When voters head to the polls sometime over the next three months, there will be a lot of new names on the ballots, and that is a good thing, according to a MUN political scientist.

Looking at the provincial Liberals specifically, there has been an exodus of established and high-profile names over the last few months.

Several long-term politicians have either resigned or announced that they will not be running again over the last year, including Siobhan Coady, Andrew Parsons, Perry Trimper, and Tom Osborne.

Others, who had relatively short political careers but took on high-profile positions, will also not be on the ballot this time around, those being former Premier Andrew Furey and John Abbott.

Dr. Amanda Bittner says the last five years have been really challenging for governments across the country, and doesn’t think it is surprising to see some people wanting to move on.

She says that while that can be a challenge for all parties, she believes this is an “exciting” time for voters because there will be many new candidates with fresh ideas.