New Brunswick election: Tories accuse Liberals of plagiarizing their platform

FREDERICTON — New Brunswick Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs is accusing the Liberals of plagiarizing portions of his party’s election platform.

Higgs made the accusation Friday during a campaign stop in Fredericton, where he said the Liberals appear to have no new ideas for health care.

The premier, who is seeking a third term in office, cited several similarities between pledges made by both parties and then pointed to his plan to change the way doctors are paid to provide incentives for them to see more patients.

Higgs said the Liberals have copied the Tory plan, and as proof he said a Liberal document on campaign costs — posted late Thursday on the Elections New Brunswick website — includes a link to a Progressive Conservative government news release about doctor incentives, dated Sept. 12.

Higgs told an impromptu news conference Friday morning the Liberal platform is “largely a copy” of what the Progressive Conservatives have been doing for health care. “What they’re promising is what we’re already doing, just not as good.”

The Tory leader went on to say his party’s plan to reform doctor pay would cost $25 million, adding that the Liberals have failed to put a price tag on their pledge. The Liberal costing document on the Elections New Brunswick website states: “The election commitment will not have financial implications for the province.”

Higgs said he wanted to know how that was possible. Then he answered his own question: “It’s because they are plagiarizing an announcement that I had already made.”

Liberal Leader Susan Holt said Higgs’s announcement on Sept. 12 was an official government pledge made before the election was called for Oct. 21.

“If (the plan) is covered in the current fiscal framework, it’s not new spending,” Holt said in an interview Friday. “I think the premier should focus on fixing the system. He’s focused on me and on being defensive when his record of failures in health care are clear.”

J.P. Lewis, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, N.B., said Higgs’s decision to attack the Liberal platform is a function of the fact that the latest opinion polls suggest the Tories and Liberals are in a very tight race.

“It’s been close for a while now,” Lewis said in an interview Friday. “To me, it’s not surprising that they are … not just defending their record, but trying to be on the offence. They know they’re in a very competitive race.”

Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, Green Party Leader David Coon was in Tracadie, N.B., where he announced a sustainable forestry plan. He said a Green government would share decision-making with First Nations, end herbicide spraying and halt large-scale clearcutting.

In Saint John, N.B., Holt said a Liberal government would overhaul the province’s property tax system in a bid to make home ownership more affordable. The Liberals have already announced a rent cap, as well as a commitment to build 30,000 new housing units and remove the provincial sales tax on new builds.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2024.

— With files from Michael MacDonald and Cassidy McMackon in Halifax.

Hina Alam, The Canadian Press