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Early 1900s
The Conservatives were largely dominant after Blair left the province to join Wilfrid Laurier's cabinet in 1896. Though the Liberals were briefly in power from 1917 - 1925 following several Conservative scandals.
Dysart and McNair In the midst of the depression, the Liberals made a resurgence in 1932 with Allison Dysart becoming premier. McNair was Dysart's right hand, serving as Attorney General until replacing him as premier in 1940. McNair served until 1952 when he was defeated by Hugh John Flemming.
Louis J. Robichaud During the 1960s, the Liberals under Louis Joseph Robichaud were instrumental in bringing Acadians into the mainstream of life in New Brunswick, declaring the province to be officially bilingual. The English and French languages were given equal status.
Opposition in the Hatfield Years Following defeat in the New Brunswick general election, 1970, the Liberals were largely in disarray. They had a good shot at winning in 1978 but changed leaders on the eve of the election and still managed to narrow the gap to 30-28. Between 1978 and 1982 the Liberals had four different leaders and suffered their worst defeat in modern electoral (since parties were legally recognized in 1935) history.
Frank McKenna In 1985, the party choose Frank McKenna as leader. McKenna, a young lawyer representing Chatam in the legislature in his first term, ran as the underdog in a leadership race against party stalwart Ray Frenette who had served as interim leader from the disasterous 1982 election until the eve of the 1985 leadership race. McKenna, who campaigned hard, won by significant margin.
McKenna immeadiately set out to prepare the party for returning to government after 15 years in opposition. The momentum was on the side of the Liberals and it seemed inevitable that McKenna would be premier as soon as an election was held. Few expected, though, that the Liberals would sweep the province, winning every seat -- a first in any jurisdiction in Canadian history.
McKenna was regarded as a fiscal conservative and was called by some the "Best Tory Premier New Brunswick never had". Despite this, McKenna was a progressive on many issues. Though he made considerable cuts to social programs due to the dire fiscal situation in New Brunswick and due to cuts to federal equalization payments and other transfers, he also instituted new programs. Notably, McKenna instituted a publicly funded kindergarten program -- something that had been promised by the Hatfield Conservatives in the previous four elections. McKenna also launched a homecare program called Extramural Nursing which has been hailed as the best in Canada. In the 2002 Romanow report on the Future of Healthcare in Canada, New Brunswick's system was specifically cited as a model for homecare in Canada.
Despite riding high in the polls, McKenna resigned on October 13, 1997, ten years (to the day) since his first election as premier, fufilling a promise to serve for only ten years.
McKenna was replaced by Frenette, who had served as his right-hand in the legislature throughout his term, who was Premier for the following seven months while the party chose a new leader. Frenette was replaced by Camille Thériault who served as premier until the 1999 election when the Liberals were defeated despite having begun the campaign with a double-digit lead in opinion polls.
Present In 1999, the Liberals suffered their worst ever defeat, wining only 10 seats. In 2000, the Liberals fell to eight seats, losing Bernard Thériault who made an unsuccessful bid for the Canadian House of Commons in Acadie-Bathurst and Edmund Blanchard who accepted an appointment to the Federal Court of Canada. The Progressive Conservatives won both of these seats in by-elections in early 2001. Though the by-election losses were do mainly to Tory promises to reward those who returned a government member, this was a further blow to Camille Thériault's leadership. He resigned, on March 21, 2001, both his leadership and his seat in the house. Bernard Richard, who had finished third in the leadership contest against Thériault in 1998, became interim leader. In the following leadership contest, there were many candidates that appeared briefly, but withdrew. The original likely candidates were former cabinet minister Paul Duffie, former McKenna adviser Francis McGuire and Moncton lawyer Mike Murphy. McGuire, after briefly considering a bid, declined. Murphy began the formative stages of a campaign but abruptly withdrew, surprising many of his supporters. This left Duffie largely unchallenged, the only other candidate being former party organizer Jack MacDougall who had abruptly left the party in the midst of the 1999 campaign.
Many in the party felt that Duffie, who was close to Thériault, was the wrong choice. Richard was urged to abandon the interim leadership and contest the race. He also began a formative camaign but soon announced he would continue as interim leader instead. Finally, after the campaign had already begun in earnest, Shawn Graham, a rookie MLA in his early 30s, announced his candidacy in January, 2002. Graham, who was largely underestimated by Duffie, surged to a convincing lead following delegate selection meetings. Duffie withdrew leaving Graham to face only MacDougall who he defeated by a 3-to-1 margin.
The party chose Shawn Graham as leader on May 11, 2002. Graham continued to be underestimated by the press and by the governing Conservatives. Shocking pundits, Graham nearly won the 2003 election taking 26 of 55 seats in the New Brunswick legislature. Richard, who was re-elected in 2003, accepted a provincial appointment on November 26, 2003. This was in a move by the Conservatives to improve their standing in the winter and spring sessions of the legislature and was viewed as a serious blow to Graham's leadership. Despite this, the Liberal's have led consistently in opinion polls since then and the Liberal's regained Richard's seat in a by-election.
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