For Green Party supporters and candidates, feelings of disappointment were mixed with relief on election night, as they gathered in Moncton to watch the results come in.

David Gordon Koch – Local Journalism Initiative

David Coon’s party had hoped for a breakthrough, but instead they lost one of their three seats. Pat Finnigan, a Liberal candidate and former MP, beat Green Party incumbent Kevin Arseneau in Kent North by 677 votes.

But Green partisans expressed gratitude as it became clear that voters had ousted Blaine Higgs, ending six years of Tory rule. The Liberals, led by Susan Holt, won a majority with 31 seats.

“At least it’s a change,” said Green Party supporter Jean-Claude Basque. “We got rid of Higgs for sure.”

In several ridings, the Greens trailed in second place behind the Liberals.

Examples include Belle-Baie-Belledune, Kent North, Tracadie, Shediac-Cap-Acadie, and Dieppe-Memramcook.

“Obviously I’d like to see more wins, but I’m seeing a lot of second places,” said Green Party candidate Teri McMackin, who ran in Sussex-Three Rivers. “A lot of new candidates have hundreds of votes.”

She finished third behind Conservative incumbent Tammy Scott-Wallace, who was re-elected, and Liberal Bruce Northrup.

“I’ve got over a thousand votes and I was running against people who have served in Cabinet,” McMackin said. “I feel like that’s going to send a strong message that next time around, you know, they need to pay attention.”

Third parties like the Greens or NDP tend to suffer in polarized election cycles where people are trying to get rid of the governing party, said Geoffrey Martin, a professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Mount Allison University.

He said Liberal Leader Susan Holt “made a very accurate calculation” by taking liberal stances on social issues while steering clear of economic positions that would alarm groups including the investor class.

For example, Holt avoided calls for higher taxes on the rich, while committing to balanced budgets.

That’s likely to leave the government “relatively hamstrung when it comes to making the resources available to fix the healthcare system” and to address problems like the affordable housing crisis.

“They’re already signaling that that this is not going to be nearly as big spending a government as voters may expect,” he said.

“There’s going to be a lot of disillusion, which is one of the parts of New Brunswick political cycle.”

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).