Dorothy Shephard is latest PC MLA to leave politics
One-third of Tory candidates elected in 2020 have now resigned or opted not to run again
Another Progressive Conservative MLA who clashed with Premier Blaine Higgs has decided not to be part of his campaign for re-election this year.
Four-term Saint John Lancaster member Dorothy Shephard, who was health minister during the worst part of the COVID-19 pandemic, says she will not run again.
Shephard said her public break with Higgs last year over Policy 713 and his leadership style were just the latest in a series of "challenging times" during her 14 years in politics, and this was the right time for her to look at other ways to contribute.
Shephard was one of six PC MLAs who voted with the opposition last June on a Liberal motion calling for more study of changes to Policy 713 on gender identity in schools. She resigned from cabinet the same day.
The changes included requiring parental consent before teachers and staff can use a child's chosen pronoun in verbal or official communication.
She told CBC News that she plans to stay involved with the PC Party and defend its moderate, centrist values.
"The way it's heading now, I think there is such a hyper-focused trend with far-right politics," she said. "That's my personal perspective."
She said the party should look back to the tenure of former prime minister Brian Mulroney to "understand the great accomplishments that come from centre-right, centre-left politics, and strongly promote that. So that's where my efforts are going to lie."
Higgs told reporters he wished Shephard the best in the future.
"She was dedicated to the province and dedicated to her riding, and that's what MLAs are supposed to do," he said.
But he pushed back at her comments about a rightward shift by the party.
"I guess we all have different interpretations of what 'to the right' means. If having parents involved in raising their kids and making sure that's an accepted practice is to the right, maybe we have to evaluate society."
Shephard said she plans to participate in PC Party annual meetings and other internal processes to try to help steer the party in a moderate, mainstream direction.
Her criticism of the party's direction were echoed by former Fundy-Royal Progressive Conservative MP John Herron, who confirmed Thursday he plans to run for the Liberals in the provincial riding of Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins.
He'll be taking on PC candidate Faytene Grasseschi, whose Christian conservative writings and views have generated "angst" among longtime Tory supporters, Herron said.
"It's their perspective that that nominee doesn't represent the progressive nature of this community," said Herron, who was elected twice as a PC MP in 1997 and 2000.
Herron refused to be part of the federal Progressive Conservatives' merger with the Canadian Alliance in 2003 and sat as an independent in the House of Commons before running and losing as a Liberal in 2004.
Herron said "a broad and unlikely coalition" of Liberals, unhappy provincial Tories and "a touch of Green" had urged him to run against Grasseschi, whom Higgs has praised as part of a "revolution" within the provincial party.
"What we're seeing is a party based more on ideology," he said, adding that New Brunswickers favour "big bold policies" but "don't necessarily want to be part of a right-wing debating society."
Grasseschi said she would not respond to Herron's comments.
"I look forward to a campaign at this important time in our province when the cost of living and caring for the citizens of New Brunswick is top of mind for us all," she said in an email.
In a statement posted to social media Thursday morning, Shephard not-so-subtly rebutted comments Higgs has made about other PC MLAs who have opted out.
"Surprisingly, politics was for me," she wrote.
"I am a Progressive Conservative, and I will carry the experience and learnings from these four terms into whatever the future holds next."
Earlier this year Higgs responded to other departures by saying about Jeff Carr that tough decision-making is "not for everyone" and, about Arlene Dunn, "politics turned out to not be for her."
In her statement, Shephard pointed to several initiatives she was proud of during her time as a minister, including kinship legislation in 2019 that clarified the rules around relatives able to care for a child who needs to be removed from the family home.
Shephard is the ninth PC MLA elected in 2020 to quit or not to run again, meaning a full one-third of Higgs's victorious candidates from that campaign won't be on the ballot this fall.
At least three others may also bow out.
Two more of the six who rebelled over Policy 713 and the premier's leadership style, Trevor Holder and Andrea Anderson-Mason, have yet to say whether they'll run.
Health Minister Bruce Fitch has also hinted he will retire after 21 years as an MLA.
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