Potential candidates making decisions in case of early election

Ready or not, potential provincial election candidates are now making decisions about whether to put their names on ballots.

Premier Blaine Higgs has forced their hands by refusing to rule out a snap election call this fall.

"I'm going to run in the next election," said cabinet minister and Fredericton North Progressive Conservative MLA Jill Green, one of many Tories whose futures have been uncertain in recent months.

"It's kind of fun to say that now. It took me a long time to decide but it kind of feels good to get it out."

Among opposition parties as well, candidates who might otherwise have been able to wait until closer tothe officially scheduled date of Oct. 21, 2024, are declaring their intentions now.

Saint John Coun.David Hickey is one of two candidates who have announced they'll seek the Liberal nomination to run in Saint John Harbour, a seat now held by PC cabinet minister Arlene Dunn.

Hickey says many of the issues he has confronted as a municipal councillor, from housing to mental health care, can only be resolved in the legislature.

WATCH | PC, Liberal hopefuls announce candidacies for possible fall election:

Candidates stepping up as early election looms

1 year ago

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PC cabinet minister, Saint John councillor say theyll run if theres a campaign this fall.

"At every hurdle, at every roadblock, I seem to end up at the province. So I figure it's about time to go there."

Another high-profile candidate for the Liberals is Alexandre Cedric-Doucet, former president of the Acadian Society of New Brunswick, who plans to run in Moncton East.

But Saint John-Rothesay Liberal MP Wayne Long, who decided earlier this year not to run again federally, says he won't make the leap to provincial politics he's been mulling, if the election is called this fall.

"I've got much I need to see through here," Long said in a text message from Ottawa.

"My community needs leadership and [needs] me exactly where I'm at right now."

Long said he'll "definitely" look at running provincially if the election is next fall.

Meanwhile, Serge Brideau, who won 35 per cent of the vote as the Green candidate in the Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-Saint-Isidore by-election won by Liberal leader Susan Holt in April, said he is reflecting on whether to try again.

He said an election this fall would complicate plans he has made with his rock band, Les Htesses d'Hilaire.

"I have a lot of things to take into account," he said.

Green says a campaign this year isn't ideal for her because she's been in chemotherapy for lymphoma, a form of cancer.

"The prognosis is great. I'm handling the chemo very, very well, but it makes it difficult to run a campaign," she said.

"It's going to be hard to knock on doors. The energy level may be a little bit harder than it would normally be. But I'm game. I'll do what I need to do."

Green says she's opting to seek a second mandate because she doesn't want to abandon the work she has started on several major issues, including housing.

"I'm just starting so I'm not ready to be done," said Green.

'On the progressive side,' says Green

The former business owner first ran for the PCs in 2018. She lost to Liberal Stephen Horsman, but beat him in a 2020 rematch.

Green was among eight PC MLAs who refused to take their seats in the legislature June 8 over Higgs's handling of a review of Policy 713, which sets out how to create safe, inclusive spaces for LGBTQ students in provincial schools.

Green was away a week later when six of those MLAs voted with the opposition Liberals to pass a motion calling for further consultations.

Among the six, two ministers resigned from cabinet and two others were shuffled out. None of the six have committed to running in the next election, and at least two have ruled out being on the ballot with Higgs as leader.

But Green says she wants to stick it out in part to continue to work, she says, as an LGBTQ ally on the inside.

"I am a Progressive Conservative. I am happy to be part of this team," she said.

"I am very far on the progressive side. I think that's been obvious since I've been here. And we need me in the partytoo, and we need my voice. So I'm going to continue working towards supporting the progressive side of the Progressive Conservatives."

She said she and Higgs "get along well. We have very hard discussions sometimesbut he's an easy man to have hard discussions with."

Spokespersons for Higgs and the PC party did not respond to emailed questions about whether the premier would sign nomination papers of any of the six who voted with the Liberals, if they choose to try to run again.

Dunn, first elected for the PCs in Saint John Harbour in 2020, said she hadn't "quite yet decided" whether to re-offer.

Besides Hickey, investment advisor Ryan Moore is also seeking the Liberal nomination to run in the riding a constituency that has flipped between the NDP, Liberals and Tories over the last couple of decades.

Hickey says housing, poverty and mental health are acute issues in Saint John's uptown and the province hasn't moved fast enough on them since Higgs took power in 2018.

New provincial NDP leader Alex White did not respond to a request from CBC News to find out where he plans to run.

And the People's Alliance, led by former Fredericton-York MLA Rick DeSaulniers, did not respond to questions about if or where he will run.