FREDERICTON – New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs is starting an election campaign with the lowest approval rating of any premier in the country.
The latest quarterly Angus Reid Institute survey released Thursday showed Higgs, who is seeking a third term, at an approval rating of 30 per cent.
The 70-year-old Tory leader shrugged off the survey results, saying “polls are what they are,” and that his party is going to run campaign on what he has achieved and his future plans for the province.
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.
The Progressive Conservative party has 44 of 49 candidates, and the election is on Oct. 21.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2024.
