New Brunswick election: Saint John East

Riding background

The riding covers the eastern portion of Saint John.

PC incumbent Glen Savoie is re-offering in the 2018 election and will hope to to buck a trend for the district, which has flipped between the Progressive Conservatives, the Liberals and the NDP over the last four decades

Candidates

Liberal: Clare Manzer

Progressive Conservative: Glen Savoie (incumbent)

NDP: Alex White

Green: Lynaya Astephen

People’s Alliance: Matthew Thompson

History

2014 by-election

Only three weeks after Liberal candidate Gary Keating won in the 2014 general election, he would resign his seat, announcing that he had decided public political life was not for him as it would entail too much time away from his family.

The decision prompted a by-election in November 2014 that saw PC candidate Glen Savoie win the seat that he had lost by only nine votes in the general election.

Savoie’s win was much clearer in the by-election, capturing 44.3 per cent of the vote and defeating Liberal challenger Shelley Rinehart who earned 27.8 per cent of the vote.

2014

The 2013 redistricting process saw the boundaries of Saint John East be significantly altered.

Nearly half of the riding’s population was absorbed into the newly created Portland-Simonds district, with part of the abolished Saint John-Fundy riding replacing it.

Tory incumbent Glen Tait chose not to reoffer in the 2014 election.

Liberal candidate Gary Keating defeated PC candidate Glen Savoie in a hotly-contested election.

Only nine votes would separate Keating and Tait after a judicial recount — the narrowest margin in the entire province.

2010

PC candidate Glen Tait swung the seat from Liberal to Tory in the 2010 election after Liberal incumbent Roly MacIntyre decided to not re-offer.

Tait won the riding with 37.9 per cent of the vote, defeating Liberal candidate Kevin McCarville who earned 33.1 per cent.