2014 New Brunswick general election

2014 New Brunswick general election
← 2010 September 22, 2014 (2014-09-22) 2018 →
49 seats in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick
25 seats needed for a majority
Turnout64.65% [1]
  Majority party Minority party
 
Leader Brian Gallant David Alward
Party Liberal Progressive Conservative
Leader since October 27, 2012 October 18, 2008
Leader's seat Shediac Bay-Dieppe Carleton
Last election 13 seats, 34.42% 42 seats, 48.84%
Seats before 13 41
Seats won 27 21
Seat change Increase14 Decrease20
Percentage 42.73% 34.65%
Swing Increase8.31pp Decrease14.19pp
  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader David Coon Dominic Cardy
Party Green New Democratic
Leader since September 22, 2012 March 2, 2011
Leader's seat Fredericton South ran in Fredericton West-Hanwell (lost)
Last election 0 seats, 4.54% 0 seats, 10.41%
Seats before 0 0
Seats won 1 0
Seat change Increase1 Steady
Percentage 6.61% 12.98%
Swing Increase2.07pp Increase2.57pp
Popular vote by riding. As this is an FPTP election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote, but instead via results by each riding.
Premier before election

David Alward
Progressive Conservative

Premier after election

Brian Gallant
Liberal

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox election with unknown parameter "next_mps"

The 2014 New Brunswick general election was held on September 22, 2014, to elect 49 members to the 58th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, the governing house of the province of New Brunswick, Canada.

The 2013 redistribution reduced the size of the legislature from 55 seats to 49.

The New Brunswick Liberal Association, led by Brian Gallant, won a majority government, defeating Incumbent Premier David Alward's Progressive Conservatives, which became the second single-term government in New Brunswick's history.[2] The New Democratic Party, led by Dominic Cardy won the highest support in its history, though failed to win any seats. As a result of these losses, both Alward and Cardy resigned as leaders of their respective parties.[2][3] The Green Party of New Brunswick improved on its results from the previous election, with party leader David Coon winning the party's first seat, and becoming only the second Green politician (after British Columbia MLA Andrew J. Weaver) elected to a provincial legislature.[2]

Fracking was a major issue in the election as a whole. Most commentators described the election as a referendum on it.[4][5]

Polling in the weeks leading up to the campaign gave the Liberals a wide lead over the governing Progressive Conservatives. Some commentators openly speculated about whether the Liberals were on track to repeat the 1987 provincial election, when they won every seat in the Legislative Assembly.[6] As the campaign progressed, however, the gap in popular support between the two parties narrowed significantly. Some attributed this in part to a television interview with CBC New Brunswick anchor Harry Forestell in which Gallant gave inaccurate numbers relating to his proposal for a tax increase on the province's wealthiest residents.[7] In the final poll of the campaign, the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives were tied at 40 per cent support each.[8]

  1. ^ Elections New Brunswick, Canada (February 5, 2014). "Provincial Election Results - Elections NB". electionsnb. Archived from the original on February 20, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c McHardie, Daniel (September 23, 2014). "N.B. election 2014 results: Brian Gallant's Liberals win amid vote-count fiasco". CBC News. Archived from the original on September 25, 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  3. ^ "David Alward concedes election, resigns as Tory leader". CBC News. September 23, 2014. Archived from the original on September 26, 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  4. ^ "N.B. election: Did shale gas and fracking sway the vote?". globalnews. Archived from the original on September 16, 2018. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  5. ^ vancouverobserver.com: "Pro-gas fracking government turfed in New Brunswick election" Archived 2015-05-09 at the Wayback Machine, 24 Sep 2014
  6. ^ "Brian Gallant struggles to articulate campaign message". CBC News. August 30, 2014. Archived from the original on September 22, 2014. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  7. ^ "New Brunswick Tories call Brian Gallant gaffe his "Stéphane Dion" moment". Yahoo! News. September 17, 2014. Archived from the original on December 18, 2014. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  8. ^ "New Brunswick election too close to call, final poll shows". Toronto Sun. September 22, 2014. Archived from the original on November 11, 2014. Retrieved September 22, 2014.