New Brunswick general election, 2003

The 35th New Brunswick general election was held on June 9, 2003, to elect 55 members to the 55th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, the governing house of the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Starting out as a predicted landslide for Bernard Lord's Progressive Conservatives, the election quickly turned around when Shawn Graham, leader of the Liberal Party of New Brunswick, took on auto insurance rates as a cause.

Contents

• Results by party
• Candidates
• References

People in the province had seen their car insurance rates skyrocket, and the Liberal Party of New Brunswick focussed their campaign on three points:

1. improved universal health care,
2. keeping the province's electric utility, NB Power, as a public crown corporation, and
3. the lowering of automobile insurance rates.

The Liberals ran a virtually flawless campaign, whereas Lord and his PC Party faced a number of problems, especially with their position on the key issue of auto insurance which changed several times during the 30-day campaign.

The results were very close, and for most of election night as the results came in, the winner was unclear. Shawn Graham was even heard to remark on television as the night was drawing to a close that "Up to 5 minutes ago, I thought I was Premier".

New Democratic Party of New Brunswick leader, Elizabeth Weir, was the only member of her party to win a seat. The party ran 55 candidates throughout the province.

The newly founded but short-lived New Brunswick Grey Party which was a branch of the Grey Party of Canada also ran 10 candidates, including party leader Jim Webb.