PC rebels say majority of riding presidents support ousting Higgs

A movement to push Premier Blaine Higgs out as leader of the New Brunswick Progressive Conservative party is gathering momentum.

A member of the party's provincial council says 25 presidents of PC riding associations have signed letters calling for a leadership review vote.

That's a majority out of the 49 ridings. It also surpasses a key threshold in the party's constitution to trigger the process.

"That number constitutes over 50 per cent of riding association presidents and I think it clearly shows there's a desire for a change of leadership amongst the membership," said John Williston, a regional vice-president of the party who supports the review.

"This is from every part of the province. … It's important that this reflects a wide scope of New Brunswick — anglophone, francophone, northern, southern. It shows unity among our party throughout the province." 

CBC News has seen and verified 22 of the letters, two more than the number required to advance the issue.

Jean-Pierre Ouellet, president of the Madawaska-Les Lacs-Edmundston riding association and one of the signatories, said Higgs has made too many decisions without consulting the public.

"It's 'my way or the highway,'" he said, pointing to an attempt to replace French immersion, legislation weakening the powers of anglophone district education councils and eliminating elected positions on regional health authority boards.

Surpassing the 20-letter threshold doesn't guarantee a membership vote on Higgs's leadership will be held.

The party constitution requires letters from 20 riding presidents, and 50 party members in total, for the party's provincial council — its governing body — to put the question on its agenda at its next meeting.

No more than five of the 50 members can be from any single riding.

Former party president Claude Williams told Radio-Canada's La Matinale on Wednesday morning that those 50 letters were also in hand.

"We have the numbers," Williams said. "If I were in his place, I'd retire." 

The council must vote by a two-thirds majority to schedule a convention within three months, where delegates would vote on whether to keep or remove Higgs.

Williston, a member of the council, said he believes a two-thirds vote is well within "striking distance."

"With approximately one-third of the caucus voting against the government and not willing to follow the premier at this point, it's quite obvious to me we need a change in leadership in the party."

Reviews are automatic if the party loses an election, but the process is elaborate and time-consuming when it's in power.

The move to dump Higgs is the first organized attempt to remove a sitting New Brunswick premier from their party's leadership since an effort against Premier Richard Hatfield in 1985.

Higgs was elected premier in September 2018 and re-elected two years later. 

Former cabinet minister Dorothy Shephard, who resigned as social development minister last week, said last week that she'd rather see Higgs leave "amicably" than face being ousted.

"I know that the party is mobilizing to consider a leadership review," she said on CBC's Power and Politics. "I'm sure that weighs on his mind."

But Higgs indicated Monday the ball was in the membership's court.

"It won't be a call that I make, right?" he told reporters. "If the party decides to do that, it won't be a decision I make. So if it happens, I guess it happens."

Shephard quit after she and five other PC MLAs, including three other ministers, voted with the opposition for a Liberal motion calling for more consultations on Policy 713.

The premier said he was willing to face a party review process to defend his position on his controversial review of the policy, which sets out standards for providing safe and inclusive spaces for LGBTQ students in provincial schools.

PC Party president Erika Hachey said in an email she has not received any letters yet from riding presidents calling for a review.

The provincial council is scheduled to meet this weekend, but the party constitution requires letters to be submitted 21 days in advance, so the review would only appear on the agenda of the next meeting this fall.

Hachey was unsure exactly how many members sit on the provincial council and what number would constitute two-thirds support for calling a convention.

The council includes the 49 riding presidents, several party officials, including the president and nine regional vice-presidents, five MLAs whom she did not identify, and Higgs himself.