Potential candidates making decisions in case of early election

Ready or not, potential provincial election candidates are now making decisions about whether to put their names on ballots.

Premier Blaine Higgs has forced their hands by refusing to rule out a snap election call this fall.

"I'm going to run in the next election," said cabinet minister and Fredericton North Progressive Conservative MLA Jill Green, one of many Tories whose futures have been uncertain in recent months.

"It's kind of fun to say that now. It took me a long time to decide but it kind of feels good to get it out." 

Among opposition parties as well, candidates who might otherwise have been able to wait until closer to the officially scheduled date of Oct. 21, 2024, are declaring their intentions now.

Saint John Coun. David Hickey is one of two candidates who have announced they'll seek the Liberal nomination to run in Saint John Harbour, a seat now held by PC cabinet minister Arlene Dunn.

Hickey says many of the issues he has confronted as a municipal councillor, from housing to mental health care, can only be resolved in the legislature.

"At every hurdle, at every roadblock, I seem to end up at the province. So I figure it's about time to go there."

Another high-profile candidate for the Liberals is Alexandre Cedric-Doucet, former president of the Acadian Society of New Brunswick, who plans to run in Moncton East. 

But Saint John-Rothesay Liberal MP Wayne Long, who decided earlier this year not to run again federally, says he won't make the leap to provincial politics he's been mulling, if the election is called this fall.

"I've got much I need to see through here," Long said in a text message from Ottawa. 

"My community needs leadership and [needs] me exactly where I'm at right now."

Long said he'll "definitely" look at running provincially if the election is next fall.

Meanwhile, Serge Brideau, who won 35 per cent of the vote as the Green candidate in the Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-Saint-Isidore by-election won by Liberal leader Susan Holt in April, said he is reflecting on whether to try again.