New Brunswick — Dominic Cardy is moving west. The morning after his NDP party’s historic Alberta majority win, the New Brunswick provincial NDP leader decided to call U-Haul moving truck rentals and join the ranks of other Atlantic Canadians working in the region.
“That’s where the jobs are,” he told The Manatee. “The truth is Alberta would still be run by Conservatives if our youth had stayed at home to work — and I might have a seat in the New Brunswick Legislature.
The Manatee’s exit polls confirm the premier’s suspicions. “Ninety-nine percent of the Conservative vote came from native Albertans and 63 percent of the NDP vote came from Atlantic Canadians,” said The Manatee’s chief political correspondent Maureen Dunster. “New Brunswickers made up 14 of those percentage points. You might say New Brunswickers won that election for the New Democratic Party.”
Geoffrey Hanson of Edmonton, also a native of St. Stephen, N.B., was elated by the election results. “It feels like living at home,” he said. When asked whether he thought there were jobs available for people like Mr. Cardy, he responded, “Can he swing a mallet?”
The NDP have been largely shut out of recent Atlantic provincial elections. Currently, the Liberal Party controls 3 governments and the Conservatives one. There are 5 NDP elected representatives in the Nova Scotia government, 3 in Newfoundland, and none in either New Brunswick or PEI.
Premier Gallant offered Mr. Cardy the traditional New Brunswick farewell: “Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.”