Higgs says he's hopeful about election wins in francophone north
CBC
Premier Blaine Higgs is renewing his push to make electoral gains for his party in northern francophone ridings this fall — the third straight campaign in which he's claimed to be upbeat about his prospects there.
Higgs says he's hopeful that some quality candidates, including a well-known northern mayor, will finally give him a long-awaited breakthrough in the region in the Oct. 21 provincial election.
Normand Pelletier, the mayor of the new town of Heron Bay and the former mayor of Dalhousie, plans to run for the PCs.
Higgs is also bullish on two Madawaska candidates, including Michel Morin, a Haut-Madawaska municipal councillor, and Roger Quimper, a retired business executive.
"These are really pillars within society that are running for us because they see the opportunities in this province and they want to be part of it," Higgs told Radio-Canada in an interview.
But Higgs talked up so-called star candidates in northern and francophone ridings in 2018 and 2020, with meagre results.
Robert Gauvin won Shippagan-Lamèque-Miscou in 2018 but eventually quit cabinet and the PC Party to become a Liberal.
In 2020, Daniel Allain was elected in Moncton East as the only francophone PC MLA but is not running again this year.
Réjean Savoie won Miramichi Bay-Neguac in a 2022 byelection and recently made provincial funding announcements in Edmundston and Saint-Quentin.
The opposition Liberals say they're not taking anything for granted but they believe Higgs's northern and francophone candidates will have a steep hill to climb.
"Whoever's going to run under the Higgs banner, I wish them luck," said Bathurst West-Beresford MLA René Legacy. "It's going to be a challenge.
"People haven't exactly forgotten that we haven't seen Higgs up north for the last four years."
Legacy recently released statistics showing only seven per cent of funding for projects through the Regional Development Corporation.
The government argues it based its decisions on the applications it received, but the Liberals say many worthy proposals from the north were ignored.
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