On October 21, 2024, Green candidate Megan Mitton was reelected as the MLA for the Tantramar riding. This election was historic, as New Brunswick elected their first woman as Premier, Susan Holt. Other historic outcomes of the election are the number of women elected as representatives, and furthermore, there was a record number of Francophone seats. I recently interviewed MLA Mitton to hear her thoughts about the future of our province under the leadership of the Holt government, her plans for the Tantramar riding, and the future of the Green Party.
New Brunswick saw a red wave this past election, which could potentially be viewed as a response to New Brunswick’s growing dissatisfaction with former premier Blaine Higgs and the Progressive Conservative (PC) party. In the Liberal swing from the PC party, several seats in legislature were lost — including Blaine Higgs’ seat in his riding of Quispamsis. Mitton touched on the loss of a Green Seat in the legislature, bumping the number of Green seats from three to two. “This is a loss for New Brunswick. In my opinion, Kevin Arseneau was an amazing MLA who spoke up for lots of different people who may not have voices,” said MLA Mitton. Arseneau was also a historical first MLA, being the first Green Acadian elected to the legislature. She touched on the red wave, stating “this election was really about voting out Higgs and getting rid of him. And I agree with that part. But what happened is there was a red wave, and unfortunately, Kevin got swept away in that wave,” said MLA Mitton.
Mitton then highlighted her plans for the future of Tantramar. Some of her key priorities are to increase access to health care, including primary care, emergency care, and ambulance services. The cost of housing is something that is on a lot of New Brunswickers minds and Mitton agrees stating “There’s been an affordable housing crisis for years now, and we really need action and so these things impact people, whether they’re their students or community members.”
She then commented on the specific differences between the Liberal and the PC parties referencing reproductive rights, stating: “Maybe we’ll have a women’s equality minister who’s not anti-choice, that it looks like we have now […] There’s a regulation that prevents abortions from happening in a community setting, outside of hospitals. I’ve been calling for years for them to get rid of that discriminatory regulation. Hopefully that will finally go away.” Hope was mentioned again in the interview, with the Tantramar representative saying “So again, I don’t know what’s coming, but I’m hoping that things will get better.”
MLA Mitton concluded the interview, explaining how she is honored to be reelected in the riding, and the significance of being a university town: “As MLA here, I represent everyone, whether they are able to vote or not. And so it’s really important to me that students know that they can. […] It’s a unique opportunity to be able to represent a university town, and so I’m really proud to do that.”
