Former ministers are all worried about how much power the prime minister has
Blaine Higgs started his time as New Brunswick’s premier by saying that he wouldn’t run the government from the top down, as he said Brian Gallant did.
In a personal letter to voters during the 2018 election campaign, he said, “Today, the premier’s office has too much power.”
“In the end, all the decisions are made by the office of the Premier. Citizens and elected officials are not allowed to speak up as loudly as they could or should. I want to be the Prime Minister who says, “No, that’s not how we do things anymore.”
Five years later, Higgs is still saying that he is a leader who values different points of view and is willing to learn from people who don’t agree with him, even though his government has been thrown into chaos by a series of cabinet resignations and firings and more and more people are saying that he tends toward centralized rule.
Higgs told CBC News last week, “I’m never happy when someone quits and walks away, because the way we find balance and respect each other’s views in doing so is how we make democracy better.”
But more and more MLAs and former ministers in the government say that is not the Blaine Higgs they know.
Simmering frustratio
Dorothy Shephard quit her job as minister of social development three weeks ago because she didn’t want the government to change Policy 713, which tells schools how to treat LGBTQ students.
In interviews about the decision, Shephard talked about his specific concerns about the policy change, as well as his long-simmering anger at Higgs for making decisions on his own and running departments directly from his office instead of going through ministers.
“There is no talk with the office of the premier. She said, “Everything goes straight from the premier’s office to the deputy minister.”
The criticism was almost the same as one that former education minister Dominic Cardy made in his letter of resignation from the cabinet nine months ago.
Cardy said that big changes in government policy, like the failed attempt to change how French is taught in schools or to get rid of elected members on health boards, were increasingly made by the premier himself.
Cardy wrote in the letter, “Your order to get rid of the democratically elected Regional Health Authorities without telling Cabinet is a steady consolidation of power in your own hands.”
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In 2018, the New Brunswick Progressive Conservative party told voters that with Higgs as leader, it would delegate power and “bring decisions closer to communities.” However, Cardy said that the opposite was happening, especially after the party went from being in the minority to being in the majority in 2020.
At the time, Cardy’s letter was seen as dangerous and untrustworthy. It got him kicked out of the government caucus and made him have to sit as an independent in the legislature.
But in the last month, several of Cardy’s former cabinet members have made almost the same points as they resigned or were fired by Higgs.
“More about how he gets what he wants.
Trevor Holder, the most senior government MLA in the New Brunswick legislature, quit his cabinet position two weeks ago. He gave the same reason as Cardy and Shephard before him: too much power and decision-making in one person’s hands.
“Under the leadership of Premier Higgs, caucus has been less about reaching a consensus and more about him getting his own way,” Holder wrote in an open letter explaining why he was leaving.
Jeff Carr was fired as transportation minister by Higgs last week after he spoke out against changes to Policy 713 about how to treat LGBTQ students. He wrote his own letter in which he talked about the premier’s “continual lack of transparency and consultation.”
Carr said that after Higgs won a majority government, he stopped consulting people much and took a “my way or the highway” approach to things like changes to French immersion that didn’t “include others in decision-making.”
In a comment directed at Higgs, Carr also agreed with what other leaving cabinet ministers were saying about how the prime minister didn’t value opinions that were different from his own.
In a letter that was made public, he said, “Thank you for taking me out of a situation where I feel I can no longer contribute, as some of my colleagues have said.”
Lori Turnbull, the head of Dalhousie University’s school of public administration, toldInformation MorningPremiers or prime ministers in parliamentary systems are often accused of having too much power, he said on Monday.
But she said that what is going on in New Brunswick doesn’t seem to fit the usual complaints.
“This is not just a Blaine Higgs thing,” Turnbull said.”However, it seems like this particular situation has gone too far for some of the people around him.”
Higgs no longer talks about his promise to voters in 2018 to stop the premier from making decisions on his own, but he does say that some of the problems in his government are his fault and that he “has to be part of the solution.”
But he also said last week that he thinks some of the complaints about him are “a bit over dramatic.” He seemed to misstate or misunderstand that the concerns that ex-ministers have about him cover a number of policies that go back several months.
Instead, he sees it as a problem from the past.
“The policy really got things going around 713,” he said.
Higgs has said that he hopes he and dissatisfied MLAs “will find paths together” on Policy 713, but he has also said that he doesn’t think they will. Instead, he thinks that their position will have to change to fit his.
“I think the public is very much behind what we’re doing, and I think that will play a big role in everyone’s riding as they talk to members and their constituents and say, “OK, well, I may have a different view, but I know I’m here to represent my constituents,” said Higgs.
“I think we’re getting support from a wide range of people in the province, and I hope that will carry over to caucus.”