A spat over the People’s Alliance stance on official bilingualism is laying bare the challenges of balancing the direction of the party and the hopes of its grassroots supporters.
A video posted to the Facebook group United Citizens of New Brunswick last week shows group administrator Jason McBride just before he drops off a petition calling for a referendum on bilingualism to Alliance leader Kris Austin.
“We finally have an MLA sitting who is willing and able in the fall session to be able to present this pile of petitions,” McBride said in the video.
But the 2,400 signature petition never saw the floor of the legislature, a point McBride makes in the comments below the video.
“Kris Austin has had thousands of individually signed petitions calling for a change to the state of duality, segregation and the current state of bilingualism in New Brunswick since August 2, 2019. I haven’t seen him mention them or seen them since… have you?” he wrote on January 26.
McBride claims to have been a creator of a movement against bilingualism that culminated in the election of three Alliance MLAs in 2018.
McBride declined a request for an interview but sent a copy of the petition and pictures of Austin receiving it.
Austin said he did receive the petition from McBride but said he didn’t table it in the legislature because the position outlined in it is not one shared by the People’s Alliance.
“They’re not seeing the bigger picture,” he said.
“I know Mr. McBride has called to an end to bilingualism completely — we’ve never campaigned on that. I’ve never campaigned on that. It’s never been in any of our brochures.”
Austin says the party is more interested in ending duality, what he calls the segregation of French and English speakers into two systems.
But the disagreement has shown him the challenges of managing the expectations of supporters.
“You have to look at where people’s frustrations come from and sometimes the solution that they think will fix the problem is really not the solution at all,” he said.
The Alliance is currently propping up a PC minority government with its three seats, which has allowed Austin to claim some successes, if not everything the party set out to accomplish.
Austin says he feels most people understand the position the party is in and if swift action is desired, he said his party will need to form government.
“You’re constantly in negotiations, you’re constantly trying to further the things that you were elected on while at the same time giving a little bit to those in government that are trying to push their agenda as well,” he said.
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