Liberal leader Susan Holt talking to volunteers and supporters at local campaign HQ

New Brunswick Liberal leader Susan Holt stressed the need to fix the health care system today during the official opening of Tantramar candidate John Higham’s campaign headquarters at 26 York Street in Sackville.

“There’s a lot of New Brunswickers feeling scared,” Holt told a small group of volunteers and supporters on Day 4 of the provincial election campaign.

“They’re scared that if they have a health care crisis, the ambulance won’t show up [or] it will take them to an ER that is not open, [and] if they don’t have a doctor to get referred to, that their loved one isn’t going to get the care they need,” she said.

“Scared that they’re not going to get their rights respected in this province,” Holt added.

“We have to show them that we’re here caring for them and respecting them and building a team that is going to replace Mr. Higgs and bring forward a respectful government.”

Holt promised that under a Liberal government, Sackville would be one of the first of 10 communities to get a fully functioning collaborative care health clinic to complement the services provided at the Sackville hospital.

How not to recruit doctors

Tantramar Liberal candidate John Higham

For his part, John Higham told a story about being in Sackville’s Painted Pony restaurant recently to pick something up when he spotted a group of medical students eating with someone from the Horizon Health Network.

Higham, who resigned as co-leader of the local Rural Health Action Group to run for the Liberals, said he got no satisfactory answer when he asked the person from Horizon why local community members hadn’t been invited to meet with the students.

“How do you recruit in a market like this by just taking them out for supper and talking about the future of their profession?” Higham wondered.

“It’s about where they want to live, it’s about what that community looks like,” he added.

“So this whole idea that we can’t get doctors is because of the way we recruit and so we need to change the way that we do it.”

Persuading people to vote

Both Higham and Holt stressed the campaigning that needs to be done before election day on October 21st.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Higham said.

“We’ve got a strong MLA here right now,” he added, referring to Green MLA Megan Mitton.

He said as he goes door-to-door, he’s hearing it’s time to change the government in Fredericton.

“We’re going to have to convince people to vote,” Holt warned the campaign workers.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t care anymore. They think it doesn’t matter. They think it’s not worth showing up. They think that we’re all the same and it doesn’t matter whether you’re Red, Blue, Green or otherwise, why would I bother going to vote?” she said.

“So, I really appreciate that you folks have decided that it is important enough to be here and to give your time and to support John and to help us convince other people that this election and this province is important enough for folks to get involved.

“So, thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”