Given the upcoming provincial election on October 21st, many young and eligible voters are finding themselves lost when it comes to choosing a candidate to put their vote behind. Some may not even know which riding they are a part of. Find out your riding here. It is essential for people to be informed when it comes to provincial politics as provincial governments hold many important responsibilities that impact our daily lives, including: infrastructure, social welfare, education, and healthcare. This piece is to serve as a bit of a guide for young people/students who are as of yet undecided or uninformed, which is understandable. At times, it is difficult to parse through all the noise bubbling up from our neighbours down south and the federal government.

Election signs near campus (Bailey Young/The Baron)

The big three political parties of New Brunswick provincial politics include: The Progressive Conservative Party (PC) led by Blaine Higgs which has been in power since 2018, The Liberal Party led by Susan Holt, and The Green Party led by David Coon. These three parties all hold seats in the legislative assembly. In comparison, three other parties do not: The People’s Alliance led by Rick DeSaulniers, The New Democratic Party (NDP) led by Alex White, and the newly founded Libertarian Party led by Keith Tays. Each of these parties represent wildly different ideologies, values, and perspectives. Therefore, it is important to explore the platforms of each party to get a good sense of what they stand for.

When choosing a candidate to put support behind, it is a good idea to first know the candidate. Knowing their background can provide some perspective on their stances and values. Along with a devoted 33-year career at Irving Oil, Blaine Higgs has quite a pedigree when it comes to politics. He has been politically active since the 1980s with his run for leadership of the defunct right-wing Confederations of Regions Party (COR), which advocated for the repeal of the Official Languages Act. Back in 2010, Higgs restarted his political career as a member of the PC party and has been the premier since 2018. Susan Holt got her start in business within the IT sector and has experience working in government on social and economic policy. She has also worked with various charitable organizations such as Fredericton Homeless Shelters, JA, and the NB Association for Community Living. David Coon began as a conservationist and has been the MLA for Fredericton South since 2014. In his position, he passed a bill to require NB schools to teach about Indigenous and settler relations and he succeeded in his motion to recognize an official Day of Truth and Reconciliation for New Brunswick. Each of these candidates is highly skilled with extensive careers in and out of politics, meaning each of them brings a unique perspective to the table. Therefore, it is up to the voters to decide who they believe would best fit the position of premier. Rick DeSaulniers was elected as the People’s Alliance MLA for Fredericton-York in 2018. During his time in the Legislature, he has been outspoken on “Band-aid solutions to gaping wounds” and strongly believes in the saying, “People Matter.” Alex White has been a member of the NDP for twenty years and has worked to resettle Newcomers to the province. Lastly, Keith Tays and the new Libertarian Party are deeply intrigued by the concept of liberty and firmly believe that our government should respect restraint, protect citizens’ natural rights, and focus on the rights of individuals, not corporations.

Election sign near campus (Bailey Young/The Baron)

To discern what each party stands for, a brief overview of the most prominent aspects of their platforms is in order. In a very brief and unceremonious release on the 12th, the PCs promised to cut down the HST to 13% by 2026, expand access to healthcare, axe the carbon tax, balance the province’s budget, respect “parental rights”, and stop the creation of more safe injection sites for addicts. In an extensive 30-page document, the Liberal Party plans to establish 30 new medical clinics to deal with the waitlist for family doctors that is around 180,000 New Brunswickers long, expand the amount of mental healthcare professionals by stationing as many as possible in clinics, the introduction of a rent cap and an overhaul of the property tax system, cut the Higgs gas tax to save citizens more money at the pump, increase educational staff along with free breakfast and pay-what-you-can lunch services to students, provide support to post-secondary students in the form of grants for those in high priority fields and increased focus on student housing.

For this election the Greens are focusing on healthcare, a brief overview notes that this will include the expansion of family medical practices, restoration of the authority of local hospital administrators to manage emergency services, and publicly funded psychotherapy and counseling. They share the rent cap promise with the Liberals they also promise to raise the minimum wage to $20/hour and lower taxes on small and medium-sized businesses to make it more feasible, along with a plan to increase funding to post-secondary institutions in an effort to lower tuition fees. But they wouldn’t be the Greens without a focus on the environment and in this realm they plan to start the Youth Climate Corps which is an initiative dedicated to offering employment and training opportunities in conservation and climate action efforts for youth. According to what could be found on the NDP’s website, their aims are to provide a 32-hour work week, universal pharmacare, and affordable childcare.

For the People’s Alliance, they stand for fiscal responsibility, equality and fairness, and true democracy. They also seem to have a very interesting idea for consensus-based MLA recall if citizens in a riding are having issues with their MLA. Read more about the People’s Alliance here. The Libertarian Party is radically different from each of the parties listed previously as they believe in a form of government that holds limited power, especially over one’s wallet, body, and mind, meaning the government should hold the most power on a local level. To them, taxation is akin to armed robbery as money is procured from citizens with the threat of state violence. They believe that the question of abortion should be dictated by communities rather than the state, that self-defense is a right and that the definitions surrounding reasonable force should be expanded. More information on the Libertarian Party can be found here.

Election sign near campus (Bailey Young/The Baron)

This is an exhaustive list and the shell has hardly been cracked to reveal the deeper workings of each party’s platform, though hopefully it has provided some clarity.

An important note to keep in mind when examining the platforms of these parties is that not all of these parties have a candidate in every riding, this is exemplified when examining the four ridings for Saint John as only Saint John East has a candidate corresponding to each of the six parties.

The candidates for Saint John are as follows: Saint John East: Glen Savoie (PC), David Alston (Liberal), Gerald Irish (Green), Josh Floyd (NDP), Denise Campbell (Libertarian), and Tanya Graham (People’s Alliance).

Saint John Portland-Simonds: John Dornan (Liberal), Paul Dempsey (PC), and P.J. Duncan (Green).

Saint John Harbour: Adam Smith (PC), David Hickey (Liberal), Mariah Darling (Green), Kenneth Procter (NDP), and Shelley Craig (Libertarian).

Saint John West-Lancaster: Kim Costain (PC), Kate Elman Wilcott (Liberal), Joanna Killen (Green), Jane Ryan (NDP), and Sherie Vukelic (Libertarian).

Many students at UNB Saint John are residents of Rothesay or Quispamsis, therefore here are the candidates for those ridings: Quispamsis: Blaine Higgs (PC Leader), Aaron Kennedy (Liberal), Alex White (NDP Leader), Andrew Condradi (Green), and David Raymond Amos (Independent).

Rothesay: Ted Flemming (PC), Alyson Townsend (Liberal), Zara MacKay-Boyce (Green), and Austin Venedam (Libertarian).

More candidates and ridings can be found here.

Election sign near campus (Bailey Young/The Baron)

At times it can be extremely difficult to determine who to put your support behind when it comes to elections, though I hope that this has served as an acceptable overview of the options available to students of UNB Saint John. In addition to this article, it is helpful to utilize resources such as the 8 values test as it can aid one in finding an initial direction in terms of which side they fall on when it comes to important issues concerning economic, diplomatic, civil, and societal directions. It is also a great idea to read more than just this article as there is a tremendous amount of information out there on the sites of the parties as well as on other journalistic publications. The most important thing to remember with voting is: that it is free and it is one’s right in our democracy to support whichever party one desires. All that matters is that one is participating in their civic responsibilities.