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The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge Is This Anything? | Curse of Politics
Air Quotes MediaMiramichi MLA resigns provincial seat to run for federal Conservatives
Mike Dawson says provincial Tory party needs to be more transparent, inclusive in wake of last fall’s defeat
Miramichi West Progressive Conservative MLA Mike Dawson is resigning from the New Brunswick legislature to become a candidate in the federal election campaign.
Dawson will be the Conservative candidate in Miramichi-Grand Lake, a seat won for the party by Jake Stewart in 2021. Stewart announced earlier this month he would not run again.
Dawson's decision starts a six-month clock ticking for Premier Susan Holt to call a byelection — with the departing MLA warning his provincial party that it needs to change its approach.
"I think there needs to be a lot more transparency and a lot more inclusiveness with the membership from the PC party," Dawson said in an interview Monday.
"If the membership doesn't feel wanted, it's not much of a party."
Miramichi MLA resigns to run federally for ConservativesEarlier this year, Dawson said he believed the party needed to be more progressive on some issues and should choose a francophone as its next leader.
He also complained last fall that some members didn't get enough notice to attend the party's annual general meeting held shortly after the PC government of Blaine Higgs was defeated in an election.
"We have to start bringing people together instead of dividing people," he said in an interview.
"It seems like it's easier for people to drive a wedge between people than bring people together."
In his farewell speech in the legislature, Dawson referred to "tensions" with PC Leader Glen Savoie but tried to make it tongue-in-cheek.
"The leader of the Opposition and I are both Miramichiers, and that means we both have a love language that is not understood by many around us who are not from our region," he said.
"I get angry when I'm right, and the leader of the Opposition gets angry when he is wrong."
PC Leader Glen Savoie says he would support having a byelection as early as June. (Jacques Poitras/CBC News)
Dawson wished Savoie well, and Savoie later told reporters that he took the comments as a joke — then called on Premier Susan Holt to call a byelection soon.
Under changes to the Elections Act adopted in 2022, a byelection must be held within six months of a seat in the legislature being certified as vacant.
Savoie said he'd support it happening as early as June.
"As soon as we possibly can, let's get that seat filled so those folks up there have that representation," he said.
Dawson was first elected in a 2022 byelection and was re-elected in the October 2024 provincial election.
He said running federally had not occurred to him until Stewart announced he would not seek re-election.
Sitting MP Jake Stewart announced last month that he would not run again. (Pascal Raiche-Nogue/Radio-Canada)
"It wasn't something that I planned on doing," Dawson said.
"It's just something that — like everything else in life — just popped up."
Dawson said the economic uncertainty with U.S. tariffs on Canadian exports requires a strong leader.
"I think we've got that with the federal leader that we've got running for the Conservative Party," he said.
"We've got to learn to stand on our own two feet and not depend on the Americans."
"I think the country's in a lot worse shape now that it was 10 years ago."
Stewart dropped out amid turmoil within the Miramichi-Grand Lake Conservative membership.
The financial agent for the riding association resigned, alleging that the MP's riding office had been a toxic and manipulative workplace and that eight staffers had quit over the last two years.
Stewart's office was also closed for several weeks.
Mike Morrison, a longtime party supporter and two-time federal candidate, declared that Stewart was unelectable as a result of the turmoil.
Dawson said he hopes he can pull Conservatives together to get through the campaign for the April 28 election and then work on repairing the frayed relationships among members.
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PC Opposition attacks Liberal tariff plan, won't say what they'd do
Tories take a pass on criticizing budget, instead accusing premier of inaction on U.S. trade threat
The day after New Brunswick's Liberal government tabled a budget with a $549 million deficit, the Opposition Progressive Conservatives had virtually nothing to say about it.
The PCs instead devoted most of their time in the legislature Wednesday to criticizing the Liberals for their response to the threat of U.S. tariffs.
But the PCs didn't often any concrete proposals of their own — other than the revival of an oil pipeline and a natural gas industry they've been championing for more than a decade.
"For many New Brunswickers who have been looking for action and looking for leadership, the premier has failed to meet the moment," said PC MLA Bill Oliver, one of several who used their allocated time to criticized Premier Susan Holt.
PCs skip budget attacks, target Liberal tariff plan"It looks like the premier has turned thumbs down to 'elbows up,'" added his colleague Bill Oliver, referring to the popular slogan adopted by Canadians in the trade war.
Holt unveiled a tariff "action plan" on March 4 that includes funds to retrain any laid-off workers and money to help exporters adapt if they are hit with tariffs on products they sell into the U.S. market.
So far, she has avoided more dramatic moves, such as threatening to cut off — or slapping a surcharge on — electricity exports that allow 58,000 residents of northern Maine to turn on their lights and heat their homes.
"It appears that the premier and the deputy premier are more concerned with the power bills of folks in northern Maine who voted for Donald Trump than they are with the New Brunswickers who actually voted for them," said PC MLA Sherry Wilson.
Premier Susan Holt unveiled a tariff action plan earlier this month. (Ed Hunter/CBC)
But speaking to reporters later, PC Leader Glen Savoie said his party was not endorsing a surcharge on, or cutting of, power transmission to Maine.
He said Wilson's comment was a tongue-in-cheek way of highlighting Liberal inaction.
The premier said during question period that she had met with Savoie and Green Leader David Coon on the issue and Savoie had not offered any alternative ideas the government could pursue.
"I have yet to hear any suggestions from the opposition on what we should be doing differently, on things we should be adding," Holt said.
"If they think that we haven't budgeted sufficient amounts at $162 million, do they have better estimates for what they think this might cost?"
The PCs had called for the legislature to be called back earlier than its scheduled March 18 date for more debate on the tariff response, something the government turned down.
On Wednesday, all parties agreed to an emergency debate on tariffs that would continue into the evening.
Savoie complained that the legislature will break for a weeks of committee debate on budget estimates on March 28, leaving little time for more discussion of the tariff response.
He also rejected Holt's comment that the PCs should propose something specific if they think her package is lacking.
"They are government," Savoid said. "They are supposed to be leading this. Our job is supposed to be to hold them to account."
Holt's government introduced legislation Wednesday to lower interprovincial trade barriers on alcohol.
Once adopted, the bill will allow New Brunswickers to order alcohol products directly from outside the province and eliminate limits on how much alcohol someone can bring in to the province.
The government has promised other measures to lower interprovincial trade barriers as a way of mitigating the impact of tariffs on trade with the U.S.
The Opposition PCs said trade measures on alcohol are not enough
PC MLA Kris Austin introduced a non-binding motion that, if passed, would call on the government to lift the decade-old moratorium on natural gas development as a way to help Canada have more energy independence from the U.S.
Holt told reporters that because the tariff issue is "still in flux" — with a U.S. decision on broadening the measures expected April 2 — it's early to get into detailed accounting of how her relief package is working or which businesses are using it.
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