People's Alliance Party Leader kicks off campaign

People's Alliance Party Leader Kris Austin is campaigning on aplatform of tax reform, reducing corporate handouts and ending "duality," by combining anglophone and francophone public services.

On Saturday around 250 people gathered at theMarysville Heritage Centre in Fredericton wearing purple shirts and cheering on the 27 candidates.

In 2014 Austin was 26 votes away from being elected in the riding of Fredericton-Grand Lake, which is currently held by Progressive Conservative Pam Lynch. He's running inthe same riding this year.

Platforms announced

Austin said people in New Brunswick pay "too much taxes" compared to largecorporations, and he's against government loanssuch as the ones given to TD Bank and Sears Canadaby the Liberal government during its mandate.

He said the party's priorities are catering to front-line workers like nurses, school teachers and doctors. To free up money to do so, he will push to centralize English and French services to prevent "redundancies," he said.

He said if elected he'll push for better utilization of nurse practitioners and a more balanced healthcare system.

In the polls

The People's Alliance has been gaining support this election, but it's still the lowest scoring party in average polling.

Austin said the party has been gaining support from both previous PC voters and Liberal supporters who are "unhappy with how things are going."

With files from Catherine Allard and Radio-Canada