'My future has been decided': Blaine Higgs loses seat as party falls in N.B. election

For the first time in 14 years, Blaine Higgs does not have a seat in the New Brunswick legislature.

Higgs, who served as the Progressive Conservative premier from 2018 to 2024, lost the Quispamsis riding to Liberal Aaron Kennedy by a difference of just 193 votes.

Higgs won 3,667 votes to Kennedy’s 3,860. Higgs and Kennedy last squared off in the 2018 provincial election; in that showdown, Higgs bested Kennedy by more than 2,000 votes.

Andrew Conradi with the Greens earned 378 votes, while Alex White, leader of the New Brunswick NDP, secured 360 votes and independent David Raymond Amos scored 42 votes.

Higgs was first elected to the Quispamsis riding in 2010 as an MLA for the Progressive Conservatives.

“I think my future has been decided by the people of New Brunswick,” Higgs told CTV News Atlantic’s Todd Battis on Monday, moments after he announced he conceded defeat to Liberal Leader Susan Holt. “I’ll meet with the caucus and we’ll map out the path forward. I think it’s pretty clear where my future is.”

Higgs, who led the PCs to victory in 2018 as the first minority government in New Brunswick in 100 years, saw numerous ministers depart his cabinet and even run against him with the Liberals ahead of the election. He brought the PCs to majority status during the 2020 election, but he now finds himself out of the legislature.

“I know people said the third mandate would be tough,” Higgs said. “Maybe we stand for what we believe in and maybe we fall for what we believe in but we don’t lose our convictions. This was time well spent.”

The loss brings this chapter of Higgs’ political career to a close more than a decade after it first began. Prior to entering New Brunswick politics, Higgs completed an executive management training program at Queen’s University and spent more than 30 years with Irving Oil in multiple roles.

He became the 34th premier in New Brunswick history in 2018.

Under Higgs, the PCs, who ran on a slogan of “Let’s Keep Building,” promised to lower the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) from 15 to 13 per cent, provide faster health-care access, introduce financial literacy courses in school, renew a court challenge to the federal carbon tax and invest in addiction treatment, while also not approving any new safe injection sites.

Higgs said he hopes premier-designate Holt and the incoming Liberal government continues the momentum he believes the PCs started.

“Can we build on the successes of each other and not just start fresh?” he said. “That’s the biggest concern for me. If I see things getting torn down, that will feel pretty bad.

“Let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.”

In an interview with Battis, Higgs said he believes the PCs have left the province in a strong position in regards with population growth, health-care investments, and the general state of finances.

Images of the provincial election day in New Brunswick can be found here.

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