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Voters in 3 provincial ridings elect new MLAs today

Voters in northeast New Brunswick will get the chance to deliver a big boost, or a major setback, to New Brunswick Liberal Leader Susan Holt.

Liberal Leader Susan Holt aims to get into the legislature, but is facing high-profile Green candidate

Jacques Poitras · CBC News ·
A woman wearing a mask speaks to seated elderly person.
This is Liberal Leader Susan Holt's first opportunity to get a seat in the legislature. (Gilles Landry/Radio-Canada)

Voters in northeast New Brunswick will get the chance to deliver a big boost, or a major setback, to New Brunswick Liberal Leader Susan Holt today.

Holt is on the ballot in one of three byelections being held in the province.

The race in Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-St. Isidore represents her first opportunity to get a seat in the legislature, and the spotlight that comes with it, since she won the leadership of the party last August.

Holt says she's promising voters "a leadership that listens, that's close to communities and that tries to understand people and work on their priorities." 

A bald and bearded man poses for the camera holding a clipboard to his chest.
Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-St. Isidore, a traditionally Liberal riding, has a strong Green candidate in Serge Brideau, a well-known musician and activist, (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-St. Isidore is a traditionally Liberal riding, but Holt is facing a formidable opponent in Green candidate Serge Brideau, a well-known musician and activist with the Acadian Society of New Brunswick. 

"I think people need a real change, not just a surface change or catch phrases," Brideau said last week as he knocked on doors on Mount Carmel Street in East Bathurst.

The governing Progressive Conservatives opted not to run a candidate in the byelection.

Three campaign signs are stuck in the grass next to the side of a building. They are signs for Susan Holt, Liberal, Serge Brideau, Green and Alex White, NDP.
Campaign signs for Susan Holt, Serge Brideau and Alex White in the Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-St. Isidore byelection. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

Premier Blaine Higgs said last month Holt deserved a chance to get into the legislature, where she would become leader of the official opposition.

"It's important to have her views shared directly and an opportunity to debate that back and forth, as opposed to being on the sidelines," he said. 

The PCs are running candidates in the two other byelections Monday, in Restigouche-Chaleur and Dieppe.

A bearded man with glasses speaking with a microphone in front of him.
Alex White, the interim leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party, is on the ballot. The NDP has not elected an MLA since 2003. (Gilles Landry/Radio-Canada)

Another party leader is on the ballot in Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-St. Isidore: Alex White, the interim leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party.

White says he opted for the riding, rather than either of the other two, because Holt's candidacy means he can have a greater impact.

"With no Conservative candidate, it gives us a chance to show the Liberals are not a progressive party … and to show the NDP is still here, still strong and still fighting for everyone." 

The NDP has not elected an MLA since 2003 and won less than two per cent of the popular vote in the last election.

All three ridings became vacant last fall when their long-time Liberal MLAs retired from politics.

The polls open at 10 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jacques Poitras

Provincial Affairs reporter

Jacques Poitras has been CBC's provincial affairs reporter in New Brunswick since 2000. He grew up in Moncton and covered Parliament in Ottawa for the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. He has reported on every New Brunswick election since 1995 and won awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association, the National Newspaper Awards and Amnesty International. He is also the author of five non-fiction books about New Brunswick politics and history.

    With files from Alix Villeneuve, Radio-Canada

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