1974 New Brunswick general election explained

Election Name:1974 New Brunswick general election
Country:New Brunswick
Type:parliamentary
Party Colour:no
Party Name:no
Previous Election:1970 New Brunswick general election
Previous Year:1970
Previous Mps:47th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
Election Date:November 18, 1974
Elected Mps:members
Next Election:1978 New Brunswick general election
Next Year:1978
Next Mps:49th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
Seats For Election:58 seats of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick
Majority Seats:30
Leader1:Richard Hatfield
Leader Since1:1967
Leaders Seat1:Carleton Centre
Last Election1:32
Seats1:33
Seat Change1:1
Percentage1:46.86%
Swing1:1.54%
Leader2:Robert Higgins
Leader Since2:1971
Leaders Seat2:Saint John Park
Last Election2:26
Seats2:25
Seat Change2:1
Percentage2:47.52%
Swing2:1.08
Map Size:300px
Premier
Before Election:Richard Hatfield
After Election:Richard Hatfield
Posttitle:Premier after election
Ongoing:No

The 1974 New Brunswick general election was held on November 18, 1974, to elect 58 members to the 48th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, the governing house of the province of New Brunswick, Canada. It saw Richard Hatfield's Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick win its second majority government with a gain of one seat despite losing the popular vote to Robert J. Higgins's New Brunswick Liberal Party. For the second election in a row, the Conservatives received a majority in the parliament despite receiving fewer votes than the Liberals.

Despite the Hatfield government's involvement in the failed Bricklin SV-1 automobile plant and a series of kickback schemes, there were few surprises during the campaign. Hatfield had made inroads in the Acadian community since the 1970 election, winning three francophone seats in by-elections. The Acadian support proved key during Hatfield's entire term as premier.

This was the first New Brunswick election in which candidates contested only single-member ridings, established as a result of the 1973 electoral redistribution; previous elections had each county as an electoral district electing a varying number of members, based on their respective populations, with multi-member districts predominating.

Results

|- bgcolor=CCCCCC!rowspan="2" colspan="2"|Party!rowspan="2"|Party leader!rowspan="2"|# of
candidates!colspan="4"|Seats!colspan="3"|Popular vote|- bgcolor=CCCCCC|align="center"|1970|align="center"|

Dissolution|align="center"|Elected|align="center"|Change|align="center"|#|align="center"|%|align="center"|% Change|align=left|Progressive Conservative|align=left|Richard Hatfield|align="right"|58|align="right"|32|align="right"|32|align="right"|33|align="right"|+1|align="right"|145,304|align="right"|46.86|align="right"|-1.54|align=left|Liberal|align=left|Robert Higgins|align="right"|58|align="right"|26|align="right"|26|align="right"|25|align="right"|-1|align="right"|147,372|align="right"|47.53|align="right"|-1.08|align=left|New Democratic|align=left|Albert Richardson|align="right"|35|align="right"|0|align="right"|0|align="right"|0|align="right"|0|align="right"|9,092|align="right"|2.93|align="right"|+0.10|align=left|Parti Acadien|align=left|Euclide Chaisson|align="right"|13|align="right"|0|align="right"|0|align="right"|0|align="right"|0|align="right"|3,607|align="right"|1.16|align="right"||-|align=left|Independents|align=left||align="right"|11|align="right"|0|align="right"|0|align="right"|0|align="right"|0|align="right"|4,723|align="right"|1.52|align="right"||-|}

Further reading