The 2003 New Brunswick general election was held on June 9, 2003, to elect 55 members to the 55th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly. Although polls initially suggested a landslide victory for Premier Bernard Lord's Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick, the dynamics of the race shifted after Shawn Graham, leader of the Liberal Party of New Brunswick, took on auto insurance rates as a key issue of his campaign. Lord and the Progressive Conservatives were ultimately re-elected by a narrow margin of just 2 seats.

Quick Facts 55 seats of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick 28 seats needed for a majority, Turnout ...

2003 New Brunswick general election

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55 seats of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick 28 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	68.67% [1]
First party Second party Third party   NDP Leader Bernard Lord Shawn Graham Elizabeth Weir Party Progressive Conservative Liberal New Democratic Leader since 1997 2002 1988 Leader's seat Moncton East Kent Saint John Harbour Last election 44 10 1 Seats won 28 26 1 Seat change 16 16 Popular vote 174,092 170,028 36,989 Percentage 45.4% 44.4% 9.7% Swing 7.6% 7.1% 0.9%
Map of New Brunswick's ridings coloured in based on the winning parties and their popular vote
Premier before election Bernard Lord Progressive Conservative Premier after election Bernard Lord Progressive Conservative

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Leading up to the election, New Brunswick had its car insurance rates skyrocket. The Liberal Party of New Brunswick consequently focused its campaign on three points:

1. improved universal health care,
2. keeping the province's electric utility, NB Power, as a public crown corporation, and
3. the lowering of automobile insurance rates.

On the other hand, the campaign of Premier Bernard Lord and his Progressive Conservative Party faced a number of problems, especially after changing its position on the key issue of auto insurance several times during the 30-day campaign.

The results were very close, and for most of election night as the results came in, the winner was unclear. Shawn Graham was even heard to remark on television as the night was drawing to a close that "Up to 5 minutes ago, I thought I was Premier".^[2]

New Democratic Party of New Brunswick leader Elizabeth Weir was the only member of her party to win a seat. The party ran 55 candidates throughout the province.

The newly founded but short-lived New Brunswick Grey Party, a branch of the Grey Party of Canada, also ran 10 candidates, including party leader Jim Webb.

Party leaders and cabinet ministers are denoted in bold.