Mackenzie Thomason
Mackenzie Thomason | |
|---|---|
| Leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party | |
Interim | |
| Assumed office March 24, 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Jennifer McKenzie |
| Personal details | |
| Political party | New Democratic Party |
Mackenzie Thomason (born c. 1997) is a Canadian politician, currently interim leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party.
Early life and family[edit]
Thomason grew up in Tracy, New Brunswick until the age of 11 when his family moved to Alberta. He returned to New Brunswick upon acceptance to the University of New Brunswick.[1]
Before becoming interim leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party, he worked for UPS and as a newspaper carrier in Fredericton.[2] He currently is a hotel employee in Fredericton.[3]
Political career[edit]
He first became involved with politics during the 2015 Alberta general election where Rachel Notley's Alberta New Democratic Party won a majority government. He later volunteered with the federal New Democratic Party during the 2015 Canadian federal election in the Fredericton area.
During the 2018 New Brunswick general election, Thomason ran in New Maryland—Sunbury. Thomason was named interim leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party in March 2019. In 2019 federal election, he ran as the NDP candidate in Fredericton. Thomason led the New Brunswick NDP into the 2020 provincial election, he unsuccessfully ran in Fredericton North and the NDP did not win any seats in the legislature.[4]
Thomason had intended to only lead the party until a new leader was found. A leadership election that had been scheduled for August 2019 was postponed until June 2020 due to a lack of candidates and then was postponed again until April 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] However, when Premier Blaine Higgs called a snap election for September 14, 2020, he led the party through the election campaign, saying beforehand that he was in "a little bit of panic" at the prospects of leading the party in an election campaign, saying, "It wasn't something I ever thought of when I first signed up for the job."[3] Thomason positioned the party further to the left than in previous campaigns, in order to distinguish the party from the Green Party and the Liberals.[5] He told CBC News: "I think it's really about making sure that we cement our values... A lot of this back and forth between centre and centre left, it's not working. It's not working for the party. It's not working for electoral chances. It's definitely not working for New Brunswickers."[5]
He participated in the televised leaders' debate on September 3, 2020, saying that the province may have to continue to run deficits in order to ensure people had access “to the services they pay for.”[6]
Thomason's campaign focussed on bringing in a $15/hour minimum wage, senior care, making prescription medicine affordable,[7] as well as reducing and eventually eliminating tuition for post-secondary education.[8]
In the 2020 New Brunswick general election, the NDP failed to win a seat, and received only 1.7% of the vote province-wide.[9][10]
Electoral record[edit]
| New Brunswick general election, 2020: Fredericton North | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Jill Green | 3,226 | 41.12 | +12.89 | ||||
| Green | Luke Randall | 2,464 | 31.41 | +14.42 | ||||
| Liberal | Stephen Horsman | 1,464 | 18.66 | -12.95 | ||||
| People's Alliance | Allen Price | 591 | 7.53 | -13.83 | ||||
| New Democratic | Mackenzie Thomason | 100 | 1.27 | -0.53 | ||||
| Total valid votes | 7,845 | 100.0 | ||||||
| Total rejected ballots | 42 | 0.53 | ||||||
| Turnout | 7,887 | 67.87 | ||||||
| Eligible voters | 11,620 | |||||||
| Progressive Conservative gain from Liberal | Swing | -0.77 | ||||||
| Canadian federal election, 2019: Fredericton | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | Expenditures | |||
| Green | Jenica Atwin | 16,640 | 33.68 | +21.26 | $55,541.51 | |||
| Conservative | Andrea Johnson | 15,011 | 30.38 | +1.96 | none listed | |||
| Liberal | Matt DeCourcey | 13,544 | 27.41 | −21.85 | $82,534.73 | |||
| New Democratic | Mackenzie Thomason | 2,946 | 5.96 | −3.93 | none listed | |||
| People's | Jason Paull | 776 | 1.57 | New | none listed | |||
| Animal Protection | Lesley Thomas | 286 | 0.58 | New | $2,894.40 | |||
| Libertarian | Brandon Kirby | 126 | 0.26 | New | $965.26 | |||
| Communist | Jacob Patterson | 80 | 0.16 | New | $476.56 | |||
| Total valid votes/Expense limit | 49,409 | 100.0 | $101,795.92 | |||||
| Total rejected ballots | 301 | 0.61 | +0.20 | |||||
| Turnout | 49,710 | 75.52 | −0.21 | |||||
| Eligible voters | 65,825 | |||||||
| Green gain from Liberal | Swing | +21.56 | ||||||
| Source: Elections Canada[11][12] | ||||||||
| New Brunswick general election, 2018: New Maryland-Sunbury | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | ||||
| Progressive Conservative | Jeff Carr | 3,844 | 41.2 | +0.25 | ||||
| People's Alliance | Morris Shannon | 2,214 | 23.7 | +23.7 | ||||
| Liberal | Alex Scholten | 2,210 | 23.7 | -7.64 | ||||
| Green | Jenica Atwin | 902 | 9.7 | +3.57 | ||||
| New Democratic | Mackenzie Thomason | 143 | 1.5 | -20.08 | ||||
| KISS | Danelle Titus | 14 | 0.2 | +0.2 | ||||
| Progressive Conservative hold | Swing | {{{3}}} | ||||||
| Source: Elections NB[13] | ||||||||
References[edit]
- ↑ "Our Leader – NB NDP". Retrieved 2020-08-17.
- ↑ "In New Brunswick, being leader of the struggling NDP is a fourth job for 22-year-old". National Post. Retrieved 2020-08-17.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Interim NDP leader, 23, confesses to 'a little bit of panic' over possible fall election". CBC News. August 12, 2020. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
- ↑ Poitras, Jacques (Aug 12, 2020). "Interim NDP leader, 23, confesses to 'a little bit of panic' over possible fall election". CBC New Brunswick. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ 5.0 5.1 "NDP needs to solidify position as party of left, says interim party leader". CBC News. September 9, 2020. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
- ↑ "New Brunswick leaders' debate: NDP's Mackenzie Thomason says province may need to run deficit". Global News. September 3, 2020. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
- ↑ "NDP Feeling Optimistic Ahead of Election". Country 94. September 18, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
- ↑ "N.B. NDP Leader Says Economic Recovery Should Focus On Small Businesses". September 18, 2020. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
- ↑ "New Brunswick Progressive Conservatives win majority in pandemic vote". CBC News. September 18, 2020. Retrieved September 14, 2020.
- ↑ "Progressive Conservatives win majority in New Brunswick's pandemic election". CTV News. Canadian Press. September 14, 2020. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
- ↑ "Results Validated by the Returning Officer". Elections Canada. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
- ↑ "Final Election Expense Limits for Candidates: 43rd General Election - October 21, 2019". Elections Canada. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
- ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-05-25. Retrieved 2019-10-22. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
| Party wings |
|  | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal level |
| |||||||||||
| Provincial level |
| |||||||||||
| Factions | ||||||||||||
| Key documents and events |
| |||||||||||
| See also | ||||||||||||
  | This article about a New Brunswick politician is a stub. You can help EverybodyWiki by expanding it. |
This article "Mackenzie Thomason" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Mackenzie Thomason. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
