N.B. Liberals mix boldness, caution at weekend policy convention
Party members call for lowering voting age to 16 but water down proposed ban on glyphosate
New Brunswick Liberals mixed a dash of boldness on voting reform with some caution on other issues as they adopted 74 policy resolutions that will help form the basis of their campaign platform in this year's provincial election.
Almost 200 delegates to a Saturday convention endorsed resolutions calling for lowering the voting age to 16 and for convening a citizens' assembly on reforming the electoral system.
They also voted, without any debate, for ending a restriction on the public funding of surgical abortions performed in clinics outside hospitals.
But they also watered down a motion to have a Liberal government "take immediate steps to end the use" of the controversial herbicide glyphosate.
That would have moved the party's position closer to that of the Green Party, which has three MLAs in the legislature and steady third-place support in most polls on voting intentions.
Liberal Leader Susan Holt addresses delegates at the start of the convention. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
Instead, delegates approved an amendment calling for a government to "address" the use of pesticides in the province.
"We had an open process that puts ideas forward, we had people debate, amend, vote for, vote against, and what we get better reflects the consensus of the whole and the position of more New Brunswickers and more perspectives," Liberal Leader Susan Holt said.
"We had people challenging respectfully, we had people modifying, bringing new information to the table, and I think that's exactly how democracy is supposed to work."
The resolutions are not binding on Holt and party officials as they draft a campaign platform for a provincial election scheduled for Oct. 21.
But Holt said Saturday's resolution will "inspire" what goes into the platform.
Several delegates opposed the proposal to lower the voting age, with Selma Kilisli of Saint John arguing people that young make many mistakes and aren't ready for the responsibility.
"It's a bad idea," she said.
But former deputy premier Aldéa Landry, now 78, was among several older party members who supported the idea.
Former agriculture minister Andrew Harvey speaks against a motion calling for a ban on glyphosate. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
She argued young people aren't the only ones who would be voting while ill-informed.
"How many people vote without understanding the issues, whether 16 years old, or 70, or 96 years old?" she said.
The motion passed 95-34. Holt wouldn't commit to putting the proposal in the campaign platform.
"We saw the energy around it, right?" she said.
"People are excited to go out and talk to young people and try to engage them in civics and in our democracy at an early age. It will be interesting to see if that makes it all the way into the platform and how it might be done."
The motion to convene a citizens' assembly on electoral reform within a year of a Liberal government taking power passed 85-51, with 14 abstentions. Several Liberal MLAs including Richard Losier, Marco LeBlanc, Isabelle Thériault and René Legacy voted against it.
Liberal
MLAs René Legacy, Isabelle Thériault, Marco LeBlanc (face obscured) and
Richard Losier voted against a motion for a citizens' assembly on
electoral reform. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
Holt attributed their vote to "fear of the unknown" and didn't say if that proposal would be in the platform, either.
Former Liberal agriculture minister Andrew Harvey led the effort to water down the resolution calling for a glyphosate ban.
He pointed out that forestry companies that employ thousands of New Brunswickers use the herbicide to thin brush that allows them to plant new trees.
"You can check the science. There's an emotional argument, but they use it responsibly, in terms of the dosage, the application," he said.
His amendment to remove the reference to taking "immediate steps to end the use of glyphosate" was defeated 70-63, but delegates ended up voting for another amendment that would have a Liberal government merely "address" the use of such products.
Former Horizon Health Network CEO Dr. John Dornan, who was fired by Progressive Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs in 2022 and won a $2-million arbitration award over his dismissal, was a delegate to the convention.
He spoke in favour of a motion on health-care governance, arguing in favour of an amendment to explicitly mention elected members of regions health authority boards. The Higgs government eliminated elected board positions last year.
The amendment and the motion both passed.
Liberal
delegates used dot stickers at the start of the convention to indicate
which resolutions they wanted to get a full debate. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
Asked whether Dornan was a possible election candidate, Holt said she's waiting on his decision.
Delegates also approved dozens of other resolutions, many of them with no debate, calling for:
- Allowing people who generate solar power in their homes to sell that electricity to the N.B. Power grid.
- Banning New Brunswick political parties from collecting donations from outside the province – a response to Higgs's recent fundraising trip to British Columbia and Alberta.
- Making a moratorium on shale gas development permanent, a long-time party position.
- Changing Policy 713 on sexual orientation and gender identity in provincial schools to conform with recommendations in an independent report by the province's child and youth advocate.
- Forging a "true partnership" with Indigenous nations by reaching revenue-sharing agreements on natural resources and making "good faith efforts" to resolve legal disputes by settling the cases or withdrawing from them.
The motion to repeal Policy 84-20, which restricts Medicare funding for surgical abortions to hospitals, reflected the position the party has held since before Holt became leader.
While the election is scheduled for Oct. 21, Higgs has not ruled out calling it in the spring.
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