The 506er, your daily election newsletter, debuts
Language politics are at play early in the 2018 election campaign
Good evening,
The 2018 New Brunswick election is in full swing, and we want to deliver the latest news from the campaign trail in a daily newsletter. Check back every Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. for a roundup of the day's headlines with incisive analysis as well as special features and multimedia content on all things election. From ridings to watch to hot-button issues and poll tracking, CBC New Brunswick will keep you in the know until the winner is declared on Sept. 24.
The 506er will soon be available as an email newsletter.
Now then, let's see what the parties were up to on Day 8 of the campaign:
Top headlines
- Smaller parties poised to play bigger role in N.B. election
- CBC poll analyst Eric Grénier examines how the parties outside the big two are set to have a larger, potentially record-breaking impact on the election this time.
- After years on the fringe, People's Alliance ready to take next step
- Now in their third provincial election campaign, the People's Alliance continues to rise up the polls. Using economic conservatism, rural populism and opposition to language duality, leader Kris Austin has developed a growing and vocal base.
- Wage waffle: Competing Liberal claims on income growth undermine power freeze argument
- Liberal Leader Brian Gallant says power rates need to be frozen because they have been rising faster than many people's income, but the data says otherwise.
- Economy 'most important issue' for voters, Vote Compass data suggests
- You answered the Vote Compass questionnaire and the results are coming in. The first report details what respondents believe are the most important political issues.
- Carbon tax debate puts Brian Gallant on defensive
- As PC Leader Blaine Higgs campaigns on fighting a carbon tax, Liberal Leader Brian Gallant played defence Wednesday, re-explaining his stance on the potential wedge issue.
- Election Day 8 updates
- Get the latest on the leaders' movements and announcements from the campaign trail.
The talking point
The campaign is just eight days old, but language is already poised to play an important role in the election. From the People's Alliance crusade against "duality" to Blaine Higgs's poor but improving French skills, the policies and capabilities carried by political leaders will no doubt impact the vote share on Sept. 24.
Higgs, the Progressive Conservative leader, sought to make inroads in the Liberal fortress that is the Acadian Peninsula nine days before the writs were signed. The CBC's Jacques Poitras was in Caraquet that night to hear Higgs's 10-minute, almost entirely French speech to Acadians. There, Poitras spoke with the leader about the language hurdle and his CoR party past.
The road to Tory success likely requires overtaking bilingual or predominantly francophone ridings, but as the party battles the Liberals for French voters on one front, the PCs must fend off the People's Alliance, a fringe party on the rise and keen on dismantling the bilingualism framework.
Kris Austin's party poses little threat to any party except the Tories and could be a big thorn in Higgs's side, pulling him off the offensive to play defence in ridings that were once sure bets.
According to more than 4,500 responses to the Vote Compass feature, language issues resonate strongly with respondents who intend to vote for the People's Alliance — far more than any other party supporter.
Here's how the respondents answered the question: "What is your most important political issue?"
The Vote Compass data suggests the election issues that matter vary significantly, depending on language.
Twenty-seven per cent of French-speaking respondents said health care is their top priority, compared to 13 per cent for anglophones and eight for other mother tongues.
Twenty-seven per cent non-English and non-French speakers said the environment is their main election issue — higher than anglophones at 16 per cent francophones at 12.
English-speaking respondents are more concerned with language issues than other groups, according to the data.
The pulse
Since single polls can provide varying methodology, CBC News has launched a New Brunswick Votes 2018 Poll Tracker. The interactive feature, maintained by CBC poll analyst Éric Grenier, aggregates all publicly available polling data to follow the trends of the election.
From the trail
Provincial affairs reporter Jacques Poitras reports ...
People's Alliance Leader Kris Austin seemed to find his sweet spot in Fredericton on Wednesday morning. The populist politician addressed Fredericton's Golden Club, a one-time chapter of the Kiwanis Club that split from the organization some years back to go its own way. Austin's party is also an offshoot: he left the Progressive Conservative Party to set up the Alliance after he failed to win the PC nomination in Grand Lake-Gagetown for the 2010 election.
The Golden Club was a comfortable venue in other ways: the group of men of a "certain age" represented a demographic with a big stake in Austin's ideas on senior care and nursing homes. One man was able to list off how many hospitals there are in each county — an administrative division that hasn't really been relevant to politics since the 1970s. There were other throwbacks: a joke about feminine hygiene products got a laugh from the crowd, though one member later thought it wise to apologize to Austin's female executive assistant — the only woman allowed to attend this session of the men-only club.
In keeping with the almost-40-year-old Austin's yearning for an earlier, less bilingual era, the music was also old-timey. Among the songs the men sang to open the meeting was "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning," the Rodgers and Hammerstein chestnut from the musical Oklahoma! And with the Alliance ticking up in the polls, the final line of the lyrics must surely have warmed the party leader's heart: "Everything's going my way."
Vote Compass
How do your views on New Brunswick politics position you within the political landscape? Find out with our Vote Compass feature: votecompass.cbc.ca/nb
Where the leaders were
Austin: Campaigned in home riding of Fredericton-Grand Lake
Coon: Campaigned in home riding of Fredericton South with federal Green Leader Elizabeth May
Gallant: Announcement in Edmundston; stops in Maugerville, Moncton, Dieppe
Higgs: Announcement in Bouctouche; private meetings, then overnight in home riding of Quispamsis
McKenzie: Campaigning in home riding of Saint John Harbour with Nova Scotia NDP Leader Gary Burrill
More coverage
New Brunswick Poll Tracker | Get the latest projections here
Vote Compass | See how your views compare with the parties' platforms
Help CBC track political ads on Facebook | Learn how here
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