Trevor Holder quits soon after four former party leaders asked him to step down
New Brunswick’s Progressive Conservative Party is in a lot of trouble. On Friday morning, another minister quit Premier Blaine Higgs’s cabinet, and four former top party officials called for the premier to step down.
MLA for Portland-Simonds Trevor Holder, who was the MLA who had been there the longest, said in an open letter that he was leaving his job as minister of post-secondary education, training, and labor.
“Under the leadership of Premier Higgs, caucus has been less about reaching a consensus and more about him getting his own way,” Holder wrote.
Holder said that he has tried many times to show the prime minister why it’s important to work together more, but to no avail.
“I’ve done my best to keep working to keep the integrity of the caucus system, but I’ve finally realized that I can’t do that anymore.”
He also criticized the prime minister for “his lack of empathy and his inability to listen to all of his caucus’s valid concerns.”
Holder was first elected in 1999, and he has been a minister under three different PC premiers.
He said he plans to stay on as MLA for Portland-Simonds and asked party members to “build a thoughtful conservative movement in this province that brings people together rather than that divides them.”
Holder sent out his letter just one hour after four former party presidents asked Higgs to quit right away.
In their statement, they said that Higgs has done a lot in his more than four years as premier, but he can’t find “the delicate balance” that is needed to run New Brunswick.
“We ask that you avoid a public fight that could be disruptive and split the party. The letter says, “We ask that you leave with grace.”
“As Premier of New Brunswick, you have done some important things well. But now is the time for you to pass the baton and for the PCNB to change direction so it can face the future and move forward.
The letter is signed by four people who were all presidents of the New Brunswick party: Claude Williams, Lester Young, Brian Harquail, and Jason Stephen.
The four former presidents said that Higgs was trying to make the internal fight about Policy 713, the policy that the government recently changed to protect LGBTQ students in provincial schools.
But they said the problems go deeper and include the fact that the premier is trying to get rid of French immersion, weaken district education councils, and get rid of elected members on boards for regional health authorities.
“Policy 713 was just the last straw in a long list of ways he has disrespected our Party, its values, and its traditions,” they wrote.