New Brunswick’s election campaign has offered voters a sharp division in viewpoints for the future of the province, especially between the two leading candidates for the premier’s office.

Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs, a unilingual former oil executive running for a third term as premier, presented voters with a two-page platform containing 11 promises, a few of which signal the social conservative bent his party has taken. And he has been noticeable in his absence — on roughly one-third of the days since he called the election on Sept. 19, Higgs has held no public events.