New Brunswick’s Liberal government fell on Friday after its attempt to establish the province’s first successful minority government ended in a vote of non-confidence for its Throne Speech.
The loss comes five weeks after the incumbent Liberals placed second in a nail-biting election with just 21 of the legislature’s 49 seats. The Progressive Conservatives took 22 seats, but that number was not enough to give the party a majority.
The Liberals remained determined to stay in power. However, a vote split that gave three seats each to the Green and People’s Alliance parties meant creative alliances were needed.
Although Liberal Premier Brian Gallant managed to bring the Greens onside before Friday’s confidence vote, the arrangement was not enough to allow him to hang on. The Liberals, unable to find common ground with anyone else, became the second minority government to fold in as many years in Canada. B.C.’s Liberals were defeated similarly last year.
PC Leader Blaine Higgs, who forged an alliance with the three elected members of the populist People’s Alliance party, will now attempt to take his turn at the helm. Mr. Higgs, a retired Irving Oil executive, told New Brunswick’s Lieutenant-Governor, Jocelyne Roy Vienneau, late on Friday afternoon that he believes he can form a government.
He set Nov. 20 as the date for a Throne Speech.
Mr. Higgs told reporters he believes he can deliver four years of stable government to the economically hobbled province. Political observers are betting on 18 to 24 months.
“I think [Mr. Higgs] will work with the People’s Alliance in the short term to advance some of their shared agenda items,” said Don Wright, a professor of political science at the University of New Brunswick. He pointed to the parties’ overlap on their desire to balance the provincial books and improve paramedic services.
“But at the end of the day, they are very different parties," Dr. Wright said. "The province is very divided … along geographic and linguistic lines, which does not bode well for the future.”
New Brunswick has no separatist movement, but debate has raged in recent months over whether the province can afford to live up to its commitment to provide services to residents in each official language at a time when the labour market and the economy are flagging.
While the Liberals dominate the largely francophone north, the Tories and right-of-centre People’s Alliance have stronger support in the mostly anglophone south.
Dr. Wright said no party has truly succeeded in understanding the complexities of that divide.
“People aren’t just bigots and don’t like the French. Those days are long gone,” he said. “There are sometimes legitimate questions around bilingualism as it is practiced – not bilingualism as an ideal – and how it is put into place on the ground."
In his impassioned final speech in the legislature, Mr. Gallant said he could have done better on the issue.
“Over the last four years, I should have spoken more about bilingualism. I should have talked more about its benefits to our economy and to our social fabric,” he said.
The outgoing Premier said he took “full responsibility for the results of the provincial election” and said he should have done a better job as a leader.
“Over time, I became too jaded and fell into some of the old adversarial ways of this place,” he said.
Before the confidence vote, Mr. Gallant pledged to take a “collaborative approach” as leader of the opposition. But after formally conceding defeat to the Lieutenant-Governor on Friday afternoon, he told reporters he has not yet decided on his future.
With a report from the Canadian Press