NDP Leader confident party will post significant gains

Published Thursday July 29th, 2010 - Chris Morris, Telegraph Journal, Page A1

SAINT JOHN - Roger Duguay says he's confident the NDP in New Brunswick is on the verge of an historic electoral breakthrough.

NDP Leader Roger Duguay told the Telegraph-Journal's editorial board on Wednesday that he expects to win his seat in the Sept. 27 election.

Duguay, leader of the provincial New Democrats for the past three years, told the editorial board of the Telegraph-Journal on Wednesday he believes he will be elected to the legislature in the September election.

And he says he won't be alone.

"Yes, I'm confident that instead of talking from snowbanks, sidewalks or the balcony of the legislature, I will be on the floor of the legislature with other NDP MLAs. I'm confident of that."
Duguay says recent public opinion polls show the NDP share of the decided vote holding steady at around 16 per cent - a significant improvement from the roughly five per cent the party held when he took over the leadership in 2007.

He says he believes New Brunswick voters are ready to embrace an alternative political party and he says the NDP has the history and the tradition in the province to be the preferred choice.
"People are telling me they are ready for a third party in this province," he said, predicting "an historic percentage of support" on Sept. 27.

"As it stands now, we have two conservative parties in New Brunswick. We are ready as a political party to occupy that open space on the political chessboard in our province." He says the best outcome in the next election would be a minority government. He says that would ensure the governing party would have to pay attention to what people want and be more transparent in decision-making.

"The traditional parties are not listening to the people who give them the mandate to represent them."

Duguay, 46, is the sixth NDP leader in New Brunswick.

Before entering the political arena, Duguay served as a priest in the diocese of Bathurst for 10 years, volunteered for the Red Cross and worked on community development projects in Haiti. He is currently a supply teacher in school district 5.

He says the economy will be a top issue in the NDP campaign.

Duguay says the province should have enough money to live within its means, without running huge deficits and adding to its $8 billion net debt.

He says the key is to limit spending, especially on such politically self-serving measures as the gold-plated pension plan for members of the provincial legislature.

Duguay says he will also propose freezing the current tax cut package being implemented by the Liberal government, and he suggested it may be time to impose a bigger tax on people earning more than $150,000 a year.

"If we limit the stupid spending and put a hold on tax reform and, like in Nova Scotia, say that those who earn more than $150,000 will pay a little more to the province - I think that is possible for our province as well."

Duguay says he welcomes the other alternative parties that have joined New Brunswick's political scene - the Green Party and the Peoples' Alliance of New Brunswick.

He says he does not believe they will siphon off NDP votes.

"It's beneficial to have more than two political parties," he says.