CHMA joined New Brunswick Liberal candidate for Tantramar John Higham as he and a party volunteer knocked on doors in a Sackville neighbourhood last week.
Higham says he’s heard “really positive ideas” from voters, including “things that could be done differently and better.” But he’s also had a number of strong negative reactions which he attributes to the phenomenon of anti-Liberal sentiment directed at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“I’ve been told that I have joined the biggest mafia in the world,” says Higham. One person went so far as to threaten the provincial candidate and former mayor. “I was told ‘get off my property, I’m going in the house and getting something, and it’ll show that you never will come on my property ever again,” recounts Higham. “So we’ve got that group of people that has really changed the tone.”
Higham’s 2024 door-to-door campaign is “a little different because of some of the responses, but also, I feel more comfortable doing it than I did the first time,” says Higham.
Higham won the Sackville mayoralty in 2016, but did not go door to door during that campaign. In 2006, he ran as the Liberal candidate for Tantramar, losing to Progressive Conservative Mike Oldscamp, who is now offering Higham “positive advice of how it should work.”
Higham says that when it comes to the NB Liberal platform (which had only been partially released at the time), he’s found himself explaining to many potential voters that the costs being cited are meant to be spread over a four year mandate.
“These are the things we want to achieve,” says Higham, referring to commitments such as the promise to create 30 new collaborative care clinics in four years, at an estimated total cost of $34.5 million. Higham says the Liberals have also committed to balanced budgets, meaning no deficit spending during their term. “That is the criteria by which we will be doing the work and budgeting for all of the projects we’re talking about,” says Higham.
Higham says his personal contribution to a potential Liberal government would be a focus on the role of community in some of the proposed solutions. “To make them work, you have to have a way that the community participates,” says Higham. “People do want to participate. They want to participate in the clinics. They want to participate in recruiting people. If you just leave it to Horizon, or to the corporate bodies or to the bureaucrats, it’s not going to be as good as if you have a collaborative relationship with communities.”
Higham says he pushes that message regularly with Liberal party leadership. “I am consistently raising it in our online discussions and things like that,” says Higham. ”If I get in, that’ll absolutely be part of it, particularly for here, where we actually have some community-based individuals that want to do that.”
In the meantime, Higham is focussed on knocking on doors, hoping to connect with as many potential riding of Tantramar voters as possible before October 21.
CHMA has reached out to all candidates to learn about their campaigns. Check back at chmafm.com for ongoing coverage.
