N.B. party leaders square off in CBC election debate this evening
Hoping to get some answers on where the leaders stand as New Brunswick heads toward an election?
On Wednesday evening, the three major party leaders will share a platform for New Brunswick Votes 2024: Leaders on the Record.
The debate is being shown on cbc.ca/nb and on the CBC evening news.
TV host Clare MacKenzie and political reporter Jacques Poitras will be moderators.
Voters will get to hear from Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs, Liberal Leader Susan Holt and Green Leader David Coon.
All of CBC New Brunswick's election coverage can be found on this website under the New Brunswick Votes 2024 page.
Green Party Leader David Coon, Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs and Liberal Leader Susan Holt will face one another in the New Brunswick Votes 2024: Leaders on the Record debate Wednesday evening. (CBC)
When Higgs went to Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy on Sept. 20 to have the legislature dissolved, the election campaign officially began. New Brunswickers will vote on Oct. 21.
However, talk of an election was in the air long before it officially got underway.
In June 2023, several members of Higgs's cabinet spoke out over his changes to Policy 713, a gender identity policy in schools. The question of an early election existed then and intensified that fall as Higgs hinted at an election for six weeks.
But as it became clear Higgs would stick to the scheduled election, the PC Party delivered a major campaign announcement in July, promising to cut the HST from 15 per cent to 13 per cent if re-elected.
The PCs have only made one other promise as the official campaign nears the one-week mark, and that is to expand the scope of practice of nurse practitioners, registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses, paramedics and pharmacists.
What have leaders promised?
The Green and Liberal parties have made announcements nearly every day of the official campaign so far.
Liberal Leader Susan Holt has promised retention bonuses for nurses, a three per cent rent cap, and that 30,000 new housing units will be built by 2030 by temporarily removing the sales tax on new residential builds.
The Green Party has promised $380 million annually for health care, a guaranteed-livable wage for seniors,to restore rural services like a year-round Campobello Ferry and courthouses in Charlotte County and the Acadian Peninsula, and to protect local heritage sites like the Memramcook Institute.
Party leaders also spoke to a group of mayors and municipal officials about how they would address shortfalls in local funding following municipal reform last year. Indigenous leaders and teachers have also asked political parties for their responses to key issues.
Polls suggest it will be a close race.
The province has also shaken up its electoral map and added a sizable number of people to its population since the previous election in 2020.
