A potential king-maker in New Brunswick’s deadlocked election says he’s willing to work with any party to make a minority government work – even if some leaders say they’re not willing to work with him.
“We understand that the people of New Brunswick have given all of us a mandate to work together,” Kris Austin, leader of the right-of-centre People’s Alliance, said Wednesday.
“That requires negotiation. That requires give and take. I’m willing to do that, and I think if the other parties are not willing to do that, I think New Brunswickers will see that for what it is as well.”
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He said it’s unfortunate that Liberal Premier Brian Gallant has stated the Liberals would not form a coalition with his party, which won three seats.
The Liberals won 21 seats in Monday’s election – one less than the Progressive Conservatives – but Gallant remains premier as he tries to get support from other parties to maintain the legislature’s confidence.
“I’ve made it very clear that I would have no coalition government with the People’s Alliance,” Gallant said on election night.
“There are some fundamental values that I need to share with any party that we would be working with, and that’s not the case there. With that said, if we put something forward and they vote for it, that’s going to be their prerogative,” said Gallant, who told reporters he plans to call the legislature back before Christmas.
Green Leader David Coon, whose party also won three seats and is another potential king-maker, has been meeting with his new MLAs to discuss their next steps.
On Wednesday, he said the legislature session will be a real test, especially for the mainline parties.
“The others keep talking about doing politics differently but they never do. So I see that we as a Green caucus have a real opportunity here to help make that happen where we create a legislative assembly that actually starts to co-operate on behalf of the people of this province,” he said.
Coon said there are similarities in all the parties’ platforms, and he’s sure they can all find issues to support.
“Take the People’s Alliance even. They have a clear policy against spraying glyphosate over the forests. We agree with them. That’s a particular issue we could co-operate with them on. The Tories seem to be leaning in that direction too, so that’s interesting,” Coon said.
But Coon made it clear the Green party is not willing to compromise on linguistic rights. The People’s Alliance has called for efficiency in the delivery of services and not just what is known as “duality,” particularly in health and education.
Austin said party leaders need to put aside egos and agendas to make a minority legislature work.
“I think that’s why Mr. Gallant is having such a tough time because they’re used to running New Brunswick with an iron fist and now they don’t have that option,” Austin said.
Austin said while there were similarities in the platforms of his party and the Tories, that doesn’t mean the People’s Alliance would rule out working with the other two.
Robert Gauvin, a francophone who won the only northern seat for the Tories, has said he’s opposed to the positions of the People’s Alliance, but Tory Leader Blaine Higgs says Gauvin is “fully onside.”
Higgs was also asked about some kind of alignment with the People’s Alliance.
“Alignment is a strong word,” he said Tuesday.
“My goal is to go down through the platforms of each party and to say OK, where do we have common ground? Where do we have issues that we just aren’t going to change anything on our behalf – this is what we believe in and this will stay solid, and I think certainly linguistic rights are a clear example of that,” Higgs said.
“We have aims and principles in our party that are foundational and we are not going to be changing that.”
Austin said some people are fear-mongering, arguing that his party is anti-French.
He said it fully supports both linguistic groups, and is willing to sit down to discuss that with anyone.
“We’ve been saying for many years we respect the rights of both francophone and anglophone citizens to receive government services in their language of choice,” he said.
“What we want to do is make sure that it works in the best interest for all New Brunswickers so that we have more paramedics, more doctors, more teachers. The money we’re spending on duality can be invested in frontline services while still maintaining the rights of both linguistic communities,” Austin said.