N.B. election: Higgs went to ‘very dark place’ with Liberal joke, opponent says

A joke about a deceased Liberal supporter has landed New Brunswick's Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs in hot water as the election campaign is now underway.

A joke about a deceased Liberal supporter has landed New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs in hot water — mere hours after the province’s election campaign kicked off.

Higgs shared the anecdote, which he told the crowd was a “true” event, at the end of his campaign launch speech Thursday evening in Quispamsis, N.B.

He relayed the story — to the crowd of party supporters and candidates — that a canvasser working for him during his 2014 campaign in Quispamsis was knocking on doors to speak to constituents.

He said the volunteer spoke to a woman who assured her that she was voting for Higgs. When the volunteer began to make her way to the neighbour’s door, that’s when the joke took a controversial turn.

“And the lady said, ‘Oh, you don’t need to go there. She passed away a few weeks ago,'” Higgs said.

“And this campaigner — you know, very passionate individual — said, ‘I’m so sorry. Was she sick long? Or what happened?’ And the lady just said, ‘Oh, don’t feel too bad. She was a Liberal.'”

While the audience laughed at the joke, Liberal Leader Susan Holt said it demonstrated “a complete lack of judgment on the premier’s part,” especially since Higgs himself prefaced the joke by saying his wife had advised him not to say it.

“I don’t think it’s becoming of the person who’s supposed to be leading our province. It’s a worry that we’ve had for some time now because we’ve seen the rhetoric and particularly the partisan nature that’s directed towards partisans,” Holt said Friday.