Election season heats up as party candidates turn up at government announcements

Liberal election candidates are starting to make cameo appearances at government events funded by taxpayers.

It's a quadrennial ritual for aspiring politicians running for the party in power: Turn up as a minister or premier makes a supposedly non-partisan job-creation or infrastructure announcement, at which the candidate has no official role.

The most recent example was Caraquet Liberal candidate Isabelle Thriault, who was at a job-creation announcement by Premier Brian Gallant last week.

Thriault didn't speak but was visible in a photo Gallant posted on Twitter. She appears to be joining the premier in greeting employees of Premier Tech Chronos, a manufacturing company that received a $250,000 provincial grant.

Andy Hardy, the Liberal candidate in Southwest Miramichi-Bay du Vin, attended a recent road construction announcement in Miramichi, though Hardy said he was there as president of the union representing government road maintenance workers.

There are rules in place to prevent governments using tax dollars to promote their political parties, but nothing prohibits a party's candidates from showing up at an official announcement.

Party spokesperson Marc Poirier said there is "no role whatsoever for unelected Liberal candidates at government events."

He said the events are open to the public, who can learn about them from advisories posted online.

"It is not uncommon for candidates of all parties (including opposition parties) to attend these events," Poirier said. "Like any other member of the public, they are welcome."

Stephanie Tomilson, the Liberal candidate in Rothesay, said she has attended recent government events in and around the riding, though she wouldn't say whether the party was involved in sending out invitations.

"There's announcements out, sometimes," she said. "When I'm made aware of them and I see them, I can try to go, and if I can't, I can't."

Tomilson, who ran for the Liberals in 2014, said she does "not necessarily" learn of government events through the party.

"No one co-ordinates me to go anywhere," she said. "If I hear of an announcement and I can go, I go. I certainly like to support the team."

Tomilson was recently featured in a photo tweeted by Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Bill Fraser, who visited KV Oasis, a youth centre she helped launch two years ago.

The centre has been relying on short-term grants and is hoping to secure reliable government funding for its services, she said.

That's why she's been trying to schedule visits by several Liberal cabinet ministers.

"We've been asking anybody who will come and see the centre."

She said given the other ministers she hasn'tmanagedto visit yet, her status as a nominated Liberal candidate isn't playing a role.

"I don't think so. If that would have been the case, wouldn't they have been here earlier?"

Poirier said there was no electoral intent to Fraser tweeting the photo with Tomilson at the youth centre.

"Ministers are often invited by stakeholders and members of the public to meet with New Brunswick citizens, businesses, and organizations and they often post about these visits on social media," he said.

Tomilson said Fraser visited because he's both the minister for the Regional Development Corporation, a possible source of funds, and the regional minister for what the government calls "central New Brunswick."