New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs disputes the notion that the Progressive Conservative party is experiencing a political shift. Some political watchers have noted that the premier’s stance on issues like Policy 713 appear to be pulling the party in a different direction, but Higgs disagrees.
“Having parents play a role with their kids shouldn’t be a fundamental shift of any kind, it should be the reality that we all should have been in anyway,” he said during a year end interview.
Policy 713 was revised in June and now requires parental consent for a child under 16 to use a different name or pronoun for reasons related to their gender identity.
The changes have drawn criticism from LGBTQ2 advocates and educational experts who say more children will likely remain in the closet or be forced to be outed to their parents, who may not be supportive. A legal challenge from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association arguing the policy violates children’s Charter rights has just been granted public interest status.
It also sparked two resignations from cabinet and another of other government MLAs to speak out against the premier’s leadership, along with a failed push for a leadership review.
According to University of New Brunswick political scientist J.P. Lewis that issue, and the subsequent fallout that it caused within the PC Party, appears to signal a new direction for the premier.
“This has been by far the most transformative year for Higgs as premier and party leader,” he said. “It will be interesting to see how members of the party, members of caucus, members of cabinet and the public in general how they react.”
Earlier this month the party nominated its first candidate for the next provincial election that will take place sometime next year. Faytene Grasseschi is a well known Christian TV host and political activist who spent the summer organizing support for the changes to Policy 713, trying to sign up members to the party to support Higgs should a leadership review be triggered.
Higgs acknowledged that Grasseschi has been successful in recruiting a number of new members to the party, as he was when he won the leadership.
“We saw democracy in action,” he said. “It’s exciting, it’s time we had new people joining and making decisions that are affecting their lives.”
Jamie Gilles, a professor of communications and public policy at St Thomas University, says that influx of new members is very likely to influence the direction of the party moving forward, away from the focus on fiscal issues towards a more social conservative direction.
“Those people who have been animated by an issue like Policy 713 may start to take over elements of the PC Party and that really hurts the Maritime New Brunswick Progressive Conservative brand,” he said.