1978 New Brunswick general election

The 1978 New Brunswick general election was held on October 23, 1978, to elect 58 members to the 49th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, the governing house of the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Richard Hatfield's Progressive Conservative Party narrowly won its third term.

1978 New Brunswick general election
October 23, 1978
58 seats of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick
30 seats needed for a majority
  First party Second party Third party
 
Lib
NDP
Leader Richard Hatfield Joseph Daigle John LaBossiere
Party Progressive Conservative Liberal New Democratic
Leader since June 14, 1969 May 6, 1978 1976
Leader's seat Carleton Centre Kent North Ran in Kent Centre (lost)
Last election 33 25 0
Seats won 30 28 0
Seat change 3 3
Percentage 44.39% 44.36% 6.48%
Swing 2.37% 3.12% 3.55%
Popular vote by riding. As this is an FPTP election, seat totals are not determined by popular vote, but instead via results by each riding.
Premier before election

Richard Hatfield
Progressive Conservative

 Premier after election

Richard Hatfield
Progressive Conservative

The result was the closest in New Brunswick history: the governing PCs won 30 seats to 28 for the opposition. The popular vote was very close: 146,719 votes were cast for Conservative candidates, and 146,596 for Liberals. In order to secure a workable majority following the election, Hatfield appointed Liberal Robert McCready as speaker of the legislature, despite strong objections from McCready's Liberal colleagues; McCready went on to seek re-election as a Conservative and served in Hatfield's cabinet.

The Parti Acadien had its best ever showing in the election, winning 12% of the vote in the ridings where it fielded candidates, and coming within 200 votes of electing Armand Plourde in Restigouche West.

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