People’s Alliance of NB reborn with a new leader

Chief Electoral Officer, Kim Poffenroth, says the People’s Alliance of New Brunswick meets the criteria that can make it an official party again. In March, during his transition to the Progressive Conservative Party, ex-leader Kris Austin canceled this registration.

According Kim Poffenroth the party has fulfilled the registration requirements provided for by law.

So the party elected a leader, Rick DeSaulniersat a convention, which took place on Saturday, it has at least ten constituency associations, and is committed to fielding official candidates in at least ten constituencies in the next general election.

This recognition by Election NB will allow the People’s Alliance to obtain funding from the Consolidated Fund to which the party was entitled before its dissolution in March.

The opposition deplores the return of the Alliance

Opposition parties in Fredericton deplore the revival of the People’s Alliance of New Brunswick, a party that openly opposes certain aspects of official bilingualism.

The interim leader of the New Brunswick Liberal Party takes a dim view of the Alliance’s return. That party has come back, which would like to advance ideas that I absolutely do not agree with and the vast majority of people in New Brunswick do nothe said.

” I think it’s a bad day for New Brunswick. »

For his part, the Green MP for Kent North, Kevin Arseneau, believes that the current situation is worse than when the Alliance had two members of the Legislative Assembly.

There you have a party that pushes ideas, you have people inside a government who hide, who can work on these ideas from the inside, when Higgs has accepted Austin and ConroyI said I wish they stayed a party, I wish he left them there, we knew what they thinkhe explains.

” Basically, it is a scenario that is doubly dangerous. »

The Conservatives, who have two former Alliance members in their ranks, did not comment.

A new leader, but the same ideology

Rick DeSaulniers maintains the traditional position of the People’s Alliance on language issues. The politician says that this position could be changed, but for the most part he still defends the same points of view.

From the outset, Rick DeSaulniers maintains that he supports bilingualism in New Brunswick. We are not anti-bilingualism, we are not, we are not anti-francophones, all we want is fairnesshe says.

But in the same breath, the politician criticizes several of the pillars of official bilingualism in New Brunswick.

Thus, the language requirements for obtaining bilingual positions are too strict, according to him, and are not fair for unilinguals.

He also wants the position of Commissioner of Official Languages ​​to be abolished, because it would divide the population instead of uniting it.

Finally, DeSaulniers believes that the Horizon and Vitalité health authorities should be merged into a single bilingual authority.

Return to politics of a former MP

retired electrician, Rick DeSaulniers was elected in 2018 in Fredericton-York under the banner of the People’s Alliance of New Brunswick, then led by Chris Austin.

Nevertheless, Rick DeSaulniers lost his seat in the 2020 general election. He came third behind the Conservative ryan cullins and the green Melissa Fraser.

During his two years in the Legislative Assembly, MP Rick DeSaulniers stood out for changing his mind a few times.

Firmly opposed to the lifting of the moratorium on shale gas exploration in 2018, he was finally convinced by the Conservatives, who wanted to allow exploration in the Sussex region.

In 2019, he threatened to vote against the Department of Environment and Local Government’s budget, because he wanted the government to fix a problem with noisy trucks in his constituency. There too, he allowed himself to be convinced by the conservatives.

The Alliance will undergo its first test on June 20

The People’s Alliance of New Brunswick will be able to assess the popular support it has as of June 20, during the by-elections scheduled in Miramichi-Baie-Néguac and Miramichi-Sud-Ouest-Baie-du-Vin.

A politician will never admit defeat until he’s defeated, but I think that might be a good measure of where we’re at, to see what kind of a hit we’ve taken, if we’ve taken any ahe says.

The Alliance nominated Thomas L’Huillier as a candidate in Miramichi Baie-Néguac, but no candidate has yet been officially announced in Miramichi-Sud-Ouest-Baie-du-Vin. Leader Rick DeSaulniers specifies, however, that there will indeed be a candidate in this constituency.

The deadline for presenting candidates in these elections is this Friday, June 3.

With information from Alix Villeneuve