In 1982, Provincial election was held in New Brunswick. The Progressive Conservatives won again over all. Richard Hatfield was the leader of New Brunswick’s government. This was Richard Hatfield’s fourth time to be elected New Brunswick’s leader. There were only 18 Liberals in the government then. There were 39 Progressive Conservatives and 1 New Democrat. Frank McKenna was one of the Liberals. He won the seat for Chatham in the government. He did not win by a lot. He won with only 81 votes more than the Progressive Conservative man. This was not a good time for the Liberals. The Liberals were very disappointed.

The Liberals had to choose a new leader for their party in the 1985 campaign. All the Liberals of New Brunswick would get to decide who would be their leader. At this time Ray Frenette was the Liberal leader. He had become leader to replace Doug Young after he had quit. He would replace him until the Liberals could choose a new leader. Mr. Frenette was most likely to win because of his experience. Frank McKenna was one of Ray Frentte’s supporters. Things were not good for Ray Frenette. People wanted a new face. It was now that people started asking Frank McKenna to run for leader of the Liberal party. He didn’t want to because he had given his support to Ray Frenette. He did not want to run against him for the leadership.

Things were bad for the Liberal party. Two byelections in Saint John went to Progressive Conservative people. Mr. Frenette then excused Frank McKenna from his support. This left Frank McKenna free to run for Liberal leader. He did not want to see his party go down without a fight.

In May 1985, Frank McKenna became leader of the Liberal party in New Brunswick. He won 1901 votes to 847. He then began to get the Liberals ready for the next election. The next election could come at any time.

Richard Hatfield decided that the next election would be on October 13 1987. Frank McKenna started up his campaign to become the leader of New Brunswick. He needed to have the Liberals win in most places in order to be New Brunswick’s leader.

Frank McKenna’s campaign was mainly on the issue of leadership. He and the Liberals felt that what New Brunswick needed was leadership. They felt that New Brunswick had done badly from not having good leadership. As we know, good leadership is important for a government.

One of the other issues he spoke about was the New Brunswick government’s overspending. The airplane owned by New Brunswick was not used as it should have been. Also the Premier was spending too much. Another issue was the unemployment problem. Frank McKenna stated that if elected he would make sure that unemployment was given top importance.

Frank McKenna is also a supporter of women’s and Indian’s rights. On the issue of the Meech Lake Accord he spoke out for getting more rights for all Canadians. This also means the French. In fact, Frank McKenna can speak French. He gave his speeches in both French and English. He even spoke French alone to French radio and newpapermen. However, according to one French reporter, he knew many words in French, but didn’t have good pronunciation.

October 13 1987, was a red-letter day for Frank McKenna. New Brunswickers chose this bright young man as Premier. All 58 Liberal men were elected. This was the first time in New Brunswick’s history that one party won all the seats in a Provincial election. Only once ever before in Canada’s history did one party win an election with all seats. This happened in 1935 in Prince Edward Island. Wallace Lea was elected Premier with all seats taken. Once again it was the Liberals who took all the seats.

So at 39, Frank McKenna became Premier. His Liberals took over 37 Progressive Conservative seats and 1 New Democrat seat to win. This ended the 17-year-rule by Richard Hatfield as Premier, a rule that near the end, was full of problems.

Having only one party in government presents many problems to the new Premier. With only one party in government there is no opposition party. There is nobody present to keep them in line. This means everything they do will be watched very carefully. They will be watched by the newsmen and the two other parties. One of these issues is Free Trade. Many people are not pleased with the Premier’s stand on the Free Trade issue.