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 — 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.'”

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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.

Holt said there has been division in the legislature, when “typically, in New Brunswick, we’ve had political parties that get along.”

“When the premier’s talking about dead Liberals and laughing at it, it certainly creates the temperature that’s concerning,” she said.

Green Party Leader David Coon told reporters he not only thought the joke was “inappropriate,” but that he thought Higgs was “descending into a very dark place.”

“I don’t know what happened to the man, but he’s certainly a different person from the man who was elected (premier) in 2018,” Coon said.

Higgs officially launched the election campaign Thursday morning, after a visit to Lt.-Gov. Brenda Murphy at her official residence in Fredericton.

At dissolution, Higgs’ Progressive Conservative Party held 25 seats, the Liberal Party had 16 seats and the Green Party had three seats. There was one independent MLA and four vacant seats.

Under the province’s fixed-date election law, the vote will take place on Oct. 21.

Low approval rating

Higgs, who became premier in 2018 and is seeking a third term, is starting this election campaign with the lowest approval rating of any premier in the country.

The latest quarterly Angus Reid Institute survey released Thursday showed that Higgs has an approval rating of 30 per cent, just below Ontario Premier Doug Ford at 31 per cent.

While the Liberals and Greens are mostly focusing on pocketbook issues such as housing, health care and education, the Progressive Conservatives are looking at social issues such as sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, also known as Policy 713.

A series of well-known cabinet ministers and caucus members resigned last year when the Higgs government announced changes to Policy 713.

— with files from The Canadian Press and Global News’ Silas Brown