Best Premier: The Vote that Counts or the Final Seven

Welcome to the round that counts that might count, we will be voting on the final seven nominees to be New Brunswick's Greatest Premier. In this round will be the top six finishers from the qualifying round as well as Bernard Lord, our most recent premier, who I have no love for and who I want to include here to insure that every feels this has been a fair contest.

The vote is by preferential ballot and you can vote by clicking here. The polls will close on Friday.

Unfortunately, I have had to cancel the original preferential voting poll. The Democratic Choice system I was using allowed anyone to vote unlimited times and people were clearly stuffing ballot boxes in favour of Robichaud and Hatfield (each received over 100 votes, with preferences ranked exactly the same, in a matter of minutes). It is extraordinarily easy to stack the ballots on their system as you can simply hit back on your browser and re-vote the same preferences. I cannot find another preferential vote system online, so I will do manual runoff voting. Please see the following poll, cast your vote for your favourite candidate. Voting will close on Thursday at noon (after 48 hours from this moment). If no candidate has 50%, the bottom candidate and all those with less than 10% will be dropped and there will be another round.






I present a summary of each nominee in alphabetical order:

Charles Fisher
Party: Reformer, Smasher, Liberal
Term: 1854-56, 1857-61
Other politics: MLA (1837-1856; 1857-1865; 1865-1867); Attorney General (1866-1867); MP (1867-68); New Brunswick Supreme Court (1868-1880)
Round 1 result: 4% (6th place)
Accomplishments: Established responsible government; led Confederation forces in the legislature against the Anti-Confederation government of 1865-1866.
Failures/Negatives: Lost control of his caucus and was forced out of office as a result; allowed other figures in his cabinet to overshadow and overrule him on occassion
Full bio: mine - Wikipedia - NB Legislative Library (PDF)

The Honourable Hugh John Flemming, P.C.
Party: Conservative, Progressive Conservative
Term: 1952-60
Other politics: Carelton County council (1921-35); Conservative candidate for MP (1935); MLA (1944-60); federal cabinet minister (1960-63) MP (1960-72)
Round 1 result: 7% (5th place)
Accomplishments: Regional cooperation, balanced budgets and equalization
Failures/Negatives: Introduction of controversial hospital tax
Full bio: mine - Wikipedia - NB Legislative Library (PDF)

The Honourable Richard Hatfield, P.C.
Party: Progressive Conservative
Term: 1970-87
Other politics: MLA (1961-1987)
Round 1 result: 14% (third place)
Accomplishments: Official Bilingualism, improved relations between English and French; made PC Party competitive in Francophone New Brunswick
Failures/Negatives: Some would argue Official Bilingualism; setting the stage for the division of the conservative movement; last term scandals; massive deficits
Full bio: mine - Wikipedia - NB Legislative Library (PDF)

Bernard Lord
Party: Progressive Conservative
Term: 1999-2006
Other politics: Unsuccessful candidate for city council (1995); unsuccessful candidate for MLA (1995); unsuccessful candidate for PC nomination in federal riding (1997); MLA (1998-2007)
Round 1 result: n/a
Accomplishments: Delivered on 19/20 promises in first 100 days of office; made province more competitive by lowering business taxes
Failures/Negatives: Implemented a ill thoughtout deal to remove tolls from the highway that cost New Brunswickers longer in the long run; claimed budgets were balanced that the auditor general later said were not; closed hospitals for political reasons rather than on policy considerations; dithered on decision making
Full bio: mine - Wikipedia - NB Legislative Library (PDF)

The Honourable Frank McKenna, P.C.
Party: Liberal
Term: 1987-97
Other politics: MLA (1982-1997); Canadian Ambassador to the United States (2005-2006)
Round 1 result: 20% (2nd place)
Accomplishments: Renewed confidence among citizens; modernization of highways and telecommunications; job creation; return to fiscal restraint
Failures/Negatives: Social system cutbacks
Full bio: mine - Wikipedia - NB Legislative Library (PDF)

The Honourable Louis J. Robichaud, P.C.
Party: Liberal
Term: 1960-70
Other politics: MLA (1952-71); chair of the International Joint Commission (1971-73); Senator (1973-2000)
Round 1 result: 26% (first place)
Accomplishments: Equal opportunity; official bilingualism; job creation
Failures/Negatives: Some would argue official bilingualism; divisiveness with large business
Full bio: mine - Wikipedia - NB Legislative Library (PDF)

The Honourable Sir Samuel Tilley, P.C.
Party: Reformer, Smasher, Liberal, Liberal-Conservative
Term: 1861-65
Other politics: MLA (1850-51; 1854-56; 1856-1865; 1866-67); provincial cabinet minister (1854-56; 1857-65; 1866-67); MP and federal cabinet minister (1867-73; 1878-85); Lieutenant-Governor (1873-78; 1885-93)
Round 1 result: 10% (4th place)
Accomplishments: Intercolonial railway; groundwork for confederation
Failures/Negatives: Came to power in a bloodless coup out of greed and ambition; abandoned principles (prohibition) for political expediency; failed to convince New Brunswickers to go along with confederation in 1865 election, giving anti-confederates a huge majority
Full bio: mine - Wikipedia - NB Legislative Library (PDF)

For your convenience, here is the poll again so you do not have to be bothered to scroll up. Happy voting and thanks for taking part in this exercise :)