Fired cabinet minister speaks out on premier's leadership style

Ousted minister Jeff Carr is questioning the rationale Premier Blaine Higgs has given for removing him from his cabinet.

On Tuesday, Higgs shuffled his cabinet, replacing Carr in transportation and former local government minister Daniel Allain.

The reason given was that the two former ministers broke with cabinet solidarity by voting for an opposition motion on Policy 713.

"We have to respect the parliamentary system that we're in, the sanctity of cabinet, and the fact we'll have very frank and open discussion in cabinet or in caucus, but in cabinet you have to have solidarity," said Higgs after the shuffle. 

But Carr isn't buying that explanation.

"Cabinet solidarity, yeah, you can't square that up when it's an opposition motion," said Carr, speaking to Information Morning Fredericton. 

"It's not a whipped vote and nobody asked us how we were going to vote. Nobody talked to us about that after we voted for, like, 18 days."

Cabinet conflict

Cabinet solidarity is the concept that cabinet ministers must openly support the government on all matters, and if a minister can't or won't support the government they should resign.

But this clashes with the idea of a free vote, meaning government members are not whipped — expected to vote on the government side, which sometimes happens with votes on issues such as abortion or LGBTQ rights.

There are different interpretations on whether cabinet ministers can vote against the government on a free vote, like Carr did, or must simply abstain, as Arlene Dunn did on the same Policy 713 vote. She remains in cabinet.

J.P. Lewis, a political scientist at UNB Saint John, said cabinet ministers have been expected to support the government even on free votes, historically, but the interpretation of that rule comes down to the premier.

"It's the premier's prerogative," said Lewis. "It's up to the first minister to interpret when they think a minister has violated [cabinet solidarity.]"

Premier 'lost' says Carr

Carr said he questions whether he should have stayed in cabinet as long as he did, but said he was hoping to have a moderating effect on the premier.

He said there have been ongoing issues with Higgs's leadership style, adding the premier's behaviour at a weekend PC party meeting was indicative of his style behind the scenes.

"People were offering the premier an olive branch to ask him to fix this within caucus," said Carr. "He burned that olive branch in front of a number of very good volunteers."

Carr also had criticism for the people running that meeting, saying it was unorganized and the agenda was changed without advance warning.

"It was like it was purposely unofficial so that there would be no record of what would happen on Saturday," said Carr.

CBC News has reached out to PC party president Erika Hachey about Carr's description of the meeting and is awaiting a response.

Carr remains PC MLA

He dodged questions about whether he still supports Higgs, but said he doesn't support his leadership style.

He does support a leadership review.

"The premier seems to have lost his way with this style," said Carr. 

"I feel for him and his family and my colleagues, and we have to do something soon."