Fredericton, NB — 2008 Federal Election Results Map

Fredericton

Three institutions set the tone here: the provincial legislature, the University of New Brunswick, and the army garrison at Oromocto. The seat covers New Brunswick's capital on the Saint John River, the town of Oromocto, the village of New Maryland, and rural parishes running east through Sunbury into Queens County as far as Minto and Chipman, both brought in by the 2003 redistribution. About 85,900 people lived inside the boundaries at the 2006 census, roughly 50,500 of them in the city itself.

No incumbent appeared on the ballot. Andy Scott had held the seat for the Liberals since 1993, joining cabinet as solicitor general after the 1997 election and returning in 2004 as minister of Indian affairs and northern development. He did not seek another term.

Candidates

Keith Ashfield (Conservative) — Ashfield came to the federal race straight from the legislature. Born in Fredericton in March 1952, he studied business at the University of New Brunswick and spent several years as a school trustee. A first provincial run in 1991 left him third; he took New Maryland in 1999 and was named deputy speaker. After his re-election in 2003 he was sworn in as minister of natural resources and energy under Bernard Lord, and he held the redistributed seat of New Maryland—Sunbury West in 2006. He won the Conservative nomination in Fredericton on 7 November 2007 and gave up his provincial seat when the federal writ was issued.

David Innes (Liberal) — An engineer, Innes was president and chief executive officer of the Greater Fredericton Airport Authority, and came to the contest with a transportation and business-development record rather than a party background.

Jesse Travis (NDP) — Travis, a software sales consultant from Rusagonis southeast of the city, carried the New Democratic nomination.

Mary Lou Babineau (Green Party) — Babineau was a full-time faculty member at St. Thomas University, where she taught Spanish language and literature.

Ben Kelly, a student, stood for the Canadian Action Party.

About the Riding

Government is the industry. The province employs more people in Fredericton than any other enterprise, and the departments clustered around the legislature steady the local economy in a way few New Brunswick communities enjoy. The University of New Brunswick, founded in 1785, and St. Thomas University share the hill above the downtown and account for much of the city's professional population. That base helped seed a technology sector through the 2000s; in 2008 the Intelligent Community Forum named Fredericton one of its seven top intelligent communities worldwide, citing municipal work on broadband.

Downriver at Oromocto stands the garrison of CFB Gagetown, the army's principal training establishment, with roughly 6,500 military members and 1,000 civilian staff and training ground spreading over some 1,100 square kilometres of interior country to the south. It contributes more than $200 million a year to the surrounding economy, and gives the area a direct stake in defence procurement and the Afghanistan mission. It also produced one of the region's longest-running federal grievances: unregistered American military herbicides, Agent Orange among them, were tested at Gagetown during the summers of 1966 and 1967. In September 2007 Ottawa announced a one-time, tax-free payment of $20,000 out of a $95.6-million fund, but eligibility was confined to people who had worked, trained or lived within five kilometres of the site during those two summers and who had a listed illness, and the rules drew steady criticism from veterans and nearby residents.

Beyond the city and the base, the rural parishes live on woodlots, sawmilling and farming, squeezed by the slump in North American forest products. The turmoil of September and October 2008 then sharpened the argument over the Liberal carbon-tax proposal and over how much federal spending the economy would need.