[RCO]

( i'm starting this thread as a place to post articles relating to the provincial election in New Brunswick , not alot of news yet but some is sure to come )

Election campaign heats up
Published Thursday September 2nd, 2010
Liberals target Miramichi, Tories target property taxes, New Democrats target spending as People's Alliance launches campaign
A1by Nick Moore
Times & transcript staff


)FREDERICTON - It's dangerously humid outside for everybody else, but for New Brunswick politicians, it's dangerously close to Election Day.

So instead of making any side-trips to the beach on the seventh steamy day of campaigning, the political parties trekked along with whistle-stops and door-to-door meet-and-greets yesterday.

The Progressive Conservatives gave more details on their short-term solutions to slowing down soaring property tax rates. The Tory plan includes capping property tax assessments at three per cent over the next two years while a long-term solution was developed.

Conservative Leader David Alward said the three per cent cap over two years would impose discipline and slow down rate increases.

Alward emphasized how a long-term solution under his government would aim to satisfy property owners along with cities and towns.

"The new property tax system must be more open and more transparent to the taxpayers," he said. "It must be more responsive to needs of municipalities and local service districts to fund the services they provide to the residents."

The Liberals toured the Miramichi area yesterday with Leader Shawn Graham promising 1,000 new area jobs if re-elected. Graham said the Grits would put a particular focus on securing high-tech jobs for the Miramichi by way of a specialized task force.

Graham referenced the area's recent economic troubles when making the announcement yesterday.

"Time and time again, I'm so impressed by the people of this region," he said.

Graham also made comment about a new MRI machine for the Miramichi Regional Hospital and another promise to give $10 million to the local NBCC campus.

"The Miramichi matters a great deal to this team, and all of you that are here," he said. "So by investing in improved health-care services, strengthening our community college, and by creating those much-needed jobs, Miramichiers who want to remain on the 'Chi can stay on the 'Chi."

The New Democrats stayed on their fiscal responsibility campaign theme yesterday and took aim at the past Liberal and Tory governments for what the NDP referred to as 'March Madness' - the time of year New Democrats say government departments frantically spend their entire budgets for fear that anything left over might be cut the following year.

Pierre Cyr, the NDP candidate in Nepisiguit, said the party would require departments to openly list all purchases that weren't included in original budgets. Cyr said the plan would save as much as $210 million if executed.

"If they buy a bunch of extra computers or a new sofa set on March 28, let them report it to the public," he said. "Let the minister responsible explain to the public if he thinks the extra expenditure was justified."

The NDP promise mirrors a commitment carried out by the current NDP government in Nova Scotia where $253 million has reportedly already been saved.

The humidity stuck around after the sun went down last night, but another political party emerged to officially kick off its campaign.

The People's Alliance of New Brunswick held a barbecue at their party's provincial headquarters in Minto and released a campaign commitment in the process.

People's Alliance leader Kris Austin said his party would give more authority to watchdog organizations including the auditor general. At a policy convention held in July, the party said it would allow the auditor general to have more authority in determining the salaries of MLAs - currently a hot topic in campaign.

The Green Party didn't make any provincial campaign promises yesterday.

There are now 25 days until the general provincial election.

Currently, the governing Liberals hold 32 seats in the provincial legislature while the opposition Progressive Conservatives hold 21. There are also two vacant seats in the legislature.

* With files from Kris McDavid, Greg Weston

----

Liberals
* Maintain the province's private woodlot silviculture budget of $6 million a year
* Work to develop wood construction techniques and products for taller buildings
* Take advantage of bio-fuel from wood waste
* Establish timber objectives on Crown land

Progressive Conservatives
* Cap property assessment increases to three per cent over the next two years
* Work to fix New Brunswick's property tax system over the next two years
* Consider doing away with double-taxing the owners of apartment buildings

NDP
* Get rid of wasteful spending at the end of each fiscal year, saving the province $210 million a year
* Order government departments to publicly report unbudgeted expenditures

Green Party
* No campaign promises were made yesterday

People's Alliance
* Give more authority to non-government watchdog organizations, including the auditor general, who would have more say in determining MLA salaries


http://timestranscript.canadae.....le/1201294

[RCO]

Liberals open small lead as N.B. election starts

Last Updated: Thursday, August 26, 2010 | 8:41 PM ET

.By Daniel McHardie, CBC News
The Liberals have taken a slight lead in public opinion as the 32-day election campaign started on Thursday, according to Corporate Research Associates.

The poll is showing the Liberals with 41 per cent of decided and leaning voters compared to 36 per cent that say they are backing the Progressive Conservatives. The NDP has held steady at 16 per cent from the May poll by Corporate Research Associates.

The poll shows the Green Party with six per cent of decided voters, while the People's Alliance of New Brunswick is registering one per cent. The percentage of undecided voters in the poll was 41 per cent as the campaign started.

Party support among decided, leaning voters
May 2010 August 2010
Liberal Party 37% 41%
PC Party 42% 36%
NDP 16% 16%
Green Party 5% 6%
People's Alliance n/a 1%
Undecided 36% 41%
Don Mills, the president and chief executive officer of CRA, said the latest opinion survey shows the Liberals have held steady and the Tories are losing momentum.

"The Opposition doesn't usually win the election, the incumbent party loses the election. The troubles of the Liberals is an advantage to the Conservatives," Mills said.

"But it doesn't seem, by the numbers, that they have taken advantage of that. I'm not sure why. They've come out with interesting policies, they've been visible with positions, but they haven't got the traction you'd expect given the dissatisfaction with the government."

Although the Liberal lead is still within the poll's margin of error, it is the first time the party has been ahead in public opinion since the deal to sell NB Power to Hydro-Québec was announced last fall.

The Tories jumped out to a 10-percentage-point lead with 46 per cent support in November 2009. But the PCs have watched that lead evaporate in the subsequent surveys.

Alward loses support
When asked who they would prefer as premier, 29 per cent of voters chose Liberal Leader Shawn Graham, while 22 per cent chose PC Leader David Alward.

Graham's personal support level only inched up one percentage point since the May poll, but Alward saw his rating drop five points, from 27 per cent to 22 per cent.

According to the CRA poll, NDP Leader Roger Duguay is backed by eight per cent of voters, Green Party Leader Jack MacDougall is at five per cent and People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin is at three per cent.

Almost 30 per cent of those surveyed said they did not know which leader they preferred, or would not answer.

The polling company surveyed 806 New Brunswickers from Aug. 4 to 24. The poll is considered accurate within 3.4 percentage points, 95 times out of 100.

Third-party breakthrough
While the two dominant parties are jockeying for the lead among decided voters, Mills said a very important race is brewing among the smaller parties.

In the 2006 election campaign, roughly five per cent of people voted for a party other than the Liberals and Conservatives.

CRA's poll shows almost 25 per cent of decided voters are planning to send their vote to one of the third parties.

Mills said that surge in support for smaller political organizations could lead to a larger shift in how the New Brunswick election plays out.

"If that support holds for those third parties, frankly, it will make it a lot more difficult to determine the outcome of the election," Mills said.

"It might be that this is the opportunity for a third party to make some significant gains, if not on the electoral side, but building a constituency of support."

The pollster said Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter took a decade of chipping away at the support of the traditional parties before he made his breakthrough in the 2009 election.

The province's NDP leader said his party has 53 candidates nominated compared to the four candidates that were in place when the 2006 election started. Duguay said that is further proof that his party is ready to capitalize on the public support highlighted in the poll.

"There is no big surprise that we see one quarter of decided voters are not interested in voting for the traditional parites," Duguay said.

"I've felt that for the last year. They see the NDP as the realistic and pragmantic alternative. They notice that we are serious. I think that is why they are ready to give us a chance in this election."

Switching support
The party that wins the election may end up being the one that holds its support from bleeding to the other parties.

The People's Alliance has a handful of former PC candidates now running in the campaign under its banner, including party leader Kris Austin. It is believed the People's Alliance will drain Tory support on Sept. 27.

But Mills said the Tories also need to worry about losing support to the Greens.

"We see the Greens as more likely to take votes from the Conservatives. We think they might be the true Progressive Conservatives that have concerns over the environment," Mills said.

Green Party Leader Jack MacDougall said he's hoping the early strength of his party will translate on election day.

"The Green party has never elected anybody in North America. So any candidate wins would be a huge breakthrough," MacDougall said.

For the People's Alliance, which received official party status two months ago and has less than 20 candidates, the poll shows promise.

"We are sitting at a pivotal moment, we could change New Brunswick in this election," Austin said.

"The same old spin, the same old rhetoric will not work anymore."

Austin said his party may be garnering only a fraction of the support of the others, but if those votes are consolidated in a few ridings, the party could see some candidates elected


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nbvot.....-1011.html

[RCO]

( being from Ontario this promise seems so familar , so its not exactly a new idea )

CBC News, cbc.ca, Updated: September 5, 2010 2:57 PM
Graham promises new N.B. holiday

New Brunswick Liberals would create a new statutory holiday if they win the Sept. 27 provincial election, the party announced Sunday.

Family Day would be held the third Monday in February, giving New Brunswickers a vacation in what is currently a breakless stretch between New Year's Day and Good Friday.

In a statement, Liberal Leader Shawn Graham noted that Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario already have a Family Day. Adding one in New Brunswick could attract skilled workers, he said.

"We'd like to hold every advantage possible," the premier's statement said.

Family Day has been an election promise before. Ontario's Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty promised the holiday in the runup to his successful 2007 campaign.

The holiday has been celebrated in Saskatchewan since 2007 and Alberta since 1990.

Manitobans and Prince Edward Islanders both recently started taking the same date off, but they call it Louis Riel Day and Islander Day, respectively.

The Liberals are hoping to return to power Sept. 27, but are expected to face a strong challenge from the David Alward-led Progressive Conservatives.

Other parties fielding candidates are the New Democrats, the Green Party and the People's Alliance of New Brunswick.


http://news.ca.msn.com/top-sto.....d=25466511

[RCO]

( wow it looks like Shawn Graham might actually be in some serious trouble , its funny i have not heard this at all in the major media outlets so far , was actually rather shocked when i saw the polling numbers and i follow politics pretty well )

Polls show new trends
Published Friday September 17th, 2010
Riding system means election night may not quite mirror survey results: prof
A1BY GREG WESTON
TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFF


FREDERICTON - A significant gap has opened up in the New Brunswick election polling numbers this week, and while experts say they give a sense of what voters are thinking, it's still a bit early for election night predictions.

The Liberals, seeking re-election, and the Progressive Conservatives, looking to limit Shawn Graham to a single term as premier, started the election in a virtual dead heat.

However, a Corporate Research Associates rolling seven-day poll reported daily has since shown Tory Leader David Alward build a double-digit lead among decided voters. The reported results from Tuesday show the Tories at 50 per cent and the Liberals at 37 per cent.

Don Desserud, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, says that growing lead is significant.

"Being a rolling poll, we're able to get a much better sense of the trend and the trend is everything in a poll," as opposed to a one-time poll that only provides a snapshot, Desserud said.

"If those polls were up and down every day, that would indicate a volatility that would suggest anything can happen. That's not what's going on with these polls."

Desserud suggests the swing in the Tories' favour midway through the campaign could be attributed to the relatively high number of undecided respondents making up their minds. He says many may have already decided they weren't going to vote for the Liberals, but are now choosing who they will actually vote for.

As a result, while the number of undecided respondents decreases, the distance between the two front-runners grows.

"This is a negative election. People are not voting for the Liberals because they're angry over NB Power, or (post-secondary education) reforms or French immersion - maybe all of the above," he says, leaving it for the other parties to wrestle with each other for those votes.

Carla VanBeselaere, an economics professor at Mount Allison University, says the rolling polls allow analysts to view changes over time.

However, because Canadian politicians are elected within individual ridings, the overall popular opinion won't necessarily reflect the election results.

"There is no perfect translation between the survey results and the actual electoral outcome," says VanBeselaere, a researcher into voting behaviour who also teaches a course on survey methodology.

"As a result of sampling the province as a whole, we're not going to be able to say who's going to win in each of the different ridings."

Used internally by political parties for years, rolling polls became part of public election coverage during the 2006 election coverage.

They give the advantage of tracking emerging trends throughout a campaign, rather than a static, one-time sample.

But rolling polls can also have drawbacks, especially if only daily responses are reported instead of the total sample, which would be a larger number producing more reliable data.

VanBeselaere says the sample size of the CRA poll is sufficient for a population the size of New Brunswick's, but the results must be taken for what they are - a look at what voters are thinking now.

That said, Desserud points out that with only 10 more days to go before voters head to the polls themselves, it's getting late in the game.

"It's getting to the point where it's too late to turn around. I still think that the electorate commitment to the party that they've chosen is thin at best," he says.

The CRA rolling poll uses a total sample of 700 people, with 100 new respondents sampled each day. The margin of error is 3.7 per cent and, between Sept. 8 and Sept. 14, the average number of undecided voters was 21 per cent.


http://timestranscript.canadae.....le/1222729

[RCO]

( well the election is on september 27 so we will find out what happens soon enough )


Friday, September 17, 2010
Graham Dismisses Latest Poll On Election



(Premier Shawn Graham)
(File Photo)

The latest poll concerning the Provincial Vote is indicating the Conservatives are on the brink of being elected to a majority government. Liberal Leader Shawn Graham tells CHSJ News, the polls go up and down and the only one that counts is on election day.

He maintains his party is the only one that has brought forward a comprehensive plan that talks about the economy, education, health care, senior care and keeping people home.


http://news.country94.ca/2010/.....ll-on.html

[plantguy]

It's interesting, both parties are running on a higher spending, lower taxes platform. Probably gets alot of votes but is pretty unrealistic.

[RCO]

Indecision reigns as N.B. vote nears: poll
Last Updated: Monday, September 20, 2010 | 9:49 AM ET Comments99Recommend22.CBC News
Nearly half of New Brunswick voters say they're still uncertain which party they will support in the Sept. 27 provincial election, the largest poll conducted to date suggests.

In a survey jointly commissioned by CBC News and the francophone daily newspaper L'Acadie Nouvelle, 1,005 New Brunswickers were interviewed late last week on their voting intentions.

Among the total poll sample, the largest group — 40 per cent — said they haven't decided who will get their vote. That number swamped the 24 per cent who said they have decided to vote for David Alward's Progressive Conservative Party and the 19 per cent who say they intend to vote for Shawn Graham's Liberal Party.

N.B. party support among only decided voters
Liberal 37%
PC 47%
NDP 9%
Green Party 5%
People's Alliance 0%
Undecided 40%
Rounding out the survey, five per cent of respondents said they intend to vote for the NDP, three per cent for the Green Party and one per cent for other candidates.

One per cent said they do not intend to vote, and six per cent refused to disclose their choice.

When the undecided voters are excluded from the sample, the PCs have a 10-percentage-point lead with 47 per cent, against the Liberals' 37 per cent support. The NDP has nine per cent support, and the Green Party five per cent. The smaller sample size increases the poll's margin of error.

CRA asked voters who have not made up their mind what parties they were leaning toward voting for in the Sept. 27 election.

When decided and leaning voters are combined, the Tories hold a 44 per cent to 38 per cent lead over the Liberals. The NDP stands at 11 per cent, and the Greens have six per cent support.

Rare occurrence
Don Desserud, a political science professor at University of New Brunswick Saint John, said the number of people calling themselves undecided is now higher than it was at the start of the campaign, which rarely happens.

"We've had the debates, people have seen the signs, the platforms are out and the TV commercials have been on," he said Sunday. "I'm very surprised to see the undecided this high this late."

The large number of people calling themselves undecided is more than double the figure pollsters were recording at the same point in the 2006 election. In that contest, three separate polls conducted within 10 days of the vote put the number of undecided voters between 14 and 19 per cent.

Virtual dead heats
The last two New Brunswick provincial elections have been virtual dead heats, with Liberals and Conservatives finishing within one percentage point of each other in the popular vote.

The poll raises the possibility of any number of outcomes this time, and Desserud says the poll contains worrying news for all five parties contesting the election.

"It's obvious to me they [voters] are angry with one party — the Liberal Party, the government party, which is almost always the case in an election — but they're not warming up to the others," he said.

"They haven't found their champion or a place they feel comfortable. They don't seem to like their choices. To me it raises the very real possibility many of these people will decide not to vote at all."

Leaders more popular than parties
The poll was more definite on voter preferences for party leaders, where all five men proved to be more popular than their parties.

David Alward was named the preferred choice for premier by 30 per cent, followed closely Shawn Graham at 28 per cent — a result well within the poll's margin of error. Well back were the NDP's Roger Duguay at nine per cent and the Green Party's Jack MacDougall at six per cent.

Kris Austin, the leader of the newly formed People's Alliance of New Brunswick, was the preferred choice as premier by two per cent of those surveyed, even though the party itself registers no support. Fourteen per cent said they were undecided.

The survey was conducted by Corporate Research Associates between Sept. 15 and 18 with 1,005 New Brunswick voters. The results are considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 95 times out of 100.


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nbvot.....sults.html

[RCO]

Tories hope to win ridings that voted Liberal in 2006
Published Monday September 20th, 2010
A3By ADAM HURAS
Canadaeast News Service



Progressive Conservative Leader David Alward has hinted that Miramichi and Saint John will become Tory targets in the last seven days of election campaigning set to decide who will form New Brunswick's next government.

Enlarge Photo ADAM HURAS

Meeting the people: Tory Leader David Alward speaks with horse owners at the Queens County Fair in Gagetown during a campaign stop recently. Conscious that in just one week a premier will be made, the Alward camp journeyed more than 1,000 kilometres of New Brunswick road this past weekend, even filming a new slate of television and radio ads in the campaign bus on the move in between stops.

Alward said the feverish pace will continue to be ratcheted up.

"We will be to every part of the province, in every region, over the next seven days," Alward said of the final election campaign week ahead.

"There is not a part of New Brunswick where our team is not in play, that our team does not have an opportunity to win."

The Progressive Conservatives lost to the Shawn Graham Liberals by just three seats in 2006, but that gap widened to 11 when factoring in post-election floor crossings, byelections and vacant seats.

Alward said he hopes to form a government that has representation from all parts of the province. To do that, he will have to wrestle away ridings that were narrowly seized by Graham four years ago.

"Certainly there are parts of the province that we do not have MLAs in and that have been devastated by the decisions of this government," Alward said. "You look at the Miramichi. We believe very strongly that the people of the Miramichi are reaching out to us and we will continue to reach out to them.

"You look at Saint John, where we don't have a large number of MLAs right now, but again, Shawn Graham has broken commitments and has literally broken the trust of the Saint John area."

The Tories lost the riding of Fundy-River Valley by less than 200 votes and the riding of Quispamsis by about 500 in 2006. The Progressive Conservatives narrowly lost Southwest Miramichi by less than 500 votes four years ago.

Alward said the Tories have built a steady momentum over the campaign's first two weeks and then sidestepped the land mines of two debates in the race's third week.

But the Progressive Conservative leader wouldn't fix the moniker of "front runner" to his campaign just yet, cognizant of a history that isn't in his favour.

"There has never been a one-term government in New Brunswick's modern history. So right off the bat, that tells me that we're up against the wall," Alward said.

"And at one point in time, people said 'Who is David Alward?' But today I think it's pretty evident that people are getting to know who David Alward is.

"New Brunswickers have been open, they want to say 'hello' and want to shake my hand. It has been an incredible experience and I don't think that Shawn Graham and the Liberal party right now are going though the same thing."

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.....le/1225761

[RCO]

Business is brisk at early polls
Published Tuesday September 21st, 2010
Elections NB hopeful higher numbers will boost overall turnout


FREDERICTON - If the size of the crowds turning out at advance polls during the past few days is anything to go on, New Brunswick's chief electoral officer says the trend of declining voter turnout could be stemmed in 2010.

Michael Quinn, the head of Elections NB, said the agency wanted to make it as convenient as possible for people to take part in the election.

"People are generally busy and sometimes on election day it's difficult - with all the things they have to juggle, between work and family and children - to vote," he says.

"If they can have a convenient method of voting before election day, it probably means there will be more votes cast overall."

In 2006, 67 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot, down from 68 per cent in 2003 and 75 per cent in 1999. In those years, 50,000 and 32,000 people, respectively, voted at advance polls.

Quinn says the easier it is for people to get to a polling station, the more likely it is they'll do so - and the early numbers have been positive.

"On Saturday, we had approximately 28,000 people vote at the advance polls across the province," he says.

More than 20,000 more voters followed suit in yesterday's advance poll, said Elections NB spokesman Paul Harpelle.

"In addition to that, we've had 18,000 people around the province who voted by special ballot at the returning offices," said Quinn.

With one week still to go, that number has already eclipsed last election, when 15,000 people voted by special ballot. The special ballot option allows voters to go to any returning office in New Brunswick, show their voter card or proof of address, and vote in their home riding.

Adding to the convenience is that people can drop in anytime, not just on specific days like the advance polls.

"More people are taking advantage of the fact that they can vote at the returning offices, six days a week during the election period. We'll set a record for the number of votes cast by special ballot."

The special ballot also lets people vote in their home riding when it may be difficult - for reasons of work or school - to get to the office where they live.

The returning offices are open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the week and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, so New Brunswickers can cast a vote all week if they've already made up their minds.

Quinn says Elections NB wanted to

"We've tried to think of everything we could do to the system to make it more convenient for people to vote and to vote all through the election period," he says.

"We will have done a good job if we feel that we've contributed to the accessibility for voters to get out and vote.

"I guess that's the measure of our success."

Local returning office contact information is available for each riding in the general 2010 election information section of the Elections NB website.

The agency's website is electionsnb.ca


http://timestranscript.canadae.....le/1227418

[cosmostein]

That is good news for the opposition,
Folks rushing out to vote rarely do so to keep an existing government.

[RCO]

N.B. Tory leader boasts transparency

The New Brunswick Progressive Conservative Party leader David Alward speaks in front of the NB Power hydroelectric dam as he kicked off the election campaign on Thursday, August 26, 2010 in Mactaquac, N.B. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/ David Smith)
View Larger Image


The Canadian Press

Date: Thursday Sep. 23, 2010 9:11 PM ET

FREDERICTON — New Brunswick's Conservative leader says all of his election promises have cost estimates, even though they're not in his platform, and he has been more transparent than other political leaders who have waged campaigns in the province.

During a roundtable discussion broadcast Thursday by CTV, David Alward said all of his promises are costed and that he was certain they were realistic.

"I am fully confident in the people that have worked together to bring those commitments forward and the cost of those commitments," Alward said during the debate at St. Thomas University in Fredericton.

After the broadcast, Alward went further.

"We've provided more information than has been provided before in any election in the past," he said. "Every commitment that we have made has been evaluated and put forward."

Throughout the campaign, Liberal Premier Shawn Graham has questioned the authenticity of Alward's promises, criticizing the Conservatives for not outlining the costs of all of their commitments.

In particular, Graham says Alward has not accounted for the impact of a promised three-year freeze on power rates.

"We all know that fossil fuels continue to increase in price and we have a dependence on those fossil fuels here in New Brunswick to produce power," Graham said after the debate. "Simply avoiding rate increases for three years is going to add over $234 million to the debt of NB Power."

The Conservative plan is dependent on the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant returning to service in February 2012, but the refurbishment of the reactor is running 2 1/2 years behind schedule and well over budget.

Alward said Thursday that he's been assured by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. that no further delays are anticipated.

Graham has threatened to take the federal government to court in an effort to have AECL pay the cost overruns. He says Alward's contention that NB Power is a profitable entity that can afford to freeze power rates weakens the province's position.

"It's sending mixed messages today to the government of Canada," Graham said.

Graham's promise to create 20,000 jobs over the next four years has also been the subject of opposition ridicule.

But Alward declined to reveal a job target of his own, as he has done throughout the campaign.

"I'm not going to commit to the number of jobs that I can grow because it's not a premier, it's not a government that will grow jobs," he said. "The people of New Brunswick, entrepreneurs, businesses, will grow jobs."

NDP Leader Roger Duguay repeated his campaign promises to create 17,000 jobs and cutting the deficit by $304 million annually, accusing Graham and Alward of failing to improve the province when each served in government.

Tom Bateman, a political scientist at St. Thomas University, said he thought the debate gave the public a good look at the three main leaders.

"Strictly on debating points it probably goes to the premier, but Mr. Alward got his licks in too," Bateman said.

CTV did not invite Green party Leader Jack MacDougall and Kris Austin, the leader of the People's Alliance of New Brunswick, to participate.

MacDougall, who was in the audience, said the three other leaders had broken their word to only appear in the debate if all five parties were included.

But officials for the Liberals and New Democrats said no such pact had been made.

The Liberals, Tories and NDP are fielding a full slate of candidates. The Green party is running 49 and the Alliance 14, and neither of the fledgling parties have elected a member to the legislature.

The provincial election is Monday.

At dissolution, the Liberals had 31 seats and the Conservatives 21. There was one Independent and two seats were vacant.


http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Poli.....er-100923/

[RCO]

Dark clouds for N.B. Liberals
Polls portend bad news for Shawn Graham, as voters riled by NB Power deal lash out
By PAUL GESSELL
Sun, Sep 26 - 4:53 AM

New Brunswick Liberal Leader Shawn Graham may be about to pay the price for the unpopular plan to sell NB Power to Hydro-Quebec. (DAVID SMITH / CP)

FREDERICTON — Blame it on a power play gone bad.

Shawn Graham’s Liberal government in New Brunswick is threatened with defeat in Monday’s provincial election at the hands of David Alward’s Progressive Conservatives.

If the polls are right, Graham’s government will become the first ever in the province’s history to lose after only one term in office. At best, the Liberals can hope for a photo-finish victory.

So what happened?

The Liberals’ fall seems tied to the government’s unpopular attempt to sell NB Power to Hydro-Quebec. The deal, controversial throughout Atlantic Canada, was announced with great fanfare last fall and, within months, fell apart. A recent Abacus Data Poll showed 61 per cent of New Brunswick voters still fuming at the proposed sale of a key Crown agency.

A well-organized Conservative electoral machine has tapped into that anger. Tory television commercials throughout the month-long campaign showed the Liberal premiers of Quebec and New Brunswick sitting nose-to-nose, smiling and signing the deal.

Jack Keir, New Brunswick’s energy minister, stands behind Premier Graham in the scene. Polls conducted for the Saint John Telegraph-Journal suggest Keir is headed for personal defeat in his Saint John-area riding, as are some other key ministers, including Social Development Minister Kelly Lamrock in Fredericton.

"Jack regrets that picture every day," says Keir’s campaign manager, Richard McLean. "The Conservatives are really flogging that picture and that issue."

The NB Power deal came on the heels of another controversy over changes to French immersion for young students. Anglophone parents feared their children would have more difficulty learning French in a province where bilingualism is often a ticket to a job.

With both NB Power and French immersion, there was a feeling the Liberal government had taken drastic, at times reckless, moves without consulting the population. A new political party, the People’s Alliance, formed in the wake of those controversies, promising to involve the population more in decision-making.

Don Desserud, a political science professor at the Saint John campus of the University of New Brunswick, says the voters are not looking for big changes in their lives.

"They want stability," he says.

And the Conservatives pitch themselves as the stable crew. That is evident in the Conservative posters emblazoned with the word "trust." Tory TV commercials show Alward as a benevolent father-knows-best figure.

The Liberals have attempted to paint Alward as a politician who, if given the chance, would slice and dice services after the election.

"The only way David Alward can implement his promises is to cut health care and other social programs, and based on his record I guess that wouldn’t be a surprise," says Graham.

In Caraquet, on the north coast, the Liberals re-opened a hospital midway through the election campaign that had been closed when Alward was a minister in Bernard Lord’s Conservative government. Nobody in Caraquet believed the timing of the re-opening was a coincidence. And no one complained. Everyone was just happy to have the hospital back. They will undoubtedly thank Graham on Monday.

Graham, 42, is a member of a prominent political family from Kent County. He was a public servant before entering politics and became Liberal leader in 2002. Alward, 50, was a community development worker in the Woodstock area before entering politics. He became Conservative leader in 2008.

When the New Brunswick legislature was dissolved Aug. 26, there were 32 Liberals, 21 Conservatives, and two vacancies. The seat tally after Monday’s election is difficult to predict because of Canada’s first-past-the-post system and unequal numbers of voters in the province’s ridings. In the last election, in 2006, the Conservatives actually won the popular vote but won far fewer seats than the Liberals.

Polls at the campaign’s beginning showed the Liberals on top. Then the Conservatives sprinted ahead and stayed there, sometimes marginally. The general consensus is that the Conservatives will win. But by how much?

The so-called third parties, the New Democrats, Greens and People’s Alliance, did not seem to make much headway in the campaign, although the NDP repeatedly made headlines by trying to position itself as the fiscally responsible voice of the middle class.

The Liberals’ key promise was to create 20,000 good, high-paying jobs in five years. Details were sketchy and became the object of considerable scorn by other parties.

The Conservatives promised a three-year freeze on power rates, despite NB Power’s already shaky financial status and the province’s $8 billion debt.

Voters interviewed on street corners would often cite health care, or job creation as their No. 1 issue. But poke and prod a bit and anger at the NB Power fiasco would surface. Even many who planned to vote Liberal dissed the power deal and Graham.

"I’m disappointed with Shawn Graham," said Joseph Bourgeois, a disenchanted voter in Dieppe who used to work for the federal Liberals.

Come Monday, there’s a good chance Shawn Graham himself will be the most disappointed man in New Brunswick.

Paul Gessell is a freelance writer who has worked for the Canadian Press and the Ottawa Citizen.


http://thechronicleherald.ca/T.....03866.html

[RCO]

Monday vote will decide next N.B. government

New Brunswick Liberal Leader Shawn Graham speaks to supporters while campaigning in Bathurst N.B. Sunday, September 26, 2010. (Jacques Boissinot / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
View Larger Image



Date: Monday Sep. 27, 2010 7:42 AM ET

New Brunswick voters will head to the polls Monday for a provincial election that will determine if Liberal Premier Shawn Graham keeps his job.

Graham is seeking a second term as premier and urged his supporters to keep up their hard work to ensure a win for his Liberal party.

The New Brunswick Liberals are hoping to pick up some seats from Opposition Tories, who held a slim lead over the Liberals in the final days of the election race.

If the Liberals are ousted from government, it will be the first time in New Brunswick history that a governing party has lost after only a single term in power.

Conservative Leader David Alward says he is "not in the least bit presumptuous" about the outcome of Monday's vote and the public will decide who they support.

Both Alward and Graham have said they can balance the province's books within four years, without major spending cuts or tax increases.

NDP Leader Roger Duguay hopes to see his own party make gains, though it has never won more than one seat in a New Brunswick general election.

The Liberals, Tories and NDP are running candidates in each New Brunswick riding.

Two other parties -- the Greens and the Alliance -- are hoping to have members elected to the legislature for the first time.

Monday's vote will be the first time that the public will head to the polls under fixed-date legislation.


http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopS.....te-100927/

[RCO]

( it looks like shawn graham is going to lose and lose big , so far its 39 seats pc to 16 liberals . pc majority it looks like )

Polls close in N.B. election
Last Updated: Monday, September 27, 2010 | 7:38 PM ET .CBC News

Join the conversation Polling stations across New Brunswick's 55 ridings have now closed and voters will soon know what party will form the next government.

Liberal Leader Shawn Graham and Progressive Conservative Leader David Alward are vying to form a majority government, but there are three other parties also fighting to gain a seat inside the legislative assembly.

The Progressive Conservatives have jumped to an early lead in popular support.

At 8:30 p.m., the Tories held 48 per cent of the popular support, the Liberals had 37 per cent and the NDP had about eight per cent. The majority of the votes that have been counted so far are special ballots.

Polling stations opened at 10 a.m. and closed at 8 p.m. Elections New Brunswick estimated that 42,000 voters cast ballots in the advance polls.

Elections New Brunswick kept the polls open later in the ridings of Fredericton-Lincoln and in Graham's riding of Kent in southeastern New Brunswick.

Polls are still open in the riding of Kent.

When the legislative assembly was dissolved, Graham's Liberals held 32 seats and the Tories held 21 ridings. Two seats were vacant


http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nbvot.....n-718.html

[optimus2861]

Good riddance to that snake Graham. I was afraid that canceling the NB Power deal would get him off the hook, give the anger a chance to die down and save his butt. I'm glad to see my former compatriots in NB haven't forgotten and have given him the electoral rout he deserves!