Sue Stultz's election sign with Moncton firefighters sparks concern
A controversial election sign featuring Moncton firefighters put up by Progressive Conservative candidate Sue Stultz in the final days of the campaign is still raising questions about the neutrality of city departments during campaigns.
Stultz was trying to hang onto her Moncton South seat and trotted out a high-profile endorsement of the Moncton Firefighters Association, which she used on signs across her riding, radio advertisements and on social media.
The campaign signs showed the Tory candidate standing next to four Moncton firefighters in uniform and in front of a Moncton fire truck.
The sign said Stultz was officially endorsed by the Moncton Firefighters Association, which is the union representing the firefighters.
But Green Party candidate Rish McGlynn said the Tory sign had a very different impact on her when she saw it.
“Oh, it definitely said the fire department was endorsing Sue Stultz, that's definitely what I got from it,” McGlynn said.
Stultz’s opponent wasn’t the only person who saw those signs and thought the endorsement came from the city’s fire department.
Isabelle LeBlanc, a spokesperson for the City of Moncton, said the city received several complaints when the signs went up.
LeBlanc said Eric Arsenault, the city’s fire chief, contacted Stultz's campaign and the firefighters' union to have the signs removed because of the concerns over the department’s neutrality in the campaign.
“The City of Moncton does not endorse candidates, whether it's for provincial or federal elections,” she said.
“We are neutral in this case, so obviously we were concerned when we saw some of our firefighters on a marketing campaign.”
LeBlanc said the city is reviewing its policies to make sure it remains neutral in all provincial or federal elections.
No one from the firefighters' union or Stultz's campaign returned calls from CBC News.
Stultz's campaign issued a statement on Sept. 19, three days before the provincial vote, saying the endorsement came after a unanimous vote by the firefighters' union.
She said the endorsement was in recognition of Stultz's work in its annual turkey drive and there was no attempt to imply that the city or the fire department were endorsing Stultz.
"The campaign to re-elect Sue Stultz recognizes that the City of Moncton and Moncton Fire Department must maintain neutrality in all electoral events, and therefore we wish to make it clear that no endorsement from either of these parties was expressed or implied," the Stultz campaign's statement on Sept. 19 said.
The firefighters' association’s endorsement didn’t end up helping Stultz retain her seat. The Tory candidate was defeated by Liberal Cathy Rogers by 656 votes.
Stultz was first elected in the 2010 election and served as the minister of government services in David Alward’s cabinet.
