New Brunswick’s Liberals ended 2023 with a bigger war chest than the Progressive Conservatives, with a provincial election months away.
Year-end reports filed this week by the parties to Elections New Brunswick show that Liberals had a surplus of $319,585 and the Progressive Conservatives a surplus of $254,035.
For the 2023 year, the Liberals beat the Tories in fundraising, collecting a total of $539,081 in contributions, with the Progressive Conservatives amassing $423,355.
Green Party year-end financial returns were not yet uploaded to the Elections New Brunswick website.
The provincial election has to be held by Oct. 21, 2024, but Tory Premier Blaine Higgs has not officially said when he would call voters to the polls.
Tom Bateman, chair of the political science department at St. Thomas University, said while the Liberals are in good shape and have more assets than Higgs’s party, the Progressive Conservatives are not doing that badly …