After months of anticipation, New Brunswick’s provincial election campaign will officially start on Thursday.
Premier Blaine Higgs will visit the lieutenant-governor in the morning, where it is widely expected he will ask to have the legislature dissolved.
There was lots of speculation last fall of a potential early election, but that never came to fruition.
J.P. Lewis, a politics professor at the University of New Brunswick, said there did not seem to be much of an advantage for the government.
“Normally when governments go early, they might have a clear advantage in the polls and maybe figure that it might get worse for them,” Lewis told our newsroom.
“I just don’t think there was that window for the Progressive Conservatives in the last year, especially because of some of the turmoil within party membership, caucus and cabinet.”
Heading into the election, the governing Progressive Conservatives held 25 seats in the legislature, just enough for a majority.
The Liberals had 16 seats while the Green Party had three seats. There was also one independent MLA and four vacant seats.
Voters will head to the polls on Oct. 21, with advance voting on Oct. 12 and 15.
