2014_New_Brunswick_general_election

2014 New Brunswick general election

2014 New Brunswick general election

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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.

Quick Facts 49 seats in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick 25 seats needed for a majority, Turnout ...

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]

Timeline

Results

More information Party, Votes ...
More information Popular vote ...
More information Seats summary ...

Tabulator problem and manual recount demand

The election marked the first time that the province used electronic vote tabulation machines from Dominion Voting in a provincial election. They had previously been used in New Brunswick municipal elections.[2] On election night, the machines displayed vote totals which were verified by Elections New Brunswick officials and entered into a province-wide database for the media. By 11:45 PM, these unverified numbers were to have been replaced by totally machine-reported numbers from the tabulators themselves with no human interventions or errors possible to distort results. It was "a program processing the initial results that had a glitch", not the tabulators themselves, according to officials.[20]

Elections New Brunswick grew uncomfortable with the human involvement and influence of the unevenly tabulated results. It brought the results reporting to a standstill as counts were reverified by hand before further resignations or concessions were triggered.

At 10:45 p.m. Atlantic time, Elections New Brunswick officially suspended the results reporting count, with 17 ridings still undeclared, while it investigated the delay.[21] It called for over sixty tabulator count devices to be brought to central locations for verification without relying on the reporting program. At no time was there an allegation of fraud by any party or public official.

As a result of the controversy, both the Progressive Conservatives and the People's Alliance Party called for a hand count of all ballots, with the former refusing to concede the election until the following day.[2] Michael Quinn, the province's chief electoral officer determined no total recount was necessary.[2] Recounts were held in 7 of 49 ridings and the results were upheld with variations of no more than 1 vote per candidate per riding.[22]

Results by region

More information Party Name, Northern ...

Results by place

More information Seats, Second ...

Opinion polls

More information Polling Firm, Last Day of Polling ...

Retiring incumbents

The following sitting members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) had announced that they would not re-offer at this election:

Progressive Conservatives

Liberals

Candidates

New boundaries were in effect as a result of an electoral redistribution replacing the districts used in the 2006 and 2010 elections. Candidates had to file their nomination papers by September 2, 2014 to appear on the ballot.[31]

Legend

  • bold denotes cabinet minister or party leader
  • italics denotes a potential candidate who has not received his/her party's nomination
  • † denotes an incumbent who is not running for re-election
  • * denotes an incumbent seeking re-election in a new district

Northern

More information Electoral district, Candidates ...

Miramichi

More information Electoral district, Candidates ...

Southeastern

More information Electoral district, Candidates ...

Southern

More information Electoral district, Candidates ...

Capital Region

More information Electoral district, Candidates ...

Upper River Valley

More information Electoral district, Candidates ...

Notes

  • A1 Gallant won the seat in a by-election on April 15, 2013. The seat was previously held by Liberal former premier Shawn Graham.
  • B1 Flemming won the seat in a by-election on June 25, 2012. The seat was previously held by Progressive Conservative Margaret-Ann Blaney.

References

  1. Elections New Brunswick, Canada (February 5, 2014). "Provincial Election Results - Elections NB". electionsnb. Archived from the original on February 20, 2018.
  2. 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. "Brian Gallant struggles to articulate campaign message". CBC News. August 30, 2014. Archived from the original on September 22, 2014. Retrieved September 22, 2014.
  6. "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.
  7. "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.
  8. "CBC News Online. "Cardy is N.B.'s new NDP leader."". Cbc.ca. March 2, 2011. Archived from the original on March 6, 2011. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  9. "Saint John-area MLA kicked out of Tory caucus". CBC News. September 20, 2012. Archived from the original on September 21, 2012. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
  10. "Conservationist Coon N.B.'s new Green Party leader". CBC News. September 22, 2012. Archived from the original on September 24, 2012. Retrieved September 24, 2012.
  11. "Electoral Boundaries and Representation Commission concludes mandate". .gnb.ca. June 6, 2013. Archived from the original on December 18, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  12. "Dr. Jim Parrott rejoins Progressive Conservative caucus - New Brunswick - CBC News". Cbc.ca. April 30, 2014. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  13. "Ex-Tory Bev Harrison will run for NDP in next election". CBC News. June 27, 2014. Archived from the original on January 20, 2018. Retrieved July 17, 2018.
  14. "MLA Bios -58th Legislature". August 20, 2014. Archived from the original on September 15, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  15. "Jobs and the economy the top issues of New Brunswick election, premier says". Prince George Citizen. August 18, 2014. Archived from the original on December 18, 2014. Retrieved August 20, 2014.
  16. Odell, Patrick (September 23, 2014). "Vote tabulators not to blame for N.B. election results glitches: official". Global News. Archived from the original on September 26, 2014. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  17. "Liberals win majority in N.B. election amid vote-counting problems". CTV News Atlantic. September 23, 2014. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
  18. "CBC.ca - watch, listen, and discover with Canada's Public Broadcaster". CBC. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  19. "New Brunswick Tory John Betts says he won't run in September election - National". Prince George Citizen. August 23, 2014. Archived from the original on December 18, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  20. The, Staff (January 22, 2014). "New Brunswick Tory won't seek re-election | Metro". Metronews.ca. Archived from the original on March 24, 2014. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  21. "Another longtime Tory MLA not running," Telegraph-Journal, July 3, 2014
  22. "Jacques Poitras on Twitter: Nigadoo-Chaleur Liberal MLA Roland Hache says he will not re-offer in #NB election next year". Twitter.com. May 1, 2013. Archived from the original on December 7, 2013. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  23. "Unofficial List of Candidates - Provincial Election (9/22/2014)". gnb. Archived from the original on 3 September 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  24. "Parti Vert NB Green Party". green party nb. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 11, 2018.

Further reading


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