We know (sort of) where the parties stand on privatized health care, but what are voters saying?

Quick note: The newsletter will return on Tuesday, Sept. 4.

Good evening,

I'll begin by addressing the three-digit elephant in the room. Mere minutes after we settled on the name the 506er, the CRTC announced the province is getting a new area code. I won't dive into how I feel about the news, but, to quote a CBC senior producer, "Regulatory boards ruin all our fun."

On the plus side, it will only be November 2020 when New Brunswickers grapple with the inevitable headache of remembering three extra numbers.

Now onto Day 9 of the election campaign, and what a busy day it was. The top four parties in the polls rolled out key platform planks on the last day of August. Fall is around the corner, but things are only heating up in New Brunswick.

Here's what we're talking about on Friday, Aug. 31:

Top headlines

• PCs promise new taxation powers for municipalities
  • Some of the demands from the mayors of New Brunswick's eight cities were answered by Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs on Friday. Calling recent legislative changes by the Liberals "minor," Higgs pledged to overhaul the laws for municipalities to give them more economic autonomy.

• Election Day 9
  • Get the latest on the leaders' movements and announcements from the campaign trail, including major policy reveals by the Greens and NDPas well as a familiar promise from the Liberals.

• Liberal candidate noticeably absent from all-candidates debate
  • Jacques LeBlanc, Liberal candidate for Shediac-Beaubassin-Cap-Pel, was booed at an all-candidates debate Thursday night, but he didn't any of it. That's because LeBlancdropped out of the debate at the 11th hour.

The talking point

The governing Liberals faced vocal opposition during the past four years as the province shifted, or attempted to shift in some cases, to a more privatized health-care model. Opposition parties, activists as well as labour and special interest groups have criticized government on issues such as the now-scrapped privatized hospital food service plan and the more controversial Medavie contract.

Concerns range from costs and effectiveness to questions of accountability and transparency. Medavie, in particular, has been under fire for its management of Ambulance New Brunswick.

The Green Party and the NDP both committed to returning extramural care and ambulance services to public management. PC Leader Blaine Higgs hedged on his initial promise to tear up the Medavie deal after learning of its performance targets and cancellation penalties.

Privatized health care appears to be a divisive issue among New Brunswick voters, according to new Vote Compass data. Findings based on more than 6,500 responses to the online questionnaire indicate a fairly even split among respondents in favour of the private sector taking on a greater role, those who say it should be much less and the group pleased with the status quo.

It's a similar outcome when the findings are broken down by sex, age, education and native language. But differences appear when you separate respondents by party support.

Supporters of the smaller parties the ones unlikely to win more than a seat or two are in favour of reducing private-sector management.

Fifty-seven per cent of respondents who intend to vote Green want less involvement, and that's 55 per cent for NDP supporters and 46 for PANB voters.

Forty-six per cent of Tory supporters want to see more involvement, while 25 per cent are fine to keep matters unchanged. The findings don't lean one way or the other for respondents who intend to vote Liberal.

Vote Compass

Have you tried the Vote Compass feature yet? You haven't? Well, drop everything (after finishing this newsletter, of course) and go see what all the fuss is about. The first batch of data was released, but there's still time to see how your views align with the political parties.

First week Vote Compass results

6 years ago

Duration 1:20

These are the topics New Brunswick voters care about the most in the upcoming election.

The pulse

CBC New Brunswick will be hosting a 90-minute debate on Sept. 12, and we want to hearyour questions.

Send your questions to nbvotes@cbc.ca or reach us on Facebook and Twitter.

The debate will start at 6:30 p.m. and be hosted by CBC New Brunswick's Harry Forestell. It will be broadcast on CBC Television, the CBC New Brunswick website and social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It will also be broadcast on CBC Radio.

Riding profile: Carleton

There are a handful of ridings that are considered locks for either the Liberals or Progressive Conservatives, and Carleton is as close to a no-doubter as they come for the Tories.

Although the boundary was redrawn in 2013, the Woodstock-area has a long history of supporting PC governments. The riding covers the southern part of Carleton County and includes Woodstock and Hartland.

The PC incumbent, Stewart Fairgrieve, is seeking another term after winning the October 2015 byelection with 49 per cent of the vote. The seat was vacated by former premier David Alward who stepped down earlier that year after the 2014 election loss.

Alward held the now-dissolved Woodstock riding since 1999 that's five elections while Dale Graham was a lock for the Tories in the old Carleton riding from the 1995 until 2014. Graham won his last three elections with more than 60 per cent of the vote.

History is against Fairgrieve'sopponents: Liberal candidate Christy Culberson, Green candidate (and Woodstock deputy mayor) Amy Anderson, the NDP's Adam McAvoy and People's Alliance hopeful Stewart Manuel.

Where the leaders were

Austin:Campaigningin Fredericton-Grand Lake

Coon: Announcement in Fredericton; meetingwith optometrists; canvassingin Fredericton South

Gallant: Announcement in Moncton; stopsin Petitcodiac, Hampton and Saint John

Higgs: Announcement in Hanwell; stops in Oromocto and Rothesay

McKenzie: Announcement in Saint John; canvassingin Saint John Harbour

More coverage

New Brunswick Poll Tracker | Get the latest projections here

Vote Compass | See how your views compare with the parties' platforms

Help CBC track political ads on Facebook | Learn how here