2006 New Brunswick general election

2006 New Brunswick general election

← 2003 September 18, 2006 2010 →
← outgoing members members →
55 seats of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick 28 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	67.52% [1]
First party Second party Third party   NDP Leader Shawn Graham Bernard Lord Allison Brewer Party Liberal Progressive Conservative New Democratic Leader since 2002 1997 2005 Leader's seat Kent Moncton East Ran for Fredericton-Lincoln Last election 26 28 1 Seats won 29 26 0 Seat change 3 2 1 Popular vote 176,410 177,744 19,212 Percentage 47.1% 47.5% 5.1% Swing 2.7% 2.1% 4.6%
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 Bernard Lord Progressive Conservative Premier after election Shawn Graham Liberal

Wikinews has related news:

• New Brunswick voters shun Lord

The 2006 New Brunswick general election was held on September 18, 2006, to elect 55 members to the 56th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, the governing house of the province of New Brunswick, Canada.

The campaign came earlier than expected: the incumbent Premier of New Brunswick, Bernard Lord, had pledged a vote would be held on October 15, 2007 but when the ruling Progressive Conservatives faced a loss of its majority in the legislature, Lord said he did not want to face a minority government and, moreover, feared that a by-election could tip the balance of power to the opposition Liberals.

The campaign was hard-fought with pundits and pollsters calling it too close to call throughout the five-week campaign. In the end, it was won by the Liberals led by Shawn Graham. The Liberals won 29 seats to 26 for the Progressive Conservatives, although the Progressive Conservatives won a plurality of the popular vote (47.5% to 47.2%).

Unusually, the Liberals won 17 of the 36 predominantly anglophone ridings, their best showing in a competitive election in English New Brunswick since the 1944 election. The Conservatives conversely did better than they have ever done while losing an election among Francophone ridings.