New Brunswick Court of Appeal says 2020 snap election call by Higgs was legal
New Brunswick's Court of Appeal has ruled that the August 2020 snap election call that won Premier Blaine Higgs a majority government was legal.
In a decision released Thursday, the court dismissed advocacy group Democracy Watch's argument that the premier's early election call was illegal because of the province's fixed-date election law.
Writing for the three-judge panel, Justice Ernest Drapeau said there is no admissible evidence that the premier's decision to call a general election at that time came from "the pursuit of purely partisan electoral advantage."
Higgs triggered the vote two years ahead of New Brunswick's fixed election date because he said the province needed stability during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The premier called the election after opposition parties refused a proposal to support his minority government until the fixed election date in 2022 or until the end of the pandemic.
In October 2021, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Thomas Christie rejected Democracy Watch's bid to have snap elections declared illegal, but for different reasons than noted in the Appeal Court decision.
The Appeal Court disagreed with Christie's determination that the case should be dismissed on the grounds that the timing of an election is not a matter to be considered by the courts. Christie wrote at the time that in his view, "the matter borders on being considered frivolous."
Drapeau wrote in the decision that "most" of Democracy Watch's grounds of appeal are "well founded." However, the Court of Appeal determined that the argument should still be dismissed due to a lack of admissible evidence that Higgs called the election for "purely partisan" electoral advantage.
Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, said in a statement that the ruling confirms premiers cannot disregard fixed-date election laws for purely partisan reasons.
"Democracy Watch believes there was enough evidence for the Court of Appeal to rule that Premier Higgs violated New Brunswick's fixed election date law by calling the 2020 snap election at a time that favoured his party's election chances, but the court concluded there was not enough evidence to prove that he did, or didn't, call the election to favour the PC Party," Conacher said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2022.
By Lyndsay Armstrong in Halifax
This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cargo ship had engine maintenance in port before Baltimore bridge collapse, officials say
The cargo ship that lost power and crashed into a bridge in Baltimore underwent 'routine engine maintenance' in port beforehand, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Far North police 'dispatch' polar bear stalking schoolyard
Police and local hunters in an Ontario Far North First Nation community have “dispatched” a polar that was showing abnormal behaviour and treating the area as a hunting ground.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.
Families shocked after Niagara Falls hotel cancels bookings made year in advance of solar eclipse
After having the foresight to book their Niagara Falls hotel rooms more than a year in advance, several families planning to take in the solar eclipse next month were shocked to find out their reservations had been cancelled.
B.C. rescuers face 'high likelihood' of failure to reunite orphaned orca with pod
The race to reunite an orphaned orca calf that’s stuck in a shallow lagoon with a neighbouring pod has entered its fifth day, and a marine scientist says the clock is ticking.
Video shows police interrupting auto theft in progress outside Toronto home
New video footage obtained by CP24 shows the attempted theft of a vehicle in a North York driveway earlier this month that was ultimately interrupted by police.
Majority of Canadians believe in life after death: Angus Reid survey
A new survey from the Angus Reid Institute has found that a majority of Canadians believe in some form of life after death, a proportion that has held steady for decades.
MyPillow, owned by U.S. election denier Mike Lindell, formally evicted from Minnesota warehouse
A court ordered the eviction Wednesday of MyPillow from a suburban Minneapolis warehouse that it formerly used.