It’s been a great year for elections in Newfoundland and Labrador.
First, there were federal elections in April, followed by province-wide municipal elections last month. Now, voters in Newfoundland and Labrador will return to the polls on Tuesday to elect the next provincial government.
The Liberal Party, which has been in power since 2015 (first under former Prime Minister Dwight Ball, followed by former Prime Minister Andrew Furey, who was succeeded by current Liberal leader John Hogan), hopes to remain in power for a fourth consecutive government, against a Progressive Conservative Party led by Tony Wakeham and the New Democratic Party led by Jim Dinn.
The 28-day campaign marked the first time that each leader participated in the election campaign as head of a party, and all made promises of large amounts of money.
Hogan’s Liberals are running on the basis of the memorandum of understanding signed with Quebec, a historic agreement that could replace the 1969 Churchill Falls agreement and bring big money and jobs to the province.
Hogan says his government will use that money to pay down the province’s debt, create 10,000 jobs and reduce the cost of energy bills by spending $70 million to reduce the harmonized sales tax for residential customers.
Read more here: In total: the liberals were the last to publish their calculated electoral platform, hours before the debate
Wakeham’s PCs deliver on the promise of fixing the problems caused by what he calls a decade of liberal failure affecting everything from the healthcare system to taxes and public safety.
In their election platform, the PCs have pledged to spend millions to expand the province’s nursing school and improve staffing in emergency rooms and rural medical facilities. The party has also pledged millions to pay for 46 extra police officers and increase the seniors’ benefit by 20 per cent, indexing it to inflation.
Read more here: The PCs present an electoral platform of 284 million dollars, hours before the leaders’ debate
Dinn’s NDP promises to save the province $400 million over four years by phasing out traveling nurses, while promising to hire 1,000 health professionals and offer paid working conditions for nurses, social workers and teachers.
He also plans to defund private shelters and invest annually in 1,000 units of publicly owned affordable housing, while raising the minimum wage to $22 an hour.
Read more here: NDP platform promises big surpluses, tax relief and spending restructuring
The provincial election marks the third and final scheduled election to take place in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2025.
Voting takes place today from 8am to 8pm NT, or 7:30am to 7:30pm AT in most of Labrador.
CBC Newfoundland and Labrador will have full coverage of the election results Tuesday night.
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