New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham says he's ready to fight the next election on his controversial plan to sell NB Power to Hydro-Québec.

The province's governing Liberals are trailing in the polls with nine months to go before a scheduled election next Sept. 27.

In a year-end interview, Graham said that while his government has been forced to find compromise on other controversial plans over the last three years — such as consolidations in early French immersion and hospital boards — the reforms are working.

Under the proposed utility sale, Hydro-Québec would assume the major assets of NB Power for $4.75 billion.

Opposition Leader David Alward of the Progressive Conservatives says it's a bad deal, and he wants it stopped or delayed until after the election.

University of New Brunswick political scientist Don Desserud said Graham's Liberals would lose if the election were held now, and that they have a lot of work ahead to sell the benefits of the NB Power deal.