Higgs says Christian conservative's candidacy is 'democracy in action'
Premier welcomes new supporters to party, but critic says he’s driving out moderates
Premier Blaine Higgs says the ascent of a Christian conservative activist as a Progressive Conservative election candidate for his party is "democracy in action" — despite accusations among PC members that he is stifling democratic procedures.
Higgs said in a year-end interview with CBC News that Faytene Grasseschi's nomination in Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins was an example of how the process should work.
"We've seen a candidate that has signed up an unprecedented number of residents and new members into the party, who is showing tremendous interest to be representing the area and has got tremendous support, which is exciting in many ways."
The premier compared Grasseschi's acclamation to his own entry into politics in 2010 and his leadership victory in 2016, when he also signed up supporters who had not been PC members.
"You could argue that I kind of did that when I started."
The nomination race in Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins was triggered by the local PC riding board, which scheduled the event on Dec. 19 and then tried to postpone it.
After the party office refused, a second candidate, Jeremy Salgado, dropped out of the race.
The local board has complained that the process was unfair and is refusing to recognize Grasseschi's nomination.
But Higgs said "every element of the process of selecting a candidate in a riding was followed to the T."
At the meeting, the premier pointed to those who joined the PCs for the first time to support Grasseschi, saying they were "part of — I'll call it a movement, I'll call it a revolution, I'll call it whatever — but a part of an opportunity to change the face of politics."
His critics, however, say the outcome was another example of Higgs imposing his will on the party, contrary to its own internal democratic processes.
"What we see here is a classic example of a leader using his executive power — as premier, in this case — to undermine the political party that he is officially leader of," said Fredericton West-Hanwell MLA Dominic Cardy, who quit Higgs's cabinet in 2022.
The PC Party hasn't had a policy convention to develop new proposals since Higgs became leader in 2016, and Cardy said Higgs used his threat of an early election this fall to avoid a party annual general meeting.
The Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins PC association scheduled the riding nomination for Dec. 19, then tried to postpone it, only to be turned down by the party's head office.
Another candidate, Jeremy Salgado, dropped out and quit the PCs due to what he called "the misalignment of my beliefs and values with the current structure of our party."
Cardy said the result will be a party membership more in line with the premier's vision.
"You have the self-purging effect," he said.
But Higgs pointed out Salgado had endorsed him as leader just a week before pulling out.
"I didn't change in a week's time, but the number of new people that joined the party had," he said.
Won't say whether he'll endorse the dissenting 5
Though Higgs praised Grasseschi's win as a grassroots democratic effort, he refused to say if he'd allow five PC MLAs who broke ranks with him in June to run for the party next year.
Former cabinet ministers Trevor Holder and Dorothy Shephard both said Higgs circumvents the traditional decision-making process within the PC caucus, excluding ministers and MLAs from deliberations.
Higgs rejected the criticism, saying Policy 713 — the document laying out protections for LGBTQ students in provincial schools — was debated at length in the caucus and was supported by around 80 per cent of the members.
"I've probably demonstrated the willingness to weigh out the facts and make a decision because that's what I believe is necessary in the leadership role," he said.
"Not everyone will agree with that."
Some of the five MLAs have said they wouldn't run in 2024 if Higgs is still the leader.
The premier said that's why it's hypothetical to get into whether he'd sign their nomination papers.
At last week's nominating meeting, Higgs praised "the conviction, the determination and the pure ability" of Grasseschi.
Well-known in Christian conservative circles for her activism and for her Faytene TV show, she has also attracted criticism for her religious views.
"Jesus Christ has legitimately been invited to come into and have dominion over all of our affairs as a nation," she wrote in her 2004 book Stand On Guard.
At her nomination, Grasseschi told a reporter asking about statements in another of her books that she couldn't recall what she wrote more than two decades ago so couldn't say whether she stood by it.
"I can't with integrity answer that question," she said.
Higgs said he's confident Grasseschi will accept that "you have to separate your personal views from the greater good.
"But that doesn't mean you don't have your own beliefs and opinions. … What I would expect would be integrity, honesty, a conviction to do what's right for the province, irrespective of what her personal beliefs might be."
He also repeated his frequent comment that the PC caucus has "a lot of diverse opinions within the group."
Shift to less diverse, more hard-edged, says Cardy
Cardy said, however, that Higgs's embrace of Grasseschi, as well as former People's Alliance leader Kris Austin when Austin joined the PCs in 2022, amounts to a broken promise and a shift to a less diverse, more hard-edged, populist conservatism.
"He explicitly committed to me, when I joined the PCs in 2017, that there would be no move to social conservatism," Cardy said.
"He wasn't elected to do this, he certainly wasn't elected premier in 2020 to do any of this, and he's not allowing his own party to have a say."
Cardy said if Higgs is re-elected in 2024, "it'll be the Blaine Higgs party, not the Progressive Conservative Party."
Higgs refused to comment on Cardy's criticisms.
"I really see little value in responding to something he might say, because it would be something else tomorrow," he said.
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