After weeks of unofficial campaigning, the New Brunswick election is finally on, officially.
Premier David Alward boarded his campaign bus Thursday and made several stops in southern New Brunswick, where he spoke to potential voters about natural resources.
"We know places like Pennsylvania and North Dakota are booming and that is because they've said yes to developing natural gas, they've said yes to developing their resources," said Alward during a stop in Lincoln.
New Brunswick Liberal Leader Brian Gallant launched his own bus tour on Thursday, and also spent time working rooms full of voters in Saint John.
This is Gallant's first election campaign as Liberal leader. He took over the party's reins in October 2012.
NDP Leader Dominic Cardy officially launched his bid for election, telling voters in Fredericton they deserve better than what they have been getting from the Liberals and conservatives. Cardy says his re-built party is in it to win it.
“If you're going to enter the political sphere, the purpose of doing that is to change things and you change things by having a majority in the legislature so that you can change the law, make people's lives better," said Cardy.
Green Party Leader David Coon was also pitching change as he launched his party’s campaign on a busy Fredericton street. Coon said change is among the options open to voters.
“If people want to vote the way they've always voted, they're going to get the same old politics and the same old, failed policies. If they want to change, they have to change their vote," he said.
Coon said his party will field candidates in all 49 ridings.
Meanwhile, the People’s Alliance of New Brunswick - the only party not to hold an official campaign launch – said it has 16 declared candidates so far.
The leaders and their candidates will spend the next 31 days on the campaign trail, before voters hit the polls on Sept. 22.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Andy Campbell
