Green MLA officially launching her re-election campaign at Cranewood Bakery in Sackville

MLA Megan Mitton asked about 25 supporters to imagine a minority government with her Green Party holding the balance of power after this fall’s provincial election.

“This is a very likely outcome on the evening of October 21st,” she said during the official launch of her re-election campaign today at Cranewood Bakery in Sackville.

“Here in Tantramar, there are some inaccurate claims going around that a majority Liberal government is needed to get rid of Higgs,” Mitton continued.

“That’s simply not true. A minority government would serve New Brunswickers well and keep the old traditional parties from wielding 100% of the power, which is really what drives them,” she said.

“And to be clear, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Greens will not work with Higgs, so your Green vote helps get rid of him,” she added to a round of applause.

Mitton reminded her supporters that she launched her first successful campaign in the same room six years ago when she won the riding of Memramcook-Tantramar by 11 votes in an election that produced New Brunswick’s first minority government in nearly 100 years.

“We stood here six years ago in this room for my campaign and, at the time, we had a Liberal majority government under which health care had gotten worse,” she said.

“At the time, the Liberals had just privatized management of extramural and the Liberals had just signed a terrible contract with Ambulance New Brunswick, both with Medavie, both without tenders or RFPs [Requests for Proposals],” she added.

“The Ambulance New Brunswick contract has been criticized by the auditor-general and gives millions in bonuses even when we get terrible response times.”

Future priorities and past accomplishments

Mitton campaign handout showing key Green promises

Mitton outlined key Green promises that included improving access to family doctors and emergency room services, a rent cap for tenants, a fairer property tax system for homeowners and protecting communities from extreme weather.

She listed several accomplishments including:

• bringing together a health-care committee to fight for full services at Sackville Memorial Hospital and inviting the heads of the Horizon Health Network, Ambulance New Brunswick and NB Health Link to come to the community to answer questions from citizens
• lobbying for funding of the primary care clinic that is now open near the hospital and staffing for the Port Elgin health clinic where she said a new family doctor will start offering services next year
• fighting for Rte. 106 to open between Sackville and Dorchester two months earlier than planned
• urging governments to deal with the threat of flooding on the Chignecto Isthmus
• “I’ve brought ministers from DTI to agriculture to environment to the riding to show them what was needed for stormwater retention, to advocate for roads. I drove them in my car so that it was really bumpy so they’d really get the point.”
• “In the legislature, Greens have successfully pushed for the minimum wage to be increased, got the government to study the implementation of paid sick leave for all, index social assistance to the cost of living… [and] the creation of a housing minister and the New Brunswick Housing Corporation.”
• “When the minister of health wouldn’t release a report on midwifery, I got a copy through an RTI (Right of Information request) and I read it into the record in committee.”

‘Corruption’ and ‘patronage’

“The people who are saying things like ‘We need a majority Liberal government and we need a seat at the table,’ they’re saying these things because we threaten them, the Greens threaten them,” Mitton said returning to one of her main themes.

“The Liberals and the Conservatives used to just pass power back and forth taking turns and it worked well for them, but did it work well for New Brunswickers?” she asked to a chorus of “nos” from her supporters.

“Rather than trying to sell a seat at the table and buying into the corruption and patronage that makes people distrust and dislike government, I will continue to stand up against corruption all day long,” Mitton promised.

“Everyone should have access to heath care, to safe roads and bridges, to good schools and services in their community, no matter what colour their MLA represents.”

Megan Mitton with Jacques Giguère, a retired Radio-Canada journalist who is running for the Greens in the adjacent riding of Dieppe-Memramcook