Premier of New Brunswick
Graham was elected premier under a platform called the Charter for Change, he pledged to focus on "the three Es": energy, education and the economy. He also pledged to make the province self-sufficient, that is to no longer depend on federal equalization payments, by 2026.
Though they won the election with a slight deficit in the popular vote, upon taking office, the Liberals surged in popularity. In December 2006, a poll showed the Liberals had surged to a lead of 65-27 in opinion polls, thereafter polls have showed the Liberals ahead by a minimum of 17%.
Graham's Liberals have maintained the lead in a number of polls despite having to "spend some political capital" on a number of controversial issues such as post-secondary education reform, French second-language education, a bailout of a credit union and the restructuring of the province's public health care administration.
Graham has said that this has been done because to achieve self-sufficiency, the province must undergo transformational change. Outstanding initiatives in this vein include a proposal for a massive overhaul of the province's taxation and a study of its local governance structures. During his term in office, however, equalization payments increased from $1.35 billion to $1.58 billion, a failure that is attributable to global forces and Graham’s economic policy, which relied too heavily on the province’s potential as a regional and international energy hub.
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