Blaine Higgs is staying.
The New Brunswick premier introduced Friday he’ll stay as chief of the Progressive Conservative Get together and search one other mandate within the subsequent provincial election.
There’s been hypothesis for months about whether or not Higgs, who shall be 70 years outdated subsequent March, would retire earlier than the subsequent election.
In February, on the annual state of the province speech, he teased the group by exiting the stage to the Conflict tune Ought to I Keep or Ought to I Go?
The query “has change into more and more related with the interior dissent that our authorities has skilled within the final six months,” Higgs mentioned Friday.
He was answering the query with a press release on social media.
“With the encouragement of many colleagues and folks from throughout this province, I’m confirming my intention to stay as chief and to reoffer within the subsequent provincial election.”
Higgs cited the province’s financial and inhabitants progress throughout his time as premier and mentioned it was essential to “proceed to construct on this momentum.”
The subsequent election is scheduled for Oct. 21, 2024, although Higgs’s assertion didn’t point out that date and didn’t rule out an earlier marketing campaign.
The previous Irving Oil senior supervisor was first elected as an MLA in 2010.
He grew to become PC celebration chief in 2016 and led the Tories to a slender win within the 2018 election, scratching out yet one more seat than the Liberals to kind a minority authorities with the help of the Folks’s Alliance.
He gained a majority two years later primarily based largely on his authorities’s dealing with of the COVID-19 pandemic up till that time.
However his recognition took successful the next yr after a untimely loosening of public well being restrictions and a subsequent spike in instances.
Coverage 713 adjustments prompted caucus revolt
Earlier this yr, his determination to alter elements of Coverage 713, which was launched in 2020 to assure minimal help for LGBTQ college students, was the catalyst for a caucus revolt.
4 ministers and two backbench PC MLAs rebelled by voting for an opposition Liberal movement calling on the kid and youth advocate to look at the adjustments — a name that led to a damning report by the advocate calling the brand new coverage unconstitutional.
Two ministers, Dorothy Shephard and Trevor Holder, resigned within the wake of the revolt, saying his centralizing of energy in his workplace went towards PC celebration values.
Higgs shuffled the 2 different ministers out of cupboard.
One among them, Jeff Carr, mentioned he wouldn’t run within the subsequent election if Higgs stayed on as chief, and Shephard mentioned she didn’t see how she might.
Bid for management evaluation failed
The premier mentioned on the time that the turmoil would possibly immediate him to remain on.
“If we are able to’t get our personal home so as in order that we’ve got a very good course of to transition and proceed the momentum of what the province is experiencing proper now, then I can’t stroll away from what we’ve achieved thus far,” he mentioned.
Some grassroots PC members additionally tried to set off a management evaluation vote to take away Higgs, however that fizzled after the celebration invalidated a few of the letters submitted below celebration guidelines.
If Higgs wins a majority within the subsequent election, he’d be the primary premier to win two straight majorities since Bernard Lord in 1999 and 2003.