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Beausejour Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc is coming under renewed pressure to enter the New Brunswick Liberal leadership race.
LeBlanc came under immediate pressure to consider a foray into provincial politics after former premier Shawn Graham lost the 2010 election.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2011/12/08/nb-dominic-...
The Windsor Energy saga has taken a rather troubling turn, as NDP Leader Dominic Cardy received a phone call from Windsor's CEO threatening legal action for comments he made, repeating public information that has been reported in the media on the issue.
Rather frightening that the company would think that they could threaten their critics - and a political party no less. Makes you wonder who else they've called.
http://www.nbndp.ca/node/552
Welcome to the Third World: Windsor Energy CEO Threatens New Democrats Over Shale Gas CriticismMONCTON - On the day the Conservative government admitted they are powerless to discipline Windsor Energy, Windsor President and CEO Khalid Amin phoned New Brunswick New Democrat leader Dominic Cardy and threatened him with legal action if he didn’t stop “defaming” the Calgary oil and gas company.
“Mr. Amin called from Alberta and said, if I didn’t stop criticizing his company, I might expect a call from his lawyer,” said Cardy.
“When I said some fracking companies were the bottom feeders of the energy industry I didn’t expect to have it confirmed quite this fast, and in quite this way: within hours of hearing that our government can’t control them, Windsor starts threatening its critics,” said Cardy.
“Mr. Amin needs to know that even though the Liberals signed leases without enforcement provisions and the Conservatives are so desperate for money they’ll let his company do what it wants, New Brunswick’s New Democrats will stand up to these sort of threats,” said Cardy.
“Mr. Amin, take this to your lawyers: New Brunswick needs industry, we need development and progress. New Brunswick does not need fracking. We’ve seen this across North America: fracking companies can’t defend their industry in the open so they resort to threats and intimidation,” said Cardy.
“I want to ask Premier Alward and Minister Northrup whether they will accept this latest example of third-world behavior from Windsor Energy. Or will you have the courage, as difficult as it would be, to say no, this is not the sort of company we need in New Brunswick.”
Story is now on CBC as well.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2011/12/08/nb-windsor-...
Seems like Dominic Cardy has had more visibility in the last six months than leaders of the NDP have had collectively in New Brunswick in the 7 years since Elizabeth Weir quit!
New Brunswick's population grew by 2.9 per cent between 2006 and 2011, bucking a decades-long trend of a declining population, according to Statistics Canada.
The population figures from the census were released on Wednesday. New Brunswick's population now stands at 751,171 in 2011 up from 729,997 in 2006.
New Brunswick is becoming more of a southern, urban and suburban province, according to the census data.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/02/08/nb-populati...Horizon Health Network officials say they made a mistake when they bought tickets for an event that turned out to be a fundraiser for the Progressive Conservative Party.
Political financing reports show the health authority gave $3,870 to the PC Party in the first half of 2011.
The money paid for a table at a Saint John event billed as "an evening with Premier David Alward," said Horizon spokesperson Sonya Green-Haché.
Officials didn't realize the money was going to Alward's political party, she said.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/02/10/nb-horizon-pc-fundraiser.html
ETAQ: The PC party has promised to refund the cost of the tickets.
A Riverview woman is raising questions about the provincial government sharing New Brunswickers' personal information with a charitable organization.
The provincial government provides the names and addresses of 550,000 drivers in the province to the War Amps.
Leslie Last said she has no problem with the War Amps' work, but is concerned with how people's personal data is being handled.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/02/15/nb-war-amps...
I just saw this.
Quite the comedian handling the PR for the Haelth Network. Does he or she also do stand up?
The PCs seem to be lurching from blunder to blunder these days. They turned down a million dollars from the hospital foundation to purchase a better MRI at the SJRH. Dr. Jim Parrot, one of the local PC MlAs essentially came out and said the Health minister was crazy to reject the offer.
ETA: an article on the controversy http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/02/28/nb-mri-3t-a...
Lamrock has been rumoured as a potential leadership candidate since former premier Shawn Graham resigned but he had not formally entered the race.
Lamrock said in a statement on his website that he intends to seek the leadership.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/02/29/nb-lamrock-...
That's been an open secret for awhile. Debater, Actor, standup comedian, lawyer and former student politician. What more could the NB Libs want? By the next election will the electorate remember he was taken to court as Education Minister over the consultation process for early French Immersion? He would certainly best Alward in any debate. I think lamrock and cardy are of the same vintage.
Several former MLAs have decided to fight last year's reduction to their pensions by filing a complaint with the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission.
The retired or defeated Tories and Liberals say a retroactive clawback to their benefits is unfair.
Last year, the Alward government reversed a 2008 decision that boosted the pensions. As a result, MLAs who left office in 2010 are seeing their pensions reduced, in some cases by a third.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/03/20/nb-mla-pension-cuts-hum...Interesting dilemma: Is this a bad legal precedent that we should all oppose? Or is it in reality a move we should support (I mean, cutting pensions and salaries)? IMO (despite my loathing of the whole pension and salary scale for elected officials across the board) it is a dangerous precedent, even though it would seem fair on the surface that MLAs share the burden of cuts along with seniors, the disabled, the sick, the unemployed, and the working poor, of whom N.B. has far more than any province should have.
It also has implications for the City Saint John which is asking the Legislature to pass legislation in the spring session reducing pension benefits for its workers. Add in the Ferguson defamation case and pensions are a hot topic in little old NB these days.
So you're suggesting that the MLA pensions could be the thin edge of the wedge, a faux-populist/egalitarian gambit to attack other sectors...
No, I'm suggesting 1) that it will be interesting to see the ruling in the human rights complaint, 2) the legislature may be reluctant to pass the legislation being requested by Saint John's Common Council, 3) the Ferguson trial while great entertainment is a waste of money on the part of the Pension Board.
Thank you for the explanation, Robo. The distinction needs to be made.
Unfortunately, the benefit paid to MLAs is more than just a one-time severance based on availability of funds - at least that's how I understood it to be. It is an ongoing drain on public resources.
Another huge problem we face in every province is the fact that assemblies can vote raises to its members and to judges with no possible redress from the public, and with no oversight, to my knowledge. It's happened that MLAs voted themselves and judges a hefty raise while the wages of hospital workers and teachers were frozen. There's nothing to stop that from happening again...and again... unless grassroots movements become more organized.
In N.B. we've proven that mobilizations can work around particular issues (most recently the sale of NB hydro, French immersion, and now fracking). How difficult might it be to mobilize around the allocation of public funds?
Mulcair addresses Provincial NDP Convention in NB:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/04/14/nb-tom-mulcair-ndp-convention.html
According to CBC's Jacques Poitras on Twitter, Dominic Cardy has passed a leadership review with 82% in favour.
http://www.cbc.ca/informationmorningfredericton/2012/04/16/ndp-convention/
A wide ranging interview with Dominic Cardy after NB Convention this past weekend.
The NB NDP is incredibly lucky to have someone of Cardy's calibre willing to do the thankless job of being leader despite not having a seat and the party having virtually no money to pay a leader's salary.
I must admit Cardy is starting to grow on me. The next NB election will be interesting.
There are more than 1,000 New Brunswickers putting their names forward to earn a place on municipal councils across the province.
The sheer volume of candidates is creating several interesting trends and the patterns vary from names to incumbency.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/04/30/nb-election...
Former Saint John city councillor John Ferguson embraced friends and family in the lobby of a Saint John courthouse Tuesday night, celebrating a complete victory in his five-year legal battle with the city's pension board.
"I'm pleased with the decision," an emotional Ferguson told reporters.
"Very pleased with the decision."
A seven-person jury deliberated for eight hours following 12 weeks of courtroom testimony and arguments.
The jury concluded Ferguson was well within his rights to criticize management of the city's deficit-plagued pension fund while he was a councillor.
The Saint John Pension Board sued Ferguson for multiple statements he made at five city council meetings and in a newspaper opinion piece over an 18-month period beginning in April of 2005, claiming serious and malicious damage to its reputation.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/05/01/nb-ferguson...RCMP traffic officers were toting squeegees in Moncton Tuesday as part of an unusual undercover cellphone sting.
Officers were dressed in plainclothes, posing as people who wanted to wash motorists' windshields but really, they wanted to catch people who were driving while talking on the phone, said Codiac Regional RCMP Cpl. Sylvain LeBlanc.
LeBlanc explained the undercover spotter would radio ahead to uniformed officers, who wrote the tickets.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/05/01/nb-cell-pho...Are you sure it wasn't the crew of This Hour ... dressed up as plainclothes cops to tape an episode?
Or perhaps it was a pilot for a new comedy show. Canadian humour can be so zany.
New Brunswick's privacy commissioner says a breach by Elections New Brunswick is potentially the largest ever in the province given the number of people's information involved.
Elections New Brunswick confirmed on Wednesday it accidentally sent a voters list containing phone numbers, dates of birth and driver's licence information to Members of the Legislative Assembly and to the Progressive Conservatives and Liberal parties.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/05/10/nb-privacy-...
The campaigning is over and New Brunswick voters are heading to the polls today to elect new mayors, councillors as well as members for their local education and health councils.
While each of the 105 municipal races and dozens of regional health authority and district education council races are important to the local candidates and communities, there are a handful of races that may draw provincial intrigue.
Some of the province's larger cities have intense battles for mayors or high-profile candidates seeking election or electoral redemption.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2012/05/14/nb-7-races-to-watch-600.html
Election day in NB where most people have some personal connections in the race. For example, the incumbent mayor taught me science when I was in grade 8. His chief opponent is the brother of my oldest son's former principal. I still chair the Parent School Support Committee at that school and the principal is running for council in my parents' ward.
I graduated from high school with one of the perceived front-runneres in the at large elections and we work at the same institution. Many others in the city would have even more connections to the candidates.
Ms. C. and I are going to vote after work and watch the results roll in after the polls close at 8.
Are there any candidates running municipallly that have NDP/progressive ties that we should be rooting for?