Election night's biggest winners and losers

Election night was filled with stories of winners and losers, with Premier Blaine Higgs's Progressive Conservatives winning a majority.

The Tories won 27 seats across the province,  enough to provide the stability Higgs — who won his own Quispamsis riding handily — claims a majority government would bring. 

Here are some other prominent candidates and how they did in this election.

Liberal Leader Kevin Vickers 

Liberal Leader Kevin Vickers knew it wasn't going to be easy to win his riding of Miramichi against a strong incumbent, but he failed to secure a seat in his home riding by a substantial margin.

Vickers lost to People's Alliance candidate Michelle Conroy, who secured 3,527 votes and led Vickers by almost 1,300.

It was a devastating loss for Vickers, who has been on the outside of the legislature ever since assuming leadership of the Liberals in 2019.  

He has since announced he will be stepping aside as leader.

All former cabinet members re-elected

All of Premier Blaine Higgs's ministers who chose to reoffer were re-elected, giving him plenty of experience to chose from when selecting a new cabinet.

Those ministers all won by substantial margins. 

Green caucus hold onto seats

All three Green incumbents, party leader David Coon, Megan Mitton and Kevin Arseneau, held their seats. 

While Coon's suggestion the party could double its seats in the legislature didn't come to pass, the Greens did increase the share of the popular vote again, capturing a record 15.2 per cent this election.

People's Alliance caucus shrinks to 2

While People's Alliance leader Kris Austin won his Fredericton-Grand Lake riding seat, the third party's legislative caucus shrunk to two, after Rick DeSaulniers lost in Fredericton York. 

DeSaulniers came third in the riding, winning 1,464 votes. He lost to PC Ryan Cullins with Green candidate Melissa Fraser finishing second.

NDP leader finds little luck 

Nearby, NDP interim leader Mackenzie Thomason didn't have the night he'd hoped for, coming fifth in his riding of Fredericton North and getting only 100 votes. 

The riding was won by the PCs' Jill Green with 3,226 votes, or 762 more votes than her closest competitor, Green candidate Luke Randall.

2 brothers 0 wins

The two brothers running in the Carleton-Victoria riding, Green candidate Rowan Patrick Miller and the NDP's Meriet Gray Miller, had just 372 and 113 votes respectively. 

No word on how their parents voted.

Former deputy premier finds luck as Liberal

Robert Gauvin, Higgs's deputy premier before becoming the sole independent MLA, found his way back into the legislature Monday night under the Liberal banner in a new riding.

The MLA quit cabinet in February over the government's proposed hospital reforms that would have closed six emergency departments overnight.

The former MLA for Shippagan-Lamèque-Miscou will now represent the Shediac Bay-Dieppe riding, which he won handily with 5,839 votes.

3 dropped candidates fail to secure wins

Three candidates were dropped by their parties during the snap election after sharing offensive comments on social media. None of the three could secure a seat Monday night. 

Roland Michaud, who was dropped from the PC slate after sharing a transphobic post, came second in Victoria-La Vallée. He secured 2,071 votes, nearly 2,300 votes behind the winner, Liberal Chuck Chiasson. 

John Gardner, who ran under the Liberal banner before comments he shared about the LGBTQ community came to light, landed in fourth place in his Saint Croix riding. He had only 401 votes, far behind the PC's 3,570 votes. 

Heather Collins, the People's Alliance candidate in Memramcook-Tantramar before an  Islamophobic tweet from 2019 re-surfaced, came fourth in the riding with 192 votes.

The riding was won by the Green's Megan Mitton, who got 523 more votes than her closest competitor, Liberal Maxime Bourgeois.  In 2018, Mitton won by only 11 votes.

New Brunswick Votes 2020 Results: See our interactive results page.