HALIFAX —
Four of New Brunswick’s party leaders sparred over leadership styles, pandemic politics, the economy and campaign promises during a roundtable discussion Thursday evening.
The leaders of New Brunswick’s four political parties represented in the last legislature took part in the virtual event hosted by CTV Atlantic’s senior anchor, Steve Murphy.
The roundtable focused on the following themes: governance and leadership, the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy and budget, and policy and promises.
CTV News included questions submitted or inspired by viewers.
New Brunswickers will head to the polls to vote for a new leader on Monday.
GOVERNANCE AND LEADERSHIP
When asked why New Brunswickers should vote in favour of a Liberal majority government when they wouldn’t give Brian Gallant’s Liberals a majority two years ago, party leader Kevin Vickers pointed to leadership and took aim at Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs for calling an election during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Leadership isn’t calling a reckless and unneeded and unwanted election in the middle of a pandemic,” said Vickers.
“Leadership is about having a bold vision, a bold idea, and I am going to be transforming the economy of our province and ensuring that we have a healthy economy that’s going to fund our programs such as health and education.”
Vickers said he plans to transform New Brunswick’s economy by focusing on three sectors: technology, the green economy and small modular nuclear reactors.
He called small modular nuclear reactors a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” that could create up to 10,000 direct jobs and 40,000 indirect jobs.
Higgs defended his performance as premier, stating that leadership is about having a plan, and insisting his government has worked with others to put plans into action. He also accused Vickers of making campaign promises “in the back of the bus.”
“We’re seeing momentum right now. Leadership is about being a facilitator, it’s about getting people involved in solutions rather than say, ‘Look, I have all the solutions,’” said Higgs. “I’m the first to admit, we have opportunities to be better in the system and it starts right in the campaign.”
Higgs also said he is committed to being “completely transparent” moving forward.
Meanwhile, Green Leader David Coon said he is ready to sit down and speak with whoever is elected premier on Monday.
As for his leadership style, Coon said he takes a “collegial approach” and is focused on listening to and engaging with New Brunswickers — something he said he doesn’t see in the other leaders.
“That’s the way I would operate as premier, but what I’ve seen with the others is that they’re not engaging,” said Coon.
He accused Higgs of failing to listen to the province’s Acadian and Indigenous communities, saying his leadership style leaves people behind.
“He’s definitely not listening to either of those communities and therefore he’s always taking this position of, here’s what I want to do and you either sign on and agree with me — that’s his idea of collaboration — or you take the other road,” said Coon.
Higgs shot back, saying he is proud of his relationship with the Acadian and Indigenous communities.
But Coon pressed Higgs, questioning why he hasn’t called an inquiry into system racism in the justice and policing system after two Indigenous people were shot and killed by police in June.
Higgs responded that a number of public inquiries related to Indigenous issues have already been conducted over the past 25 years, and 797 recommendations have been made, but only 20 have been implemented. Instead of calling another inquiry, he said it’s time to put those recommendations into action.
Coon said he would work to find common ground with Higgs if he is re-elected, especially when it comes to issues like health care.
However, he accused Higgs of failing to implement any of the health-care reforms included in his platform during the last election.
“Instead, he tried to implement some things that were not that the health authorities brought to him that were just so tone deaf to the realities on the ground because of the concentration of power and decision-making in Fredericton, in the central health authorities and in the premier’s office,” said the Green leader.
In response, Higgs listed off some of his government’s accomplishments, pointing out the PCs have brought in 18 nurse practitioners, opened 14 walk-in medical clinics and removed billing numbers.
Turning to the topic of minority governments and keeping the People’s Alliance in the legislature, party leader Kris Austin said it’s better if one party isn’t calling “all the shots.”
“I know we have opposition, but all opposition can do is simply point out the issues that they take with it,” he said. “But they’re really powerless to do anything. But in a minority government, as we’ve seen over the last two years, opposition parties like ourselves were able to pull government back and were able to push government forward in areas where they need to be pushed forward.”
Austin said his party is ready to hold the government accountable and provide stability.
“I don’t trust any of them to do it on their own, whether it’s Mr. Higgs or Mr. Vickers or anyone else,” he said. “Anybody with all the power is going to do what their hidden agenda calls in to do.”
However, he did say he will work with anyone who is willing to sit down to “discuss reasonable, rationale approaches to the issues and challenges” New Brunswickers face.
Meanwhile, Vickers said his party is not willing to form a minority government with the People’s Alliance due to their views on French language rights.
COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Vickers, Coon and Austin each blasted Higgs for calling a provincial election during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vickers called the decision an “opportunistic power grab” in the hopes of claiming a majority government and accused Higgs of having a secret agenda.
“In the middle of a pandemic he decided to take a chance on New Brunswick,” said the Liberal leader. “Mr. Higgs has a secret agenda people, and I tell you we need to be on top of this … things are going to be much worse if you decide to re-elect this man as your premier.”
Austin questioned why Higgs agreed in March that municipal elections should not go ahead in the spring because of the pandemic — only to later call a provincial election.
“At the end of the day. Mr. Higgs had options. He’s trying to fool the people … try to help people understand, erroneously, that this was a necessary call and it’s all about stability,” said the People’s Alliance leader.
“That makes no sense whatsoever. The whole thing is a joke. We should not be in the middle of an election right now. It’s nothing but political opportunity, and to heck with public safety.”
Coon agreed, saying there was no need to call the election, and accusing Higgs of defaulting to “my way or the highway” when making decisions.
“He keeps saying he’s got a plan to save New Brunswick but he won’t tell us what it is, and if it was written before the pandemic, it’s not worth the paper it wasn’t written on,” said the Green leader.
Higgs defended the decision, stating that he wanted to call the election now, when COVID-19 cases are low, to avoid having to call one during a possible second wave.
“Because we saw that happen when the wave was just starting, when both the Greens, and particularly Kevin Vickers and his team, were not prepared to support the government,” said Higgs. “There was no security, there was no stability.”
However, Vickers said he wrote Higgs a letter, guaranteeing that the Liberals wouldn’t cause the government to fall during the pandemic.
“Higgs had a choice. He had a clear choice but he decided to put politics before the people,” he said.
Higgs said his party is taking all the appropriate health measures on the campaign trail, noting that his candidates are not knocking on doors, unlike some candidates for other parties.
“If politicians are going to ignore the rules then it really doesn’t matter what we do because they’re not going to follow the rules anyway,” he said. “My purpose here is that we can do this safely.”
On cancelling municipal elections, Higgs said they were supposed to be held in the spring at the height of the pandemic, and said they could potentially be held in the fall if case numbers remain low, but acknowledged that municipalities may not want to hold elections at this time.
Turning to the topic of a COVID-19 vaccine, Coon said he would “absolutely” support making the vaccine mandatory when it becomes available, even though his party withheld support for Bill 11 back in June.
The controversial bill would have required children in public schools and licensed daycare facilities to provide proof of immunization unless they had an exemption signed by a medical professional. Non-medical exemptions are currently accepted.
“The difference with COVID-19 is there’s no immunity in the population so there cannot be exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine,” he said. “And, in fact, we’re going to have to go further and suggest people are going to have to show proof of vaccination to attend those kinds of events and public spaces where there’s the greatest risk of spreading that infection.”
Austin also refused to support Bill 11, and wouldn’t commit to supporting a mandatory COVID-19 vaccine without exemptions, saying he believes the current system is working.
“If the system’s not broke, don’t try to fix it,” said the People’s Alliance leader.
He also said he believes most people will get the vaccine if it has been approved and they trust it is safe.
As for when New Brunswick should open up to provinces outside the Atlantic region, Vickers said it has to happen at some point to help the economy, but that he and his party will always follow the advice of Dr. Jennifer Russell, the province’s chief medical officer of health.
Austin agreed that New Brunswick can’t allow the economic fallout to continue, but said he would like to see infection rates down in other parts of the country first before opening up.
ECONOMY AND BUDGET
The first question in this round went to Coon, who said his party will focus on community-led development.
The Green leader said he’s impressed by the enthusiasm, energy and ideas he sees among those working to develop businesses and social enterprises in local communities.
“What we need to do is support those folks with the right policies and the right financial arrangements,” said Coon.
He said he would like to see New Brunswick become more food-secure and energy-secure by producing more food and taking better advantage of the renewal energy resources available in the province.
“We’re talking about reducing imports and replacing them with things we can produce here instead, to keep the money circulating in our economy and creating real community wealth,” said Coon.
When questioned what it would cost taxpayers to turn his ideas into reality, Coon insisted there are opportunities for economic development when it comes to renewable energy, and some, such as wind power, have “absolutely no cost.”
“It’s cheaper than any other option out there and certainly way cheaper than the expensive nuclear power that both Mr. Higgs and Mr. Vickers are promoting,” said Coon.
But Austin questioned his strategy, stating that “windmills is not going to change the economic situation in New Brunswick.”
The People’s Alliance leader also took aim at the government’s investments in economic development, claiming a large portion of the money goes to corporate handouts without real tracking of how many jobs are created.
“What I’d like to see is, instead of just kind of willy-nilly handing out this money to big corporations, let’s take the same amount of money and let’s start lowering taxes so that everybody can benefit,” suggested Austin.
“We need much more bolder action, and tax reform is that bold action that I’m convinced will help businesses here succeed and get businesses from outside the province to come into New Brunswick.”
When asked about balancing the budget, Austin said he doesn’t believe New Brunswick needs to balance the budget during the pandemic.
“We do need to get there, but realistically I think it’s just not reasonable to say we’re going to do that during the pandemic.”
Meanwhile, Vickers said he is committed to not raising taxes, and would instead focus on growth and investment.
“What we really have to do is really transform our economy and raise those revenues so that we are able to finance our programs such as health and education and all these important things,” said the Liberal leader.
He reiterated that he would focus on technology, the green economy and small nuclear modular reactors, and said his team would be “aggressive” in attracting companies in those sectors around the world to New Brunswick.
“We’re going to put Fredericton and Moncton and the other communities with a technology imprint back on the map,” said Vickers.
But Coon questioned why Vickers wants to look outside of New Brunswick to help grow the economy.
“What we’re hearing from Mr. Vickers is what we’re hearing from Mr. Higgs is that they don’t believe in New Brunswickers,” said Coon. “We have tremendous creativity, tremendous ideas and we’ve got to stop government from stifling those and stamping them down.”
Turning to the topic of cuts in health-care services, Higgs said New Brunswick is facing serious challenges, but promised that emergency rooms would remain open 24 hours.
Higgs was criticized earlier this year over a decision to close ERs overnight in six community hospitals, prompting him to cancel the closures.
While ERs will remain open full-time, Higgs said some changes will have to be made to improve the current health-care system.
“Anyone that suggests doing nothing is acceptable is not living in the real world,” said the PC leader.
However, he admitted he doesn’t have any specific plans in mind at this time, saying he will rely on health authorities and health-care professionals to inform his decisions.
Coon said he would give authority back to local hospitals and create community health boards, while Austin said he would prefer to see one health authority operating under one system.
POLICY AND PROMISES
Much of this round focused on language and bilingualism, producing a heated discussion among the leaders.
Austin has been criticized for making language fairness a top policy issue during the global pandemic.
When questioned as to whether he truly believes New Brunswick’s financial woes are due to linguistic duality, or if he is simply “playing to his base,” Austin replied that he never said language issues are fully to blame, but that they can’t be ignored.
“Here we are in a province struggling to recruit nurses, struggling to pay for equipment and struggling to get doctors in here and at the same time we’re keeping afloat two health authorities in a population the size of 750,000 people,” Austin said.
“I believe you can have one bilingual health authority where you don’t have that competition of resources to save money and reinvest it on the front lines.”
However, Austin wasn’t sure how much money could be saved by creating one bilingual health authority.
Vickers said the language issue has split the province, calling it a “bitter, divisive” conservation, and he wants to bring it back together.
He also accused Austin and Higgs of having similar views on language.
“Kris Austin says exactly what Blaine Higgs thinks,” said Vickers. “What we really have to do here is come together as a province, realize that bilingualism is a strength.”
But Higgs refuted that claim, saying Austin does not speak for him, and instead accused the Liberal party of taking advantage of voters in northern New Brunswick and exploiting the division.
“They thrive by the language divide because it splits our province,” said Higgs. “We aren’t split by language issues, we’re split by a party that wants to try to maintain power at any cost.”
Higgs said he would not eliminate duality in healthcare if he wins a majority government.
Meanwhile, Austin accused both the Liberals and PCs of sticking their heads in the sand and shying away from the conversation because it’s controversial.
“New Brunswickers want to talk about this, Francophone and Anglophone alike, and find some common ground to ensure that bilingualism is implemented in a fair and rational way,” he said.
As for Coon, he said there is much more work to be done to recognize the equality of the two official linguistic groups, calling “duality the basis of equality in New Brunswick.”
Specifically, he said the Greens are committed to ensuring seniors can live in long-term care facilities where they will be offered service in their official language, and ensuring New Brunswick welcomes a significant number of Francophone immigrants, along with Anglophone immigrants, to maintain a balance in the province.
To end the discussion, each leader was asked to present an idea on how they plan to grow New Brunswick’s population.
Vickers said New Brunswick has to promote and sell itself to the world, noting the reasonable cost of living, and calling it a welcoming place where people can work in collaboration.
Coon said people will want to move to New Brunswick if the province tackles issues like climate change and moves towards becoming a net-zero carbon society.
Higgs said growing the population is all about attracting families to the province and getting them to stay. He said there is momentum in New Brunswick now, and there’s an opportunity to keep it going.
For Austin, the issue is simple — it’s about creating jobs and growing the economy. He said New Brunswick can’t have a thriving economy while businesses are being taxed out of “any profit they can make” and believes lower taxes and deregulation will bring people to the province.
The New Democrats have declared a federal byelection victory in their Winnipeg stronghold riding of Elmwood—Transcona.
The NDP candidate Leila Dance told supporters in a tearful speech that even though the final results weren’t in, she expected she would see them in Ottawa.
With several polls still to be counted, Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds conceded defeat and told his volunteers that they should be proud of what the Conservatives accomplished in the campaign.
Political watchers had a keen eye on the results to see if the Tories could sway traditionally NDP voters on issues related to labour and affordability.
Meanwhile in the byelection race in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Québécois remained locked in an extremely tight three-way race as the results trickled in slowly.
The Liberal stronghold riding had a record 91 names on the ballot, and the results aren’t expected until the early hours of the morning.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
VANCOUVER – An incumbent BC United legislative member has reversed her decision not to seek re-election and has announced she’ll run as an Independent in the riding of West Vancouver-Capilano in the upcoming British Columbia election.
Karin Kirkpatrick has been a vocal critic of BC United Leader Kevin Falcon’s decision last month to suspend the party’s campaign and throw support behind the B.C. Conservatives under John Rustad.
Kirkpatrick announced her retirement this year, but said Monday that her decision to re-enter the race comes as a direct result of Falcon’s actions, which would force middle-of-the-road voters to “swing to the left” to the NDP or to move further right to the Conservatives.
“I did hear from a lot of constituents and a lot of people who were emailing me from across B.C. … that they didn’t have anybody to vote for,” she said. “And so, I looked even at myself, and I looked at my riding, and I said, ‘Well, I no longer have anybody to vote for in my own riding.’ It was clearly an issue of this missing middle for the more moderate voter.”
She said voters who reached out “don’t want to vote for an NDP government but felt deeply uncomfortable” supporting the provincial Conservatives, citing Rustad’s tolerance of what she calls “extreme views and conspiracy theorists.”
Kirkpatrick joins four other incumbent Opposition MLAs running as Independents, including Peace River South’s Mike Bernier, Peace River North’s Dan Davies, Prince George-Cariboo’s Coralee Oakes and Tom Shypitka in Kootenay-Rockies.
“To be honest, we talk just about every day,” Kirkpatrick said about her fellow BC United incumbents now running as Independents. “We’re all feeling the same way. We all need to kind of hold each other up and make sure we’re doing the right thing.”
She added that a number of first-time candidates formerly on the BC United ticket are contacting the group of incumbents running for election, and the group is working together “as good moderates who respect each other and lift each other up.”
But Kirkpatrick said it’s also too early to talk about the future of BC United or the possibility of forming a new party.
“The first thing we need to do is to get these Independent MLAs elected into the legislature,” she said, noting a strong group could play a power-broker role if a minority government is elected. “Once we’re there then we’re all going to come together and we’re going to figure out, is there something left in BC United, BC Liberals that we can resurrect, or do we need to start a new party that’s in the centre?”
She said there’s a big gap left in the political spectrum in the province.
“So, we just have to do it in a mindful way, to make sure it’s representing the broadest base of people in B.C.”
Among the supporters at Kirkpatrick’s announcement Monday was former longtime MLA Ralph Sultan, who held West Vancouver-Capilano for almost two decades before retiring in 2020.
The Metro Vancouver riding has been a stronghold for the BC Liberals — the former BC United — since its formation in 1991, with more than half of the votes going to the centre-right party in every contest.
However, Kirkpatrick’s winning margin of 53.6 per cent to the NDP’s 30.1 per cent and the Green’s 15.4 per cent in the 2020 election shows a rising trend for left-leaning voters in the district.
Mike McDonald, chief strategy officer with Kirk and Co. Consulting, and a former campaign director for the BC Liberals and chief of staff under former Premier Christy Clark, said Independent candidates historically face an uphill battle and the biggest impact may be splitting votes in areas where the NDP could emerge victorious.
“It really comes down to, if the NDP are in a position to get 33 per cent of the vote, they might have a chance of winning,” McDonald said of the impact of an Independent vote-split with the Conservatives in certain ridings.
He said B.C. history shows it’s very hard for an Independent to win an election and has been done only a handful of times.
“So, the odds do not favour Independents winning the seats unless there is a very unique combination of circumstances, and more likely that they play a role as a spoiler, frankly.”
The B.C. Conservatives list West Vancouver School District Trustee Lynne Block as its candidate in West Vancouver-Capilano, while the BC NDP is represented by health care professional Sara Eftekhar.
Kirkpatrick said she is confident that her re-entry to the race will not result in a vote split that allows the NDP to win the seat because the party has always had a poor showing in the riding.
“So, even if there is competition between myself and the Conservative candidate, it is highly unlikely that anything would swing over to the NDP here. And I believe that I have the ability to actually attract those NDP voters to me, as well as the Conservatives and Liberals who are feeling just lost right now.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Egypt on Tuesday for his 10th trip to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began nearly a year ago, this one aimed partly at refining a proposal to present to Israel and Hamas for a cease-fire deal and release of hostages.
Unlike in recent mediating missions, America’s top diplomat this time is traveling without optimistic projections from the Biden administration of an expected breakthrough in the troubled negotiations.
Also unlike the earlier missions, Blinken has no public plans to go to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on this trip. The Israeli leader’s fiery public statements — like his declaration that Israel would accept only “total victory” when Blinken was in the region in June — and some other unbudgeable demands have complicated earlier diplomacy.
Blinken is going to Egypt for talks Wednesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and others, in a trip billed as focused both on American-Egyptian relations and Gaza consultations with Egypt.
The tamped-down public approach follows months in which President Joe Biden and his officials publicly talked up an agreement to end the war in Gaza as being just within reach, hoping to build pressure on Netanyahu’s far-right government and Hamas to seal a deal.
The Biden administration now says it is working with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar to come up with a revised final proposal to try to at least get Israel and Hamas into a six-week cease-fire that would free some of the hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Americans believe public attention on details of the talks now would only hurt that effort.
American, Qatari and Egyptian officials still are consulting “about what that proposal will contain, and …. we’re trying to see that it’s a proposal that can get the parties to an ultimate agreement,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday.
The State Department pointed to Egypt’s important role in Gaza peace efforts in announcing last week that the Biden administration planned to give the country its full $1.3 billion in military aid, overriding congressional requirements that the U.S. hold back some of the funding if Egypt fails to show adequate progress on human rights. Blinken told Congress that Egypt has made progress on human rights, including in freeing political prisoners.
Blinken’s trip comes amid the risk of a full-on new front in the Middle East, with Israel threatening increasing military action against the Hezbollah militant organization in Lebanon. Biden envoy Amos Hochstein was in Israel on Monday to try to calm tensions after a stop in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has one of the strongest militaries in the Middle East, and like Hamas and smaller groups in Syria and Iraq it is allied with Iran.
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged strikes across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas started the war in Gaza. Hezbollah says it will ease those strikes — which have uprooted tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border — only when there’s a cease-fire in Gaza.
Hochstein told Netanyahu and other Israeli officials that intensifying the conflict with Hezbollah would not help get Israelis back in their homes, according to a U.S. official. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks, said Hochstein stressed to Netanyahu that he risked sparking a broad and protracted regional conflict if he moved forward with a full-scale war in Lebanon.
Hochstein also underscored to Israeli officials that the Biden administration remained committed to finding a diplomatic solution to the tensions on Israel’s northern border in conjunction with a Gaza deal or on its own, the official said.
Netanyahu told Hochstein that it would “not be possible to return our residents without a fundamental change in the security situation in the north.” The prime minister said Israel “appreciates and respects” U.S. support but “will do what is necessary to maintain its security and return the residents of the north to their homes safely.”
Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, meanwhile, warned in his meeting with Hochstein that “the only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes will be via military action,” his office said.
In Gaza, the U.S. says Israel and Hamas have agreed to a deal in principle and that the biggest obstacles now include a disagreement on details of the hostage and prisoner swap and control over a buffer zone on the border between Gaza and Egypt. Netanyahu has demanded in recent weeks that the Israeli military be allowed to keep a presence in the Philadelphi corridor. Egypt and Hamas have rejected that demand.
The Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 killed about 1,200 people. Militants also abducted 250 people and are still holding around 100 hostages. About a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, said Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count. The war has caused widespread destruction, displaced a majority of Gaza’s people and created a humanitarian crisis.
Netanyahu says he is working to bring home the hostages. His critics accuse him of slow-rolling a deal because it could bring down his hardline coalition government, which includes members opposed to a truce with the Palestinians.
Asked earlier this month if Netanyahu was doing enough for a cease-fire deal, Biden said, simply, “no.” But he added that he still believed a deal was close.
___
Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
