Progressive Conservative candidate for Tantramar Bruce Phinney says he’s playing catch up after joining the provincial election race at the eleventh hour.
Phinney stopped by CHMA to talk about his campaign and PC party promises so far this election season:
“I finally got recognized as a candidate later than everybody else,” says Phinney. “It’s one of the stumbling blocks I had to deal with, and I’m dealing with it the best way I can.”
Phinney says that his door-to-door canvassing will be limited to some stops in Cape Tormentine and in his downtown Sackville ward where he was elected to Tantramar municipal council in 2022. “I’m not going to get around to everybody,” he says, “there’s no way realistically, but I will continue to run into people, ask for their vote.”
When it comes to his party’s platform, Phinney says he trusts that leader Blaine Higgs has a plan. “He’s done certain things on certain issues, but there’s more to be done,” says Phinney. “And that’s exactly why he needs another four years in order to continue on the work that he’s already put in place.”
“To me, he’s got the right way of thinking at the present time,” says Phinney. “Opening up the purse strings and just spending isn’t going to solve the problem,” says Phinney.
The key promise from the PC party this campaign has been a 2% cut in HST, which will cost nearly $1.6 billion over four years, the single most expensive action promised by any party in the campaign, according to Transparency in Elections reporting. Phinney likes the idea of moving the HST from 15% to 13%. “We have to do something. There’s no doubt,” he says. “And I feel that if the [Progressive] Conservative Party is promising that I’m assuming that they’ve probably got a way of doing it.”
As a local candidate, Phinney touts his personal qualities over his positions on issues, which he says will come after he’s elected and has had time to speak to constituents and do research. If elected as MLA for Tantramar, Phinney says he will then be able to “find out what’s going on and see exactly what we can do to resolve” the key problems plaguing the province, like health care staffing and increasing poverty and affordability issues.
Phinney says he’s against running deficits because he doesn’t want to create more debt that could become problematic in the future, a position that’s informed by his own experience with bankruptcy. He touts his honesty, willingness to speak up, and attitude towards collaboration between parties as his strengths as a public official.
“I want to be part of the team, but I also still have my own way of thinking,” says Phinney. Phinney prides himself on sometimes being called a “thorn in the side” of Tantramar council, and indeed he has been sanctioned twice by his colleagues under a Code of Conduct bylaw, and has also taken the municipality to court over its refusal to release a consultant’s report about the working atmosphere in the Sackville Fire Department.
“I’ll certainly turn around and speak up and speak out in Fredericton,” says Phinney.
Hear Bruce Phinney’s interview as it aired on Tantramar Report:
