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56th New Brunswick General Election




The 56th New Brunswick general election will be held in the Province of New Brunswick , Canada , no later than June 2008 to elect members of the Legislative Assembly Of New Brunswick . This General Election will almost certainly be held sometime between May 8 2006 and October 15 2007 .

Prior to February 2006, media and the Progressive Conservative government of Premier Bernard Lord had been referring to this as the "2007 election" as Lord has pledged to introduce legislation fixing election dates, beginning on October 15 2007 . This became far less certain however following the February 17 2006 decision of Michael Malley to leave the Progressive Conservative Caucus creating a Minority Government situation. The Opposition Liberals have stated repeatedly that they will force an election at the earliest opportunity. There will be a Budget Vote on April 7 2006 . Lord has stated that if the government does fall on the budget, he will ask the Lieutenant-Governor to set an election date of May 8 2006 .

The election could occur in 2008 should Lord's government survive and not pass the fixed election date legislation: the Constitution Of Canada only requires an election be held every five years, even though by convention, elections are held after four years. Since the introduction of official parties in New Brunswick, every election, except the Wartime 1944 Election and the 1987 Election , have been held within four Calendar Year s or less of the previous election.

Most current media speculation suggests that the government is unlikely to fall due to the election of Malley as Speaker , a post in which he would only vote in the case of a tie and by tradition would vote in a manner so as to maintain Confidence in the government. Notwithstanding this Lord and Opposition Leader Shawn Graham have been making campaign-style tours of the province, announcing their campaign teams and preparing for a spring election. {Link without Title}

This election will be the first campaign since the 1987 Election in which Elizabeth Weir will not lead the smaller Social Democratic New Democratic Party (NDP). Barring an unexpected change, the other parties will again be led by Bernard Lord and Liberal leader Shawn Graham .


TIMELINE






  • October 13 2005 - Elizabeth Weir resigns her seat in the legislature, a By-election is called two days later for November 14. The Tories and Liberals both announce high profile candidates and the media speculates that the winner of the by-election will have the momentum going into the general election. Weir's NDP, which was caught without notice of her resignation, is expected by pundits to finish third.



  • November 14 2005 - The Liberals win a by-election in a seat formerly held by NDP MLA Elizabeth Weir, defeating Conservative star candidate Michelle Hooton , who many considered the frontrunner, by a 2 to 1 margin.


  • January 7 2006 - Over the course of his beginning of year interviews, Lord reveals that he will introduced legislation fixing election dates, beginning with a date in 2007.


  • February 14 2006 - Lord announces a major cabinet shuffle moving over half of his ministers, changing several departments and dumping three of his most well known ministers, two of whom say they are leaving as they will not be candidates in the next election. In the meantime he adds former minister Brenda Fowlie back to cabinet and Speaker Bev Harrison who will have to resign from his non-partisan post.



  • March 28 2006 -

  • ---Independent MLA Michael Malley is elected Speaker of the legislature. This makes the standings of the ordinarily voting members of the legislature 27 Progressive Conservatives, 26 Liberals, 1 Independent. Malley, as Speaker, would only vote in the case of a tie and, by tradition, would normally vote in favour of Confidence Motions . Thus an election at a time other than Lord's chosing is unlikely.

  • --- Finance Minister Jeannot Volpe introduces what he calls a "super good Budget " in which the government provides tax credits for heating costs, eliminates the Harmonized Sales Tax from heating costs, regulates the prices of gasoline and home heating oil, personal and small business tax cuts, investments in struggling forestry companies, hiring 240 more teachers for the public school system and no longer using the value of the homes of seniors as an offset to the level of support they can receive in a nursing home.


  • April 13 2006 - Malley announces from the speaker's chair that he is rejoining the government caucus. Government House Leader Bev Harrison argues that this restores the government majority and that therefore, the Liberals should honour a previous agreement to preserve a working majority on Committees Of The Whole . The Liberals argued that it is inproper for a speaker to change his affiliation and refuse to recognize the government as a majority. The legislature becomes somewhat deadlocked as the government controls the primary debate of the chamber, but the opposition controls the votes at committees where legislation and budgetary estimates are approved.


  • May 1 2006 - The Liberals offer to end the growing deadlock in the legislature by having Malley resign the speakership and placing one of their own members up for election as speaker. Under such an arrangement, the Conservatives would have 28 voting members, the Liberals 25 and the one independent Frank Branch . In exchange for giving the government this working majority, they demand an election be held on September 25 2006 .



RIDINGS


Many new and changed districts will be used for the first time in this election as a result of an Electoral Redistribution .

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



Northeast


  bgcolor whitesmoke1 Campbellton-Restigouche Centre
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Roy_Boudreau" class="copylinks">Roy Boudreau
  bgcolor whitesmoke2 Dalhousie-Restigouche East
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Donald_Arseneault" class="copylinks">Donald Arseneault
  bgcolor whitesmoke3 Nigadoo-Chaleur
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Roland_Haché" class="copylinks">Roland Haché
  bgcolor whitesmoke4 Bathurst
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Brian_Kenny_(politician)" class="copylinks">Brian Kenny
  bgcolor whitesmoke5 Nepisiguit
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Frank_Branch" class="copylinks">Frank Branch
  bgcolor whitesmoke6 Caraquet
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Hédard_Albert" class="copylinks">Hédard Albert
  bgcolor whitesmoke7 Lamèque-Shippagan-Miscou
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Paul_Robichaud" class="copylinks">Paul Robichaud '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke8 Centre-Péninsule
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Denis_Landry" class="copylinks">Denis Landry
  bgcolor whitesmoke9 Tracadie-Sheila
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Elvy_Robichaud" class="copylinks">Elvy Robichaud †
  bgcolor whitesmoke10 Miramichi Bay
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Carmel_Robichaud" class="copylinks">Carmel Robichaud
  bgcolor whitesmoke11 Miramichi-Bay Du Vin
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Rupert_Bernard" class="copylinks">Rupert Bernard , Jason Dickson , Jeff Flanagan , Bill Fraser , Frank Trevors ''
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Michael_Malley" class="copylinks">Michael Malley
  bgcolor whitesmoke12 Miramichi Centre
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/John_Foran" class="copylinks">John Foran
  bgcolor whitesmoke13 Southwest Miramichi
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Rick_Brewer" class="copylinks">Rick Brewer


  bgcolor whitesmoke14 Rogersville-Kouchibouguac
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Rose-May_Poirier" class="copylinks">Rose-May Poirier '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke15 Kent
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Shawn_Graham" class="copylinks">Shawn Graham '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke16 Kent South
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Raymond_Duplessis" class="copylinks">Raymond Duplessis ''
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Claude_Williams" class="copylinks">Claude Williams '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke17 Shediac-Cap-Pelé
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Leo_Doiron" class="copylinks">Leo Doiron ''
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Victor_Boudreau" class="copylinks">Victor Boudreau
  bgcolor whitesmoke18 Tantramar
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/John_Higham" class="copylinks">John Higham '', '' Sue Purdy '' or '' Jamie Smiith ''
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Peter_Mesheau" class="copylinks">Peter Mesheau †
  bgcolor whitesmoke19 Memramcook-Lakeville-Dieppe
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Raoul_Boudreau" class="copylinks">Raoul Boudreau ''
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Keith_O'Donnell" class="copylinks">Keith O'Donnell ''
  colspan 2 align=center bgcolor=whitesmoke''new district''
  bgcolor whitesmoke20 Dieppe Centre
  colspan 2 align=center bgcolor=whitesmoke''new district''
  bgcolor whitesmoke21 Moncton East
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Bernard_Lord" class="copylinks">Bernard Lord '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke22 Moncton South
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Gene_Devereux" class="copylinks">Gene Devereux '' or '' Linda Eaton ''
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Joan_MacAlpine-Stiles" class="copylinks">Joan MacAlpine-Stiles '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke23 Moncton North
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Gene_Devereux" class="copylinks">Gene Devereux '' or '' Mike Murphy ''
  bgcolor whitesmoke24 Moncton Crescent
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Gene_Devereux" class="copylinks">Gene Devereux '' or '' Shirley Smallwood ''
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/John_Betts" class="copylinks">John Betts
  bgcolor whitesmoke25 Petitcodiac
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Wally_Stiles" class="copylinks">Wally Stiles
  bgcolor whitesmoke26 Riverview
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Bruce_Fitch" class="copylinks">Bruce Fitch '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke27 Albert
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/(New_Brunswick_politician)" class="copylinks">Clark Butland , Donna Bennett or Harry Doyle ''
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Wayne_Steeves" class="copylinks">Wayne Steeves '''


  bgcolor whitesmoke28 Kings East
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/LeRoy_Armstrong" class="copylinks">LeRoy Armstrong
  bgcolor whitesmoke29 Hampton-Belleisle
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Bev_Harrison" class="copylinks">Bev Harrison '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke30 Quispamsis
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Aaron_Dickson" class="copylinks">Aaron Dickson , Murray Driscoll or Mary Schryer ''
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Brenda_Fowlie" class="copylinks">Brenda Fowlie '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke31 Saint John-Fundy
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Stuart_Jamieson" class="copylinks">Stuart Jamieson ''
  bgcolor whitesmoke32 Rothesay
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Margaret-Ann_Blaney" class="copylinks">Margaret-Ann Blaney ''
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Paul_Barry_(politician)" class="copylinks">Paul Barry ''
  bgcolor whitesmoke33 Saint John East
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Roly_MacIntyre" class="copylinks">Roly MacIntyre ''
  bgcolor whitesmoke34 Saint John Harbour
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Ed_Doherty" class="copylinks">Ed Doherty ''
  bgcolor whitesmoke35 Saint John Portland
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Colleen_Knudson" class="copylinks">Colleen Knudson
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Trevor_Holder" class="copylinks">Trevor Holder '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke36 Saint John Lancaster
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Abel_LeBlanc" class="copylinks">Abel LeBlanc ''
  bgcolor whitesmoke37 Grand Bay-Westfield
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Jack_Keir" class="copylinks">Jack Keir or Kevin Quinn ''
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Milt_Sherwood" class="copylinks">Milt Sherwood †
  rowspan 3 bgcolor=whitesmoke38 Charlotte-The Isles
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3'' Rick Doucet ''
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  bgcolor whitesmoke colspan=2 align=center''merged district''
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Eric_Allaby" class="copylinks">Eric Allaby †
  bgcolor whitesmoke39 Charlotte-Campobello
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Bob_Brown_(New_Brunswick)" class="copylinks">Bob Brown or Robert Tinker ''
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Tony_Huntjens" class="copylinks">Tony Huntjens


  bgcolor whitesmoke40 Oromocto
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Jody_Carr" class="copylinks">Jody Carr '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke41 Grand Lake-Gagetown
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Jack_Carr" class="copylinks">Jack Carr or Steven McCready ''
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Eugene_McGinley" class="copylinks">Eugene McGinley ''
  colspan 2 align=center bgcolor=whitesmoke''new district''
  bgcolor whitesmoke42 Fredericton-Nashwaaksis
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/TJ_Burke" class="copylinks">TJ Burke ''
  colspan 2 align=center bgcolor=whitesmoke''new district''
  rowspan 3 bgcolor=whitesmoke43 Fredericton-Fort Nashwaak
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  colspan 2 bgcolor=whitesmoke align=center''merged district''
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Kelly_Lamrock" class="copylinks">Kelly Lamrock
  bgcolor whitesmoke44 Fredericton-Lincoln
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Allison_Brewer" class="copylinks">Allison Brewer '''
  colspan 2 bgcolor=whitesmoke align=center''new district''
  bgcolor whitesmoke45 Fredericton-Silverwood
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Brad_Green" class="copylinks">Brad Green '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke46 New Maryland
  '' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Rick_Doucet_(Riding_Association_president)" class="copylinks">Rick Doucet '' (tbd June 9)
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Keith_Ashfield" class="copylinks">Keith Ashfield '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke47 York
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Scott_Targett" class="copylinks">Scott Targett †
  bgcolor whitesmoke48 Mactaquac
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Larry_Jewett" class="copylinks">Larry Jewett
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Kirk_MacDonald" class="copylinks">Kirk MacDonald '''


  bgcolor whitesmoke49 Woodstock
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/David_Alward" class="copylinks">David Alward '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke50 Carleton
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Dale_Graham" class="copylinks">Dale Graham '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke51 Victoria-Tobique
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Larry_Kennedy" class="copylinks">Larry Kennedy
  bgcolor whitesmoke52 Grand Falls-Drummond-Saint-André
  "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Ron_Ouellette" class="copylinks">Ron Ouellette
  rowspan 3 bgcolor=whitesmoke53 Restigouche-La-Vallée
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3''''' Percy Mockler '''''
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3'' Burt Paulin ''
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  rowspan 3
  colspan 2 bgcolor=whitesmoke align=center''merged district''
  bgcolor whitesmoke54 Edmundston-Saint-Basile
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Madeleine_Dubé" class="copylinks">Madeleine Dubé '''
  bgcolor whitesmoke55 Madawaska-les-Lacs
  ''' "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/encyclopedia/entry/Jeannot_Volpé" class="copylinks">Jeannot Volpé '''


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