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With just five days to go, what has been a mostly cordial and quiet election campaign is getting more confrontational, especially between the New Brunswick Liberals and the NDP.

Liberal Leader Brian Gallant was making an announcement in Hanwell Wednesday morning when an NDP staffer, who had been standing with the journalists covering the event, approached Gallant and handed him a calculator.

“I wanted to make sure that you got a gift from some friends of mine,” said Kat Heaney.

Then she started questioning Gallant’s attacks on her party’s positions, saying it’s the Liberals’ plan to spend almost a billion dollars on infrastructure that should be attacked.

“It is an infrastructure plan in that it only promises what, about 1,700 jobs,” said Heaney. “I might add, most of those would be seasonal jobs. These are not permanent solutions for New Brunswickers.”

The NDP say the Liberals’ numbers aren’t being questioned enough, and that the Grits’ criticisms of their positions are largely inaccurate, while the Liberals say the NDP numbers are way off and that parts of their platform haven’t been costed.

Gallant answered Heaney’s questions and at least one more from journalists, but he didn’t immediately address the partisan play.

Three hours later, Gallant continued his attack on Cardy.

“We think he has no plan to create jobs and his reaction to this, instead of answering our questions, is to send a political staff to interrupt our speech,” said Gallant. “I think that’s a bit unfortunate. It doesn’t help the discussion or the debate.”

Cardy said he was aware of Heaney’s plan to interrupt Gallant’s news conference and backed it.

“I think that giving a calculator with an orange ribbon wrapped around it is a fairly lighthearted way of making a point that the Liberals have had a continued problem with getting their facts and figures straight over the last week,” said Cardy.

While the NDP fought Gallant face-to-face, the Tories launched their barbs from afar.

“It’s becoming more and more clear every day that they’re making decisions on the fly,” said Premier David Alward during a campaign stop in Saint John. “These are political decisions, not decisions based on any type of science.”

New Brunswickers head to the polls on Monday.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Andy Campbell