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NDP hopes in New Brunswick dim further with resignations to the Greens

Sep 3, 2019 | 4:03 PM

The NDP’S stature in New Brunswick ahead of the October federal election has taken a hit following a wave of defections to the Greens.

Fourteen candidates who ran for the New Brunswick NDP in the last provincial election said today they were leaving to join the provincial and federal Green parties.

The New Democrats also lost Jonathan Richardson today, the federal party’s executive member for Atlantic Canada.

He told a news conference the NDP did not have a path to victory in any of the province’s 10 ridings and invited his NDP colleagues to join him with the Greens.

The defections come as the NDP has so far failed to nominate a single candidate in any of New Brunswick’s ridings with the federal election less than 50 days away.

Federal Green party deputy leader Daniel Green says the resignations are a sign voters are increasingly looking to his party as the true vehicle in federal politics to fight climate change.

On Aug. 19, Quebec MP Pierre Nantel left the NDP and joined the Greens after criticizing his former’s party position on the environment.

The Canadian Press