Fredericton — “New Brunswickers have spoken, and the message is loud and clear: ‘We want change!'” is the general sentiment being shared by New Brunswick news outlets and the public on social media, despite the fact that they elected a party that’s held power for 50% of New Brunswick history.
In a move shocking to absolutely no one other than the most out-of-touch rural New Brunswickers, the New Brunswick Holt Liberal Party was elected as a majority government Monday night, kicking out Blaine Higgs’s Conservative Party that held the seat of power for six years.
“Anything is better than Blaine Higgs,” said a beaming Sherry Hurlow of the Fredericton South-Silverwood riding. “Of course, I wanted to vote Green, but I really didn’t want to risk splitting the vote. It’s exciting that we’ll finally have change though! It’s been six years since we last had a Liberal government, so it’s hard to remember what it was like.”
“Change is coming! Change is good!” said Keith Larlee, a barista at Starbucks on Fredericton’s Prospect Street.
“Sure, I kind of remember being sick of the last Liberal government and wanting them out. But before that I was so done with the Conservatives in charge! And I guess, yeah, before them I hated the Liberals in power…” Larlee trailed off, staring into space, before plastering on a toothy smile and ignoring the Manatee reporter to take the order of an actual paying customer.
The Manatee visited New Brunswick’s new Premier-Elect Susan Holt to ask about what change specifically she plans on bringing to New Brunswick.
“We’re not the Federal Liberal party. We’re a Holt government! And that means big changes. It means women in power. It means accountability. Transparency. Health care. Business. Growth. Empowerment. Representation,” said Holt, firing off buzzwords like a machine gun.
When asked about her past statements around changing the current first-past-the-post electoral system to something like proportional representation, Holt shifted uncomfortably.
“Look, we’re all adults here. Everyone knows that you promise everything and anything during an election, and maybe one or two of those promises actually happen. Let’s focus on some easy, small wins for now, and maybe we can revisit the whole electoral system thing four years from now.”
The Manatee pointed out that the splitting of the Fredericton South and Kent North ridings — both former Green ridings — directly benefitted the Liberals this election.
“That’s a different kind of split. There’s good splits and bad splits,” said Holt. “Good splits — like a banana split, or splitting a riding, those help you. Bad splits, like accidentally doing the splits and injuring yourself, or splitting the vote by voting for any party other than mine, those hurt you.
“Wow, I’m saying split so much that it doesn’t even sound like a real word! Split, split, split!”
Holt will be sworn in on Nov. 2, and has announced a “transition team” to assist with all the change of taking over the provincial government. The team, true bastions of change, consists of a politician, a corporate lawyer, a UNB business program colleague and a longtime civil servant.