FREDERICTON — The New Brunswick Liberals are asking Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs to apologize for a joke he made at the launch of his party’s re-election bid.

At his Thursday night campaign kickoff in Quispamsis,N.B., Higgs recounted a purported 2014 conversation between a party canvasser and supporter in which the canvasser was told not to worry about someone who recently died because they supported the Liberals.

Hannah Fulton Johnston, executive director of the New Brunswick Liberal Association, issued a statement that says making light of the death of any New Brunswicker is highly inappropriate for anyone and completely unacceptable for the premier of the province.

Green Party Leader David Coon described the anecdote as disgusting and questioned whether the comment could be passed off as a joke, adding there was nothing funny about it.

The Progressive Conservative party did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Higgs’s remarks or the Liberals demand for an apology.

New Brunswick voters will go to the polls on Oct. 21.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2024.

The Canadian Press