New Brunswick general election, 1999

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Results of the 1999 election

The 1999 election in the Canadian province of New Brunswick marked the debut of both Camille Thériault and Bernard Lord as leaders of the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives respectively. It was Elizabeth Weir's third general election as leader of the New Democratic Party. The election was held on June 7, 1999.

Thériault's Liberals were widely expected to win a fourth majority government from the outset of the campaign, and opinion polls showed them leading by double but Lord's Tories were able to capitalize on the issue of highway tolls and use it to portray the Liberals as arrogant. Lord made an effective wedge issue on tolls, saying they were unfair to people who lived near the toll booths and would have to drive through them daily and also as an example of arrogance and uncaring from the Liberals. Lord then pledged to implement 20 of his key promises in his first 200 days in office, he styled this as "200 Days of Change", a message which was modelled on the Contract with America and the Common Sense Revolution, and it resonated with voters. Another disadvantage for the Liberals was the loss of former preimier Frank McKenna, who had retired after 10 years in office in 1997. McKenna was very popular and Thériault had difficulty shaking negative comparisons between himself and his predecessor.

Following a huge surge in the final weeks of the campaign, Lord became Premier with his party winning its largest majority in the history of New Brunswick. Lord's tories also won the majority of Acadian seats, something the PC Party in New Brunswick had struggled to do in the past.

Lord's win was 44 of 55 seats, at 80% a huge majority, was viewed as remarkable by all parties. Thériault, who came off in the campaign as cold and uncharismatic, ironically made what pundits thought was his best speech of the campaign on election night when he said "the people of New Brunswick have spoken, and the people of New Brunswick are never wrong". However, Lord's massive victory caused a domino effect which defeated many Liberals which had been viewed by pundits as undefeatable.

[edit] Narrow wins and loses

A lot of Liberals, many high profile, lost their seats by very narrow margins while some barely survived. Below is a list of the 14 ridings (over a quarter of all districts) decided by less than 10%. Incumbent Liberal cabinet ministers are in bold, other incumbents are in italics.

Riding			Margin
Dieppe-Memramcook	Cy LeBlanc	Greg O'Donnell	4.4%
Fredericton North	Peter Forbes	Brad Woodside	4.4%
Fredericton-Fort Nashwaak	Eric MacKenzie	Greg Byrne	4.1%
Fundy Isles	Eric Allaby	Ed Brine	2.2%
Grand Falls Region	Jean-Guy Laforest	Marcel Deschênes	5.8%
Grand Lake	David Jordan	Doug Tyler	6.9%
Kent South	Camille Thériault	Jean-Noel Allain	7.4%
Nepisiguit	Joel Bernard	Alban Landry	4.7%
Nigadoo-Chaleur	Roland Haché	Hermel Vienneau	7.5%
Restigouche West	Benoit Cyr	Jean Paul Savoie	3.7%
Rogersville-Kouchibouguac	Rose-May Poirier	Maurice Richard	1.8%
Saint John Champlain	Carole Keddy	Roly MacIntyre	2.2%
Victoria-Tobique	Larry Kennedy	Carman Pirie	5.8%
Western Charlotte	Tony Huntjens	Peter Heelis	6.1%

[edit] Results

Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	Seats				Popular Vote
Party		Party Leader	# of candidates	1995	Dissolution	Elected	% Change	#	%	Change
	Progressive Conservative	Bernard Lord	55	6	9	44	+289%	209,008	53.0%	+22.1%
	Liberal	Camille Theriault	55	48	45	10	-77%	146,934	37.3%	-14.3%
	New Democratic	Elizabeth Weir	55	1	1	1	-	34,526	8.8%	-0.9%
	Confederation of Regions	Jim Webb	18	-	-	-	-	2,807	0.7%	-6.4%
	Natural Law	Christopher Collrin	9	-	-	-	-	527	0.1%	-0.2%
	Independents	n/a	4	-	-	-	-	435	0.1%	-0.3%
Total			196	55	55	55	-	394,237	100%	+1.2%