year-old Brian Gallant, would oust the incumbent Progressive Conservatives led by David Alward and win a majority government.

In the riding of Saint John East, it was a very close battle but Liberal Gary Keating (pictured above) won by nine votes, a victory that only a judicial recount would certify. Keating scored 2,332 votes to incumbent Progressive Conservative MLA Glen Savoie who had 2,323 votes.

Three weeks later, Keating quit. Here is his statement, released today (my emphasis): Continue reading New Brunswick MLA quits politics 3 weeks after winning seat by 9 votes

The Alward jobs record: Not good

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The record on job creation for New Brunswick Premier David Alward — fighting for re-election right now — has been rotten. (KRIS SIMS/Sun News Network)

Campaigning with Justin Trudeau on the weekend, New Brunswick Liberal Leader Brian Gallant told reporters, “The plan of David Alward and the Conservatives is not at all concrete. When you look at their record on job creation, since 2010 we’ve lost 3,900 jobs.”

Not true.

It’s actually much worse. The province has lost 4,800 jobs since 2010. (I’m assuming that when Gallant says “since 2010” he means, “since the September 2010 election that Alward won”) Continue reading The Alward jobs record: Not good

The next Liberal to win a majority? Safe bet, it'll be Brian Gallant

They may have had a disastrous decade federally, sinking to the third party in the House of Commons, in the province’s, Liberals are on a roll.

Starting with Stephen McNeil in Nova Scotia last fall, and Philippe Couillard in Quebec and Kathleen Wynne in Ontario this spring (below), it’s been one Liberal majority after another. (If you believe Christy Clark is a Liberal in the same vein as McNeil, Couillard, and Wynne — and I, for one,  do not believe she belongs in that same political category and, in fact, belongs in a category that likely includes Saskatchewan Party leader Brad Wall  — you could extend this Liberal win streak back to the spring of 2013.) Continue reading The next Liberal to win a majority? Safe bet, it'll be Brian Gallant

Jobs and politics: Devastating data for the incumbent in Quebec

For this tweet, CAQ Leader François Legault was cherry-picking one of the worst data points for Quebec in today’s monthly jobs report from Statistics Canada but he had lots to choose from. It was a very bleak report card for the PQ government of Premier Pauline Marois. The highlight? Statistics Canada found that, in the space of one month between January and February this year, 25,500 jobs disappeared in the province.   Continue reading Jobs and politics: Devastating data for the incumbent in Quebec

in 2014, David Alward will seek re-election while New Brunswickers pay more tax

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New Brunswick Premier David Alward makes a statement following his address to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton on November 28, 2013. (REUTERS/Dan Riedlhuber)

We are likely to see provincial elections in 2014 in Ontario and Quebec but we will certainly see one in New Brunswick. Votes will happen in Ontario and Quebec, of course, only if the minority governments that lead those two provinces cannot get their budgets through the legislature. But New Brunswick Premier David Alward faces a “hard count”, a fixed election date on September 22.

Alward’s prospects for re-election, nine months ahead of the formal campaign, are bleak. Continue reading in 2014, David Alward will seek re-election while New Brunswickers pay more tax