People's Alliance: Kris Austin

Kris Austin is trying to lead his upstart People's Alliance of New Brunswick into the legislative assembly on a promise to unshackle MLAs by giving them more power.

The party was born out of the anger and frustration that emerged after Premier Shawn Graham announced the Liberal government intended to sell NB Power to Hydro-Québec last October.

The plan, which had been quietly in the works for months, ultimately failed but it spawned the new party that pledged a renewed commitment to free votes inside the legislative assembly.

Austin, who was elected the party's leader in June, said the main purpose of the People's Alliance is to put "power back in the hands of every day people."

"We firmly believe that true democracy is brought about when the MLA who is elected can go to the legislature and accurately represent the constituents that elected him or her," Austin said in an interview in June.

The alliance is vowing that the free votes will not be limited to only a handful of bills that come before the assembly. It would allow MLAs to vote freely on every piece of legislation that is entered into the legislature.

Former Tory candidate

Austin, who is currently the pastor of the Community Christian Church in Minto, N.B., will be leading the new party into the election campaign. But he had originally hoped to be carrying David Alward's Progressive Conservative banner in the 2010 election.

Austin ran for the Tory nomination in the Grand Lake-Gagetown riding in June 2009 and he was ultimately defeated by Ross Wetmore.

According to Austin, losing the Tory nomination was the "best thing that ever happened to me."

Not being tied to the Tories allowed Austin to set up the People's Alliance in the aftermath of the proposed NB Power deal.

And the Progressive Conservatives started to be an uncomfortable fit, as Austin said he felt "stonewalled" in his attempts to open up the party.

Along with Austin, there are several other Tories that have joined the Alliance ranks at the executive and candidate level. Sterling Wright, the party's executive director, and John Craig, who is the mayor of St. Andrews and now the candidate in Charlotte-Campobello, are two high-profile party members that have also crossed over from the Tories.

Official party status

Third parties have always had a difficult time in New Brunswick. The New Democratic Party has struggled in recent years and in 2006 the party suffered its worst showing in terms of popular support in three decades.

The NDP has never had more than one MLA inside the legislative assembly.

The Confederations of Region burst onto the scene in the 1991 election, winning eight seats but were gone after the 1995 campaign when they failed to win any seats.

The Grey Party of New Brunswick was an official party in the 2003 election and ran 10 candidates. But the party, which was formed to push issues important to seniors, failed to elect any MLAs or muster any serious momentum during the campaign.

Austin's People's Alliance joined the Liberals, Progressive Conservatives, NDP and Green Party as an official party on June 9. At the time, the party had 10 candidates arranged and Austin said the alliance hoped to field more than 20 in the province's 55 ridings.

Party policy

Although the alliance has formed because of the anger over the proposed NB Power deal, the party has tried to broaden out its policy framework.

Austin has distanced his party away from the COR party, which opposed official bilingualism. The alliance has expressed its support for the status quo on language issues at its June policy convention.

Austin said the fact that New Brunswick is a bilingual provinces makes it unique.

At the policy conference, the party's members discussed the importance of early exposure to French in schools. Austin said he would even look at making French mandatory for students, in order to see more graduates fluent in both official languages.

The alliance has also moved to weigh in on the potential second nuclear power reactor in the province.

The Liberal government has announced it will work with French nuclear giant Areva on the possibility of building a second reactor next to the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station.

The People's Alliance have come out to oppose the Areva deal.

Vote splitting

The People's Alliance has not escaped the criticism — especially as several of them are former Progressive Conservatives — that they could split the vote and elect more Liberals.

Austin said in an interview that he isn't concerned about the possibility of dividing the vote, especially with the Tories.

The alliance leader said Alward is "playing catch up" as the Tory leader has started talking about more free votes inside the legislature.

The difference, Austin said, is that his party is speaking for ordinary New Brunswickers and not the political elite, which are operated by the traditional parties.

If any votes are split, Austin said the traditional parties will be splitting his party's votes.

Less than a year after creating the party, Austin said he believes New Brunswickers are ready to embrace the vision of the alliance.

"Change takes courage but I believe the people of this province are going to have the courage to stand up and say, 'Look things have got to change and we are going to cast our ballot for that change,'" Austin said.