Another candidate for the Tantramar seat in the New Brunswick provincial legislature has stepped forward. Evelyne Godfrey is the prospective nominee for the New Brunswick NDP.
Godfrey is a dual Canadian and UK citizen, and for the past number of years has split her time between her home in England and her home in Port Elgin, where she now lives with her husband.
Godfrey dropped by CHMA to talk about her decision to run, the future of the NDP in New Brunswick, and plans for a local policy forum to engage residents about what they’d like from their provincial government.
Godfrey is no stranger to campaigning for the NDP, and ran as the federal NDP candidate in the 2021 federal election. She says this will be a rebuilding election for the provincial NDP, who haven’t held a seat in the legislature since 2006.
“I think that our voters are out there, and we disconnected from them in the last sort of six years,” says Godfrey. “But we’ve got a fantastic team now of candidates that I’m very, very happy to be with for the NDP. They’re all full of hope and joy and pride in this place,” she says.
The riding of Tantramar has four candidates so far in the election slated for October 21. Incumbent Memramcook-Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton is running for the Green Party, former Sackville mayor John Higham is running for the Liberals, and Tantramar councillor Bruce Phinney recently announced he’s the prospective candidate for the PCs.
There won’t be a local nominating meeting for Godfrey to become the official candidate, but Godfrey says she is planning to host a local policy forum in early September. “We’re going to be inviting all our local members and supporters to come to the policy forum and actually discuss and give their input into the local issues,” says Godfrey.
A formal party platform will be published closer to election time, but Godfrey says she’s prepared with an outline platform in the meantime. “We’ve got policies worked out and specific implementations on housing, on health care, on education, on the environment and on economy and labor relations,” says Godfrey.
Godfrey says she’s very aware of housing affordability as a concern of residents. She’s also heard from people about health care and education, as well as “jobs and the economy and the cost of living… these are all things that, you know, these are provincial responsibilities, not the federal government. So this is what this is election is going to be about. It’s all the things that affect everybody’s everyday life.”
Godfrey says that what sets the NDP apart is, “we’ve got principles… We’ve always stuck to the same values, the values of the labor and cooperative movements,” says Godfrey. “We are united in our fundamental values, which is underpinned by social justice and caring for others.”
Godfrey also says she doesn’t buy the argument raised by Liberal candidate John Higham, who ties provincial action on public works in the region with an MLA who sits as a member of the government.
“The practical reality is, we’ve got a two party system here that switches back and forth between the Conservatives and the Liberals,” says Godfrey. “They form the establishment together. And the NDP has always been pragmatic about this.”
Godfrey says the NDP work as a third party to influence the establishment parties, usually the Liberals, who are “the ones who are a bit more closely aligned to our views on the left.”
“We don’t see that as something that we can solve, the fact that we’ve essentially got a two party system, and we’re the third party,” says Godfrey. But she believes the NDP’s national profile puts them in a strong position to influence the incoming government. “We will work constructively with the incoming government to ensure that we do have the social programs in place, that we do have sensible education policies based on reason,” she says. “And that’s the way in which the NDP have always tried to help Canadians and how we would help New Brunswickers.”
