It’s been a big year for elections in Newfoundland and Labrador.
First, there was a federal election in April, followed by provincewide municipal elections last month. Now, Newfoundland and Labrador voters are heading back to the polls one more time Tuesday to elect the next provincial government.
The Liberal Party, which has been in power since 2015 — first under former premier Dwight Ball, followed by former premier Andrew Furey, who was succeeded by current Liberal Leader John Hogan — is hoping to hold onto 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 each leader’s first time out on the campaign trail as the head of a party — and all of them were making making big-money promises.
Hogan’s Liberals are running on the memorandum of understanding signed with Quebec — a landmark deal which could replace the 1969 Churchill Falls Deal and bring in a lot of 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 power bills by spending $70 million to cut the harmonized sales tax for residential customers.
Read more here: All accounted: Liberals last to release costed election platform, hours before debate
Wakeham’s PCs are running on the promise to fix problems caused by what he calls a decade of Liberal failure affecting everything from the health-care system to taxes and public safety.
In their election platform, the PCs have committed to spending millions to expand the province’s nursing school, and to better staff emergency rooms and rural medical facilities. The party has also promised millions to pay for 46 additional police officers and to increase the seniors’ benefit by 20 per cent, indexing it to inflation.
Read more here: PCs unveil $284M election platform, hours before leaders’ debate
Dinn’s NDP promises to save the province $400 million over four years by phasing out travel nurses while promising to hire 1,000 health professionals, and offer paid work-terms for nurses, social workers, and teachers.
He also plans to defund private shelters and invest in 1,000 publicly owned affordable housing units annually, while increasing the minimum wage to $22 per hour.
Read more here: NDP platform promises big surpluses, tax relief and spending shakeup
The provincial election marks the third and last scheduled election to take place across Newfoundland and Labrador in 2025.
Voting runs from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. NT today, or 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. AT in most of Labrador.
CBC Newfoundland and Labrador will have full coverage of the election results on Tuesday evening.
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