The whistle stops, promises and pleas for support are over.
It's now up to voters, the 568,901 total eligible New Brunswickers who will decide who will form the province’s next provincial government.
A total of 382 polling stations will open today across the province as Elections NB prepares to collect the votes of electors on the final day of voting. A total of 50 returning offices, one in each riding and a satellite office on Grand Manan, will also be open for electors to cast ballots.
Polls in New Brunswick open at 10 a.m.
They close 10 hours later at 8 p.m. when results are expected to begin flooding in.
Meanwhile, 133,755 New Brunswickers, 23.5 per cent, have already voted at returning offices across New Brunswick and in two days of advanced polling.
That’s as the last general election in 2020 saw 66.1 per cent of eligible voters actually cast a vote, meaning almost two thirds of eligible voters will likely weigh in today.
What happens on Monday night could result in anything from a repeat Progressive Conservative majority to a Liberal majority government, with a minority government where the Greens hold the balance of power as an option in between.
The storylines are many.
At the top, though, is the fate of two leaders.
Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs has his sights set on a political feat that hasn’t been accomplished in New Brunswick in 29 years: winning three straight elections.
The PCs have only done it once in the last century, with a win putting Higgs in the history books next to a four-term run led by Richard Hatfield from 1970 to 1987.
Liberal Susan Holt can make provincial history.
After becoming the first woman to win the provincial Liberal leadership in August 2022, Holt would be the first woman ever to lead the province as premier.
The two ran very different 32-day campaigns.
Higgs, 70, a retired Irving Oil business executive turned finance minister and then premier, ran a low-key campaign that bet heavily on his own fiscal track record where he has taken a province teetering on the edge of the fiscal cliff and managed six straight surpluses, buoying New Brunswick to a position of respectability.
That fiscal prowess has led to the fiscal room Higgs says he now has to promise a massive two-point HST tax cut.
That’s while attempting at every turn to tie his opponent to unpopular Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Since triggering the election with a visit to the lieutenant governor, there’s been at least 10 days where the Tory leader didn’t hold a single public event.
It was arguably by design, as the Tories revealed a platform with just 11 commitments, accompanied by a message from Higgs stating he won’t be buying your vote.
That’s as Holt, 47, the former head of the New Brunswick Business Council and an adviser to former Liberal Premier Brian Gallant, unveiled a platform with exactly 100 promises.
She’s taken just two days off from public events since the runoff began.
The Liberal platform is headlined by a pledge to remove the provincial sales tax from home energy bills, give out bonus cheques to nurses, free breakfast and a pay-what-you-can lunch for all students, while offering moves to bolster health care.
That’s while promising balanced budgets.
Holt has also made sure not to let voters forget about the last two years where Higgs faced an attempted mutiny from within his own party over his leadership style and policy decisions that have arguably steered the party more to the political right than before.
Satisfaction levels with his government are the lowest in the country.
Still, Higgs has survived.
When cabinet ministers jumped, he replaced them.
While just five of the Tory candidates Higgs originally won with in 2018 are part of his candidate roster this time around, he’s seeking reelection with new blood.
Meanwhile, the wildcard in the race is again the Greens where leader David Coon, 67, an environmentalist who once served with the Conservation Council of New Brunswick, could hold the balance of power in a minority government.
The Green leader has been unequivocal on the campaign trail that he will play no role in returning Higgs to power.
That means anything short of a majority likely means curtains for Higgs.
Over 3,200 workers have been hired by Elections NB to work at the polls on Monday.
Elections NB notes that New Brunswickers don’t need to be in their home riding to vote.
The returning offices offer “ballot of demand” service, meaning an elector from one region of the province, who might not make it home in time to vote on Monday, could cast their ballot at the closest returning office.
The returning offices also provide the opportunity for electors from the disability community to vote using an audio vote session. Using either a braille controller, paddles or a sip-n-puff device, the elector can independently make their selection and cast their ballot.
Ballots cast at nursing homes, special care homes, hospitals and 14 campuses across the province were processed at the returning offices on Sunday in the presence of scrutineers from the registered political parties invited to observe.
At the close of polls at 8 p.m., election officials will start the process of uploading the results from all 694 tabulation machines deployed in the election.
If people are still in line waiting to vote at the close of polls at the polling stations, election officials will secure the door behind the last elector in line and allow the remaining to cast their ballot.
You are qualified to vote if you are a Canadian citizen, at least 18 years of age by Election Day, have been ordinarily resident somewhere in New Brunswick for at least 40 days before Election Day, and live in the riding where you apply to vote.
If you are already on the list of electors, you aren’t required to show ID when voting in a New Brunswick election. Instead, you will state your name and address to the poll worker so that they can find your name on the list of electors.
If you are a first-time voter, you’ll be asked to provide one or more pieces of ID that together confirm your name, current address, and signature.