2006 New Brunswick general election
The 2006 New Brunswick general election was held on September 18, 2006, to elect 55 members to the 56th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, the governing house of the province of New Brunswick, Canada. The campaign came earlier than expected: the incumbent Premier of New Brunswick, Bernard Lord, had pledged a vote would be held on October 15, 2007 but when the ruling Progressive Conservatives faced a loss of its majority in the legislature, Lord said he did not want to face a minority government and, moreover, feared that a by-election could tip the balance  of power to the opposition Liberals. The campaign was hard-fought with pundits and pollsters calling it too close to call throughout the five-week campaign. In the end, it was won by the Liberals led by Shawn Graham. The Liberals won 29 seats to 26 for the Progressive Conservatives, although the Progressive Conservatives won a plurality of the popular vote (47.5% to 47.2%). Unusually, the Liberals won 17 of the 36 predominantly anglophone ridings, their best showing in a competitive election in English New Brunswick since the 1944 election. The Conservatives conversely did better than they have ever done  while losing an election among Francophone ridings. Overview. Following the report of the Commission on Legislative Democracy in December 2004, which recommended fixed election dates beginning on October 15, 2007, Premier Bernard Lord pledged to introduce legislation fixing election dates, beginning on that date. Due to this, and because it is tradition in New Brunswick to hold elections every four years, the Progressive Conservative government and media had routinely referred to this as the "2007 election" through early 2006. The opposition Liberals however always pledged to try to force an early election. From February through May 2006, it seemed possible  that the Liberals might be successful in their goal as on February 17, 2006 Michael Malley left the Progressive Conservative caucus creating a minority government situation, Malley later became Speaker and, as Speaker, controversially rejoined the government caucus. The situation remained difficult for some time as the Liberals gained control of several key committees upon Malley's defection and would not return control to the government as they did not recognize Malley's change of affiliation while speaker. On May 30, 2006, the House reaffirmed its confidence in Malley in a vote and on May 31, 2006 the government and  opposition announced a truce to allow the House to function more easily including a legislative calendar through 2007. As a result, it seemed unlikely that the government would fall prior to its chosen date to go to the polls. However, Peter Mesheau, a Progressive Conservative MLA who had already announced that he would not run for re-election, said he would have to resign his seat as he had accepted a job in the private sector. Lord said that he would not face another hung parliament and announced on August 10, 2006 that he would seek an election date of  September 18. On August 18, Lord asked Lieutenant-Governor Herménégilde Chiasson to dissolve the legislature and set the election date. The emerging key issues of the campaign seem to be leadership and energy prices. The Progressive Conservatives have for some years questioned the leadership abilities of Shawn Graham, the leader of the opposition while the Liberals have been focusing on energy in general as a theme for some time. Moreover, energy has come to the forefront due to the introduction of gas price regulation by Lord's government on July 1, 2006, and the Liberals announced their energy platform prior  to the beginning of the campaign. This election was the first campaign since the 1987 election in which Elizabeth Weir did not lead the smaller social democratic New Democratic Party (NDP). In 2005, Weir stepped down after seventeen years as NDP leader. She was succeeded by Fredericton-based social activist Allison Brewer, who stood for election in the riding of Fredericton-Lincoln. The Progressive Conservative party were again be led by Bernard Lord and the Liberal Party by Shawn Graham. The campaign was derided by journalists and political scientists as boring in part because much of the campaign was before  Labour Day when many families were still taking summer holidays and also because the overall aspects of the two main parties were similar. There were three English language debates and two French languages debates with some being declared draws, some wins for Lord and some wins for Graham by the experts. Opinion polls showed the Conservatives with a lead in the early days of the campaign but the last few weeks showed ties or slight edges to the Liberals within the margin of error. On election day, Shawn Graham and the Liberals won the most seats, however, they lost the  popular vote. Bernard Lord was the first premier not elected to a third term since Hugh John Flemming lost his bid for a third term in the 1960 election while the NDP suffered a considerable blow being shut out of the legislature despite having won a seat in 5 of the last 6 elections and seeing their popular vote slip 4% to their worst showing since the 1974 election. Issues. The Fredericton Daily Gleaner reported on August 11, 2006 that they had asked the leaders of each party for what they thought the key issues of the campaign would be : An opinion poll, conducted for CTV Atlantic by the Innovative Research Group the last week of the campaign found the follow issues were top of mind for voters: Results. Results by party. !|Party !|Party leader !|# ofcandidates !|Seats !|Popular vote Results by riding. Many new and changed districts will be used for the first time in this election as a result of an electoral redistribution. Legend Opinion polls. The only inter-election opinion polling regularly conducted in New Brunswick is by the Halifax, Nova Scotia-based Corporate Research Associates. Every CRA poll from the November 2003 to June 2006 showed  the Liberals in the lead by varying amounts. However, their last pre-election poll, released on June 12, 2006, showed the Progressive Conservatives making a comeback with 45% to 39% for the Liberals and 9% for the NDP. The CRA poll conducted during the 2003 election campaign showed the Liberals and PCs tied at 41% each, the only polling company to predict the close result that became of that campaign. Polls conducted during the election campaign - Figures represent decided voters <nowiki>*</nowiki> This poll reused the same sample as the August 22–24 poll and is therefore not a random  sampling and not technically an opinion poll.