PC leadership race swells to 7 candidates
Former MLA and MP Jean Dubé joins the crowd
Former Progressive Conservative MLA Jean Dubé has become the seventh candidate in the party's leadership race, positioning himself as someone to soothe language tensions in New Brunswick as premier.
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Dubé says he believes the leader of the party must be fluently bilingual, a standard that favours him over several other candidates in the race.
But he would not have required a bilingual commissionaire be posted at Chancery Place, the main government office in Fredericton.
Unilingual commissionaire Wayne Grant had his hours cut last year after New Brunswick's official language commissioner encountered him and launched an investigation into bilingual commissionaire services.
No, he should not have been bilingual.- Dubé on Wayne Grant controversy
"This is pushing the envelope a little bit too far," Dubé said of Grant's case. "Some people like to push things … but I'm not that kind of person."
While Dubé said he'd require bilingualism in "crucial jobs … where it's life-threatening" such as ambulance paramedics, he said Grant could have been allowed to find a bilingual colleague rather than be demoted.
"We have to be as fair as humanly possible," Dubé said. "I know there are people who will say. `He should have been bilingual.' No, he should not have been bilingual … I'm sure there are people who speak French in that service who could have served that person."
Dubé said he also believes the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does require the province to provide dual school bus systems for English and French schools, though he'd apply "common sense" in places where only one or two students might need a bus.
Dubé officially announced his campaign in Campbellton Monday evening.
He lost the seat in 2000, was elected a provincial PC MLA in a 2001 by-election, and was defeated by the Liberals in 2003.
Dubé's entry swells the race to seven candidates, the largest field for any party leadership race in recent memory.
The winner will lead the party into the 2018 election.
The other PC leadership candidates are MLAs Blaine Higgs, Brian Macdonald, and Jake Stewart, former Saint John Mayor Mel Norton, former federal MP Mike Allen, and Moncton lawyer Monica Barley.
Dubé said he waited until now to declare because he wanted to meet Tories around the province and find out what is on their minds.
In favour of Energy East
As premier, he said, he'd support the Energy East pipeline and make cuts to what he called a "top-heavy" civil service.
PC party members will vote Oct. 22.
While there are seven declared candidates heading into the summer barbecue season, the deadline for candidates to pay the $10,000 entry fee is only in September.
With a large field, lining up supporters and donations will be harder with party loyalists dividing their efforts and money seven ways.
Dubé acknowledged the large field presents challenges. "It'll make it interesting. The bar is high and the hill is steep."
But, he said, party members have to decide who they think is best positioned to win the next election, a standard he said he can meet due to his federal and provincial experience and his bilingualism.
Says leadership race rules unfair
Dubé said in May that leadership race rules were tilted against a candidate like him from northern New Brunswick and that was "certainly going to weigh" on his decision.
The party's four satellite voting stations aren't in locations convenient for people from the north shore, he said, and the $40 voting fee is prohibitively expensive for some New Brunswickers.
But now Dubé said some other leadership candidates he wouldn't name have agreed to join him in pushing for changes.
"It's not over yet," he said. "It's never too late to do the right thing. … You'll be hearing more about it."
The PC party says with a tax deduction, the voting fee will end up costing party members less than the previous $25 fee.
In May party president Jason Stephen said the rules couldn't be changed because five candidates had entered the race under those rules at that time.
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