Cabinet ministers quit amid 'crisis' for low-income New Brunswickers

Two cabinet ministers have resigned in as many weeks, and for New Brunswick's Common Front for Justice, it's not only a concern for the government but worrisome because of the high-profile portfolios they oversaw.

"It's disarray,” said organizer Gabrielle Ross-Marquette. “We need a government that is able to lead, that is able to support its marginalized community members. We're not seeing that we haven't seen that since Blaine Higgs took power.”

Calls for a change in leadership before the 2024 election have been coming from a number directions within the PC party. This week, four past presidents released a letter urging Higgs to step down.

"An election campaign coming up in the next year is not going to be focused on Policy 713,” said Jamie Gillies, a political scientist at St. Thomas University. “It's going to be focused on the countless challenges that New Brunswickers face every day, whether it's health care, whether it's quality of life and affordability, whether it's the cost of living, affordable housing."

"It is a crisis for low-income New Brusnwickers,” Ross-Marquette said. “Here in this time of rising inflation and the fact that the two ministers that are associated with the issues that the Common Front mobilizes on and advocates on and lobbies on is really concerning for us.”

Gillies says the frame has shifted when it comes to party issues.

"Now it really is about Higgs' leadership style,” he said. “His inability to reach consensus and now all of the other issues, the other problems in the province now are the focus on the party."

A statement from the New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs's office confirmed that Higgs won't be resigning, despite calls for him to step-down.

The Premier's Office said that a formal request for a leadership review didn’t come forward today following a Progressive Conservative party meeting held in Fredericton on Saturday.