Premier Blaine Higgs says he welcomes the prospect of a leadership review following a week of dissent within the New Brunswick Progressive Conservative Party, partly over changes to Policy 713.
“I’m very confident in the results we’ve had for the province but if this issue has brought this to a head I’m equally confident I’m speaking for many parents that want a voice in their child’s … very formative years,” he said.
Questions around the future of Higgs’ leadership and a possible snap election continued to swirl as the legislature rose for the summer Friday.
Former Hatfield-era PC cabinet minister and riding district association president Jean-Pierre Ouellett is openly calling for a review of Higgs’ leadership, citing concerns over linguistic divisions in the province.
“There is still time to hold your head high: not everything has been negative under your rule, but the time has come to recognize that for the good of the party, its members and the population, in general, the countdown has begun,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
“I call on caucus, members and riding presidents to take immediate action.”
Former education minister-turned-independent MLA Dominic Cardy has been vocal for weeks about his views on the premier’s leadership. Cardy, who is still a member of the party despite being turfed from caucus following his fiery resignation from cabinet, says it’s time for the premier to step aside.
“I hope my colleagues do the right thing and I hope we soon have a leadership change,” he said Friday.
Oullett says he has formally written to the party executive to request a leadership review. According to the party’s constitution, a review is initiated following an election defeat, or after 50 members write to the provincial executive to request one. Included in those 50 members must be 25 riding association presidents. Then, the provincial executive must vote two-thirds in favour of a review.
Global News emailed all PC riding association presidents on Thursday. Only three replied, all of which said they had not asked for a review and did not intend to.
Meanwhile, Higgs has been facing challenges within his own caucus.
Over the last week, eight members of the Tory caucus have spoken out against changes to Policy 713, which sets minimum standards to ensure an inclusive environment for LGBTQ2 students in the school system.
On Thursday six of those MLAs voted with the opposition to ask the province’s child and youth advocate to prepare a report on the impact of those changes, the main one being that it will no longer be mandatory for teachers to respect the chosen name or pronouns of students under 16 without parental permission.
Liberal leader Susan Holt says that those government MLAs were even involved in drafting the final version of the motion, a brazen show of defiance to the premier.
Social development minister Dorothy Shephard resigned from cabinet following that vote, saying the premier’s management style had become too much to bear. Back in October of 2021, she wrote a six-page letter to the premier outlining concerns over his management style, but she says nothing changed.
“I held out as long as I could but I see more and more the dismissing of caucus and cabinet and their input and I had to act,” she said.
Shephard said she would be unlikely to run in the next election if Higgs remains leader of the PC party, but wouldn’t say if she will work to have him ousted.
Higgs has called the revolt “unfortunate” but says he’s committed to moving forward and focusing on issues that affect all New Brunswickers.
“The challenge we have as a party is are we going to implode within ourselves, or are we going to think of the bigger picture and the bigger prize,” he said Friday.
“We’ve never had our province perform better than it has in the last three years so we cannot lose that momentum and so you have to look at the bigger picture.”
“It doesn’t mean you don’t talk about tough issues, but it means you find solutions. It doesn’t mean you walk away or vote against your government, it means as a team you find solutions.”
Aboriginal affairs minister Arlene Dunn is part of the eight rebellious caucus members. She was away in Ottawa for Thursday’s vote, but says she would have supported the opposition motion had she been in the house. Dunn didn’t answer directly when asked if she still supports the premier, but said when it comes to issues like Policy 713 the party needs to listen to experts.
“I have full confidence in our party and I think that we need to really get back on track with respect to what matters to New Brunswickers,” she said.
“I don’t think that the PC party does well on issues like these and I think that we need to steer clear of those discussions and opening up those things. I think there are experts that can really guide us on those issues and I think that’s where we need to focus.”
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