Another Progressive Conservative MLA who clashed with Premier Blaine Higgs has decided not to be part of his campaign for re-election this year.
Four-term Saint John Lancaster member Dorothy Shephard, who was health minister during the worst part of the COVID-19 pandemic, says she will not run again.
Shephard said her public break with Higgs last year over Policy 713 and his leadership style were just the latest in a series of “challenging times” during her 14 years in politics, and this was the right time for her to look at other ways to contribute.
Shephard was one of six PC MLAs who voted with the opposition last June on a Liberal motion calling for more study of changes to Policy 713 on gender identity in schools. She resigned from cabinet the same day.
From top left to right, Andrea Anderson-Mason, Trevor Holder, Dorothy Shephard, Daniel Allain, Ross Wetmore and Jeff Carr. Shephard was one of the six PC MLAs who voted with the opposition last June on a Liberal motion calling for more study of changes to Policy 713. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
The changes included requiring parental consent before teachers and staff can use a child’s chosen pronoun in verbal or official communication.
She told CBC News that she plans to stay involved with the PC Party and defend its moderate, centrist values.
“The way it’s heading now, I think there is such a hyper-focused trend with far-right politics,” she said. “That’s my personal perspective.”
WATCH | Dorothy Shephard resigns from cabinet on June 15, 2023:
Dorothy Shephard resigns from cabinet
9 months ago
Duration 2:00
In a note addressed to the premier, the social development minister said, ‘I can no longer remain in your cabinet.’
She said the party should look back to the tenure of former prime minister Brian Mulroney to “understand the great accomplishments that come from centre-right, centre-left politics, and strongly promote that. So that’s where my efforts are going to lie.”
Higgs told reporters he wished Shephard the best in the future.
“She was dedicated to the province and dedicated to her riding, and that’s what MLAs are supposed to do,” he said.
But he pushed back at her comments about a rightward shift by the party.
“I guess we all have different interpretations of what ‘to the right’ means. If having parents involved in raising their kids and making sure that’s an accepted practice is to the right, maybe we have to evaluate society.”
Shephard said she plans to participate in PC Party annual meetings and other internal processes to try to help steer the party in a moderate, mainstream direction.
Her criticism of the party’s direction were echoed by former Fundy-Royal Progressive Conservative MP John Herron, who confirmed Thursday he plans to run for the Liberals in the provincial riding of Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins.
He’ll be taking on PC candidate Faytene Grasseschi, whose Christian conservative writings and views have generated “angst” among longtime Tory supporters, Herron said.
“It’s their perspective that that nominee doesn’t represent the progressive nature of this community,” said Herron, who was elected twice as a PC MP in 1997 and 2000.
Former Fundy-Royal Progressive Conservative MP John Herron, who confirmed Thursday he plans to run for the Liberals in the provincial riding of Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins, echoed Shephard’s criticism of the PC party’s direction. (Submitted my John Herron)
Herron refused to be part of the federal Progressive Conservatives’ merger with the Canadian Alliance in 2003 and sat as an independent in the House of Commons before running and losing as a Liberal in 2004.
Herron said “a broad and unlikely coalition” of Liberals, unhappy provincial Tories and “a touch of Green” had urged him to run against Grasseschi, whom Higgs has praised as part of a “revolution” within the provincial party.
“What we’re seeing is a party based more on ideology,” he said, adding that New Brunswickers favour “big bold policies” but “don’t necessarily want to be part of a right-wing debating society.”
Grasseschi said she would not respond to Herron’s comments.
“I look forward to a campaign at this important time in our province when the cost of living and caring for the citizens of New Brunswick is top of mind for us all,” she said in an email.
In a statement posted to social media Thursday morning, Shephard not-so-subtly rebutted comments Higgs has made about other PC MLAs who have opted out.
Carr, back left, Holder and Shephard at a committee meeting in November. Shephard and Carr have both said they won’t run again, but Holder has yet to say. (Alix Villeneuve/Radio-Canada)
“Surprisingly, politics was for me,” she wrote.
“I am a Progressive Conservative, and I will carry the experience and learnings from these four terms into whatever the future holds next.”
Earlier this year Higgs responded to other departures by saying about Jeff Carr that tough decision-making is “not for everyone” and, about Arlene Dunn, “politics turned out to not be for her.”
In her statement, Shephard pointed to several initiatives she was proud of during her time as a minister, including kinship legislation in 2019 that clarified the rules around relatives able to care for a child who needs to be removed from the family home.
Health Minister Bruce Fitch has hinted he will retire after 21 years as an MLA. (Shane Magee/CBC)
Shephard is the ninth PC MLA elected in 2020 to quit or not to run again, meaning a full one-third of Higgs’s victorious candidates from that campaign won’t be on the ballot this fall.
At least three others may also bow out.
Two more of the six who rebelled over Policy 713 and the premier’s leadership style, Trevor Holder and Andrea Anderson-Mason, have yet to say whether they’ll run.
Health Minister Bruce Fitch has also hinted he will retire after 21 years as an MLA.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
