2003 New Brunswick general election

The 2003 New Brunswick general election was held on June 9, 2003, to elect 55 members to the 55th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, the governing house of the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Starting out as a predicted landslide for Bernard Lord's Progressive Conservatives, the election quickly turned around when Shawn Graham, leader of the Liberal Party of New Brunswick, took on auto insurance rates as a cause.

2003 New Brunswick general election
June 9, 2003
55 seats of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick
28 seats needed for a majority
Turnout68.67% [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

Rendition of party representation in the 55th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly decided by this election.
  Progressive Conservatives (28)
  Liberals (26)
  New Democrats (1)

Campaign

People in the province had seen their car insurance rates skyrocket, and the Liberal Party of New Brunswick focussed their 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.

The Liberals ran a virtually flawless campaign, whereas Lord and his PC Party faced a number of problems, especially with their position on the key issue of auto insurance which changed 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 which was a branch of the Grey Party of Canada also ran 10 candidates, including party leader Jim Webb.

Results

Results by party
 Summary of the 2003 Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick election results
Party Party leader # of
candidates		 Seats Popular vote
1999 Dissolution Elected % Change # % Change
Progressive Conservative Bernard Lord 55 44 46 28 -39.1% 174,092 45.45% -7.6%
Liberal Shawn Graham 55 10 7 26 +271% 170,028 44.39% +7.1%
New Democratic Elizabeth Weir 55 1 1 1 - 36,989 9.66% +0.9%
Grey Jim Webb 10 n/a1 - -   1,550 0.40% n/a1
  Independent 2 - - -   415 0.11% -0.1%
  Vacant 1  
Total 177 55 55 55 - 383,074 100%
Source: http://www.gnb.ca/elections

1 The Grey Party did not contest the 1999 election.

Popular vote
PC
 
 45.45%
Liberal
 
 44.39%
New Democratic
 
 9.66%
Others
 
 0.50%
Seats summary
PC
 
 50.91%
Liberal
 
 47.27%
New Democratic
 
 1.82%

Results by region
Party Name North
NB		 East
NB		 S. East
NB		 Greater
Saint John/
Fundy Coast		 Greater
Fred.		 Upper
Saint John River
Valley		 Total
  Progressive
Conservative		 Seats: 2 3 8 6 4 5 28
  Popular Vote: 45.9% 42.4% 49.5% 39.8% 42.1% 55.1% 45.4%
  Liberal Seats: 8 5 2 5 4 2 26
  Popular Vote: 47.7% 50.2% 42.0% 41.0% 44.3% 40.6% 44.4%
  New
Democratic		 Seats: - - - 1 - - 1
  Popular Vote: 6.4% 7.4% 7.9% 17.2% 13.4% 4.3% 9.7%
Total seats: 10 8 10 12 8 7 55
Parties that won no seats:
Grey Popular Vote: - - 0.3% 1.8% 0.2% - 0.4%
  Independents Popular Vote: - - 0.3% 0.3% - - 0.1%

Candidates

Party leaders and cabinet ministers are denoted in bold.

Northern New Brunswick
Electoral District Candidates   Incumbent
 PC Liberal NDPOther
1. Restigouche West Benoît Cyr 2,523 Burt Paulin 4,008 Antoine Duguay 257   Benoît Cyr
2. Campbellton Jean F. Dubé 2,771 Roy Boudreau 3,979 Murray Mason 294   Jean F. Dubé
3. Dalhousie-Restigouche East Paul McIntyre 3,088 Donald Arseneault 3,445 Joel Hickey 645   Dennis Furlong
4. Nigadoo-Chaleur Hermel Vienneau 3,529 Roland Haché 3,887 Kate Hayward 380   Roland Haché
5. Bathurst Nancy MacKay 3,252 Brian Kenny 3,348 Mark Robar 304   Marcelle Mersereau
6. Nepisiguit Joel Bernard 2,200 Frank Branch 3,498 Normand Savoie 894   Joel Bernard
7. Caraquet Gaston Moore 3,550 Hédard Albert 3,649 Gérard Béland 457   Gaston Moore
8. Lamèque-Shippagan-Miscou Paul Robichaud 4,788 Denis Roussel 2,846 Jean-Baptiste Bezeau 335   Paul Robichaud
9. Centre-Péninsule Louis-Philippe McGraw 3,045 Denis Landry 3,097 Rose Duguay 396   Louis-Phillipe McGraw
10. Tracadie-Sheila Elvy Robichaud 4,583 Weldon McLaughlin 2,894 Stéphane Richardson 661   Elvy Robichaud

Eastern New Brunswick
Electoral District Candidates   Incumbent
 PC Liberal NDPOther
11. Miramichi Bay Réjean Savoie 3,050 Carmel Robichaud 3,227 Hilaire Rouselle 729   Réjean Savoie
12. Miramichi-Bay du Vin Michael Malley 3,917 Frank Trevors 3,464 Dwayne Hancock 490   Michael Malley
13. Miramichi Centre Kim Jardine 3,149 John Foran 3,763 Lance Lyons 663   Kim Jardine
14. Southwest Miramichi Norman Betts 2,823 Rick Brewer 3,395 Chris Ashford 332   Norman Betts
15. Rogersville-Kouchibouguac Rose-May Poirier 3,289 Maurice Richard 2,968 Oscar Doucet 404   Rose-May Poirier
16. Kent Valmond Joseph Daigle 1,905 Shawn Graham 3,615 Jerry Cook 958   Shawn Graham
17. Kent South Claude Williams 4,933 Stephen Doucet 4,065 Neil Gardner 671   Claude Williams
18. Shediac-Cap-Pélé Odette Babineau 3,063 Bernard Richard 6,464 Claudette Beland 313   Bernard Richard

Southeastern New Brunswick
Electoral District Candidates   Incumbent
 PC Liberal NDPOther
19. Tantramar Peter Mesheau 2,922 Susan Purdy 1,569 Geoff Martin 522   Peter Mesheau
20. Dieppe-Memramcook Cy LeBlanc 5,541 Elie Richard 5,451 Hélène Lapointe 786   Cy LeBlanc
21. Moncton East Bernard Lord 4,177 Chris Collins 3,113 Jean-Marie Nadeau 724   Bernard Lord
22. Moncton South Joan MacAlpine 3,143 Norman Branch 2,710 Stéphane Drysdale 437 Jean-Marc Dugas (Ind.) 226
John Gallant (Grey) 72		 Joan MacAlpine
23. Moncton North René Landry 3,054 Mike Murphy 3,555 Nancy McBain 543   René Landry
24. Moncton Crescent John Betts 4,230 Ray Goudreau 3,776 Richard Goulding 628   John Betts
25. Petitcodiac Wally Stiles 3,481 Bethany Dykstra 1,849 Tracy Trott 298 Dan Leaman (Grey) 120 Wally Stiles
26. Riverview Bruce Fitch 3,794 Ward White 3,287 John Falconer 391   vacant
27. Albert Wayne Steeves 3,198 Clark Butland 2,311 Pat Pearson 457   Wayne Steeves
28. Kings East Doug Cosman 2,713 Leroy Armstrong 3,169 George Horton 996   Doug Cosman

Greater Saint John & Fundy Coast
Electoral District Candidates   Incumbent
 PC Liberal NDPOther
29. Hampton-Belleisle Bev Harrison 3,392 Bob Bates 2,736 Pat Hanratty 1,336 John Hughes (Grey) 208 Bev Harrison
30. Kennebecasis Brenda Fowlie 3,265 Murray Driscoll 3,247 Kenneth Wilcox 970   Brenda Fowlie
31. Saint John-Fundy Rodney Weston 2,271 Stuart Jamieson 2,698 Liam Freill 517 Marjorie MacMurray (Grey) 172 Rodney Weston
32. Saint John-Kings Margaret-Ann Blaney 3,135 Tom Young 2,456 Jeff Thibodeau 791 Mark LeBlanc (Grey) 145 Margaret-Ann Blaney
33. Saint John Champlain Mel Vincent 1,501 Roly MacIntyre 2,160 Ralph Thomas 1,507 Bill Richard Reid (Grey) 223 Carole Keddy
34. Saint John Harbour Dennis Boyle 1,286 Anne-Marie Mullin 1,231 Elizabeth Weir 1,929   Elizabeth Weir
35. Saint John Portland Trevor Holder 2,436 Colleen Knudson 2,307 Mary Arseneau 1,191   Trevor Holder
36. Saint John Lancaster Norm McFarlane 2,633 Abel LeBlanc 2,942 Walter Lee 1,365 Jim Webb (Grey) 170 Norm McFarlane
37. Grand Bay-Westfield Milt Sherwood 2,209 Kevin Quinn 1,991 Percy Ward 556 Ben Perry (Grey) 193
Colby Fraser (Ind.) 189		 Milt Sherwood
38. Charlotte Sharon Tucker 1,573 Rick Doucet 2,777 Patty Hooper 1,149 Harold Smith (Grey) 118 Sheldon Lee
39. Fundy Isles Burton Flynn 1,124 Eric Allaby 1,359 Dick Grant 94   Eric Allaby
40. Western Charlotte Tony Huntjens 2,854 Madeleine Drummie 2,662 Andrew Graham 554   Tony Huntjens

Greater Fredericton
Electoral District Candidates   Incumbent
 PC Liberal NDPOther
41. Oromocto-Gagetown Jody Carr 4,314 Maurice Harquail 2,140 Terry Hovey 392 James Lee (Grey) 129 Jody Carr
42. Grand Lake David Jordan 2,058 Eugene McGinley 4,376 David Babineau 614   David Jordan
43. Fredericton North D. Peter Forbes 3,211 T.J. Burke 4,163 Dennis Atchison 1,418   D. Peter Forbes
44. Fredericton-Fort Nashwaak Eric MacKenzie 2,364 Kelly Lamrock 2,925 Penny Ericson 1,531   Eric MacKenzie
45. Fredericton South Brad Green 3,309 Misty McLaughlin 2,797 Nan Luke 1,832   Brad Green
46. New Maryland Keith Ashfield 3,719 Joan Kingston 3,502 Kay Nandlall 923   Keith Ashfield
47. York Don Kinney 3,278 Scott Targett 3,783 Gary Hughes 618   Don Kinney
48. Mactaquac Kirk MacDonald 3,337 Ray Dillon 3,236 Phillip Morgan 817   Kirk MacDonald

Upper Saint John River Valley
Electoral District Candidates   Incumbent
 PC Liberal NDPOther
49. Woodstock David Alward 4,605 Lorne Drake 2,400 Nancy Reid 286   David Alward
50. Carleton Dale Graham 4,190 Grant Robinson 2,287 Betty Brown 482   Dale Graham
51. Victoria-Tobique Dennis Campbell 2,001 Larry Kennedy 3,386 Harvey Bass 502   Larry Kennedy
52. Grand Falls Region Jean-Guy Laforest 2,586 Ron Ouellette 4,385 Pierre Cyr 192   Jean-Guy Laforest
53. Madawaska-la-Vallée Percy Mockler 3,858 Claude Malenfant 1,848 Mario Fortunato 201   Percy Mockler
54. Edmundston Madeleine Dubé 3,917 Margot Albert 1,841 Blair McInnis 110   Madeleine Dubé
55. Madawaska-les-Lacs Jeannot Volpé 3,965 Louis LaBrie 2,391 Jason Carney 187   Jeannot Volpé

See also

References
  1. http://www.electionsnb.ca/content/enb/en/resources/publications/election-results.html
  2. NB votes 2003
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