New Brunswick general election, 1982

New Brunswick general election, 1982

1978 ← members October 12, 1982 members → 1987 members

58 seats of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick 30 seats were needed for a majority   First party Second party Third party   Leader Richard Hatfield Doug Young George Little Party Progressive Conservative Liberal New Democrat Leader since 1967 1982 1980 Leader's seat Carleton Centre Tracadie Ran in Kings West Last election 30 28 0 Seats won 39 18 1 Seat change +9 -10 +1 Percentage 47.45% 41.3% 10.2% Swing +3.06% -3.06% +3.72%

Map of New Brunswick's ridings coloured in based on the winning parties and their popular vote

Premier before election Richard Hatfield Progressive Conservative Elected Premier Richard Hatfield Progressive Conservative

Rendition of party representation in the 50th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly decided by this election.

  Progressive Conservatives (39)

  Liberals (18)

  New Democrats (1)

The 30th New Brunswick general election was held on October 12, 1982, to elect 58 members to the 50th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, the governing house of the province of New Brunswick, Canada. It saw Richard Hatfield's Progressive Conservative Party win its largest majority ever to that time. (Bernard Lord beat this record in 1999.)

The Opposition Liberal Party had changed leaders four times since the eve of the 1978 election. It chose Doug Young just months before the vote in a divisive contest that came down to a final ballot against Joseph A. Day.

The PCs ran two separate campaigns - one in English and one in French. The francophone campaign, which was mostly run by Hatfield's French lieutenant Jean-Maurice Simard, began with the Grand Ralliement, a symposium on language rights which took place in Shippagan ten days before the election call. Over 400 notable Acadians and other francophones attended. The dual campaigns were remarkably separate from each other, and in some cases contradictory: the English campaign revolved around attacking Doug Young's economic record, while the French campaign pointed out Hatfield's role working with Liberal Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in enshrining francophone rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Liberals, divided by their recent leadership contest, ran a lackluster campaign which allowed Hatfield's and Simard's overtures to the Acadian population to carry many seats that had been Liberal strongholds for generations, including 10 of 21 Acadian ridings. The Parti Acadien made its last appearance, as the Conservatives adopted several key points of their former platform.

The New Democratic Party of New Brunswick elected Bob Hall as its first ever Member of the Legislative Assembly. He was later joined by a second NDP MLA, Peter Trites, in a by-election.

Results

1982 New Brunswick Election Results
Party	Leader	Results
		Seats	% of votes cast
Progressive Conservative	Richard Hatfield	39	47.45%
Liberal	Doug Young	18	41.3%
New Democratic	George Little	1	10.2%
Parti Acadien	Louise Blanchard	0	0.87%
Independents		0	0.18%
Total		58	100.0%