New Brunswick general election, 1995
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The September 11, 1995 election in the Canadian province of New Brunswick marked the debut of Bernard Valcourt as a provincial politician, and as leader of a reinvigorated Progressive Conservative Party. Frank McKenna sought a third term for his Liberal government, while the Confederation of Regions (CoR) party struggled to survive after considerable internal strife. Elizabeth Weir tried to expand her New Democratic Party's foothold in the legislature.
Valcourt, a popular politician from Edmundston, had served as an MP from 1984 to 1993, and served in the cabinets of Prime Ministers Brian Mulroney and Kim Campbell. The New Brunswick Tories had been in shambles for the better part of a decade. They were shut out of the legislature in 1987, and won only 3 seats and third place in 1991. The internal meltdown of the CoR party had left them lots of room on the right, and polls showed that there would be a competitive race.
The Liberals, however, were again victorious. McKenna's personal popularity combined with vote-splitting between the Conservatives and the remanents of CoR allowed the Liberals to maintain a large majority while the Tories managed only 6 seats. The combined PC-CoR vote exceeded that of the Liberals in an additional 10 ridings (Albert, Fundy Isles, Kings East, Mactaquac, Petitcodiac, Saint John-Fundy, Southwest Miramichi, Victoria-Tobique, Western Charlotte and Woodstock).
Also of note, there were 55 ridings in this election, as opposed to 58 in previous elections. It was the first time boundaries were redrawn in New Brunswick since 1974.
[edit] Results
| Party | Party Leader | # of candidates |
Seats | Popular Vote | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Dissolution | Elected | % Change | # | % | Change | ||||
| Liberal | Frank McKenna | 55 | 46 | 43 | 48 | +4.3% | 201,150 | 51.63% | +4.52% | |
| Progressive Conservative | Bernard Valcourt | 55 | 3 | 6 | 6 | +100% | 120,247 | 30.87% | +10.17% | |
| New Democratic | Elizabeth Weir | 55 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 37,579 | 9.65% | -1.13% | |
| Confederation of Regions | Greg Hargrove | 36 | 8 | 6 | 0 | -100% | 27,684 | 7.11% | -14.09% | |
| Natural Law | Christopher Collrin | 17 | - | * | - | - | 1,267 | 0.33% | * | |
| Independents | 8 | - | 2 | - | - | 1,635 | 0.42% | +0.21% | ||
| Total | 226 | 58 | 58 | 55 | -5.45% | 389,562 | 100% | -5.65% | ||
* Natural Law did not contest the 1991 election.
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