Thousands in New Brunswick cast ballots in Saturday's advance poll

Elections N.B. says 56,739 voters cast ballots Saturday on the first day of advance polling for the Oct. 21 provincial election.

Total votes cast to date total73,291. That's out of 568,901 eligible voters, representing 13 per cent voter turnout so far.

A second day of advance polling will be held on Tuesday.

Despite wet weather, people lined up at many polling stations before they opened at 10 a.m., said Elections N.B. spokesperson Paul Harpelle.

"The turnout for day one of advance voting reflects the continuing trend of electors taking advantage of early voting opportunities in elections," he wrote in an email to CBC.

"That includes more people voting at returning offices, which are open six days a week during the election period."

Higgs, Holt cast ballots

Blaine Higgs and Susan Holt both voted on Saturday, while David Coon has opted to wait until election day.

Without much notice, the Progressive Conservatives released their platform just hours after Higgs cast his ballot.

Voters speak out

Danny Dobson, who voted in Quispamsis on Saturday, said he wanted to "get the job done right out of the chute."

"This is a huge election for New Brunswick," he told CBC News outside the polling station.

He said the most important issue for him this election is fiscal management.

"We got to keep things going the way they're going and keep the province running right." he said. "It's a business and we got to make sure the person in there is running our business right."

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Connie and Robert Donnan also took advantage of early voting in Quispamsis on Saturday.

"It's our civic duty,"Connie Donnan told CBC News outside the polling station.

Robert Donnan said parental rights are top of mind for him during theelection.

"I'm for parents and involvement," he said. "We want our voice to be heard."

After Tuesday, the next chance for people to vote at the polls will be election day. People are able to voteat any returning office in the provinceat any time during the campaign.

Returning offices also offer additional accessibility measures, such as audio voting for people with visual impairment.

Political scientist reacts to PCplatform release

J.P. Lewis, a political scientist and UNB professor, said Higgs's decision to release his party's platform at this point in the campaign bucks a trend.

The Liberals and Greens have already released their platforms.

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Higgs's party has madefew promises, skipped a debate, and made fewer campaign appearances than his opponents, Lewis said. He said it makes the circumstances of his platform release perhaps unsurprising.

"It's a classic incumbency campaign, but really on steroids in the sense of defending the record, not promising too many new things," he said.

Lewis said voters have come to expect frequent content from political candidates in the age of social media, and releasing platforms early gives politicians the benefit of presenting consistent messaging.

"But again, [the Progressive Conservatives have] had consistent messaging, but it's been more about what they've done, and the HST promise and the carbon pricing," Lewis said.

He said one potential benefit of releasing a platform during a holiday weekend is that people may have more time to engage with it ahead of the second day of advancevoting on Tuesday.

He added, though, it's difficult to predict when voters will engage with campaigns and platforms, whether it's early on, throughout the election or closer to when they cast their ballots.

Higgs spoke with reporters on Saturday after the platform release, stating that no one "can deny we have a record to run on."

"Was I going to develop a platform to try to buy your vote? No. I believe we've developed a government. We have a government that has actually delivered," Higgs said yesterday.

In that statement, Lewis said Higgs is criticizing the average politician who "always promises things and may not deliver or is only doing things because they want to get votes."

"Which is kind of funny considering their headline promise is a retail tax cut," Lewis added. "I think that's what he's saying. It's leaning into 'I'm not like other politicians.'"

The Liberals told CBC News in an email that the Progressive Conservative platform supports what "Team Holt has been saying all along."

"Higgs has no vision for our province and is preoccupied with the wrong priorities. After spending most of this election hiding from voters, Blaine Higgs puts forth a 2-page "plan" that clearly demonstrates that he has no solutions for how to fix our healthcare crisis or how to help New Brunswickers struggling with the rising cost of living," wrotePascale Paulin, press secretary for the Liberal 2024 campaign.

Kevin Arseneau, a deputy leader with David Coon's Greens, said the Progressive Conservative platform demonstrates a "lack of vision" and criticized its absence of housing-related commitments, calling affordable housing New Brunswick's biggest crisis after health care.

"It's very thin," he told CBC News over the phone. "There's not much. The question becomes, what are they hiding? There's not enough for four years of work in there."

Arseneau added the timing of the platform release a Saturday evening during a holiday weekend is a "weird way of doing it."

"I don't think they wanted media attention on it. It's like a government announcement on a Friday afternoon, this is the same kind of trick."