Miramichi MP Jake Stewart faces party turmoil ahead of election
Financial agent quits, office closes, House of Commons sends warning to ex-staffer
A New Brunswick Conservative MP running for re-election this year is losing some of his supporters after a falling out with former staffers and resignations from the local party organization.
Jake Stewart, the MP for Miramichi-Grand Lake, recently had a House of Commons lawyer send a cease-and-desist letter to Shawn Morrison, a longtime Conservative who used to work in his office.
The letter, dated Jan. 30 and obtained by CBC News, was sent to Morrison after an exchange of fiery and sometimes personal social media posts between him and Stewart.
That came a few days after the financial agent for the Conservative riding association in Miramichi-Grand Lake resigned in an email to members of the association board.
"My decision stems from a profound distrust in the current board and staff within MP Stewart's office," Denver Brennan wrote in a Jan. 24 email obtained by CBC News.
He also said the atmosphere at Stewart's office was "toxic and manipulative" and eight other people had left jobs with the MP over three years, though one of them, Aiden Ingersoll, appeared in a Feb. 11 social media photo with Stewart.
Stewart, a first-term Conservative MP and former provincial cabinet minister in the Blaine Higgs government, has been nominated as the party candidate for the federal election expected this spring.
He has not responded to text messages or to phone calls or an email to his office requesting an interview.
In one Facebook post in January responding to Morrison, the MP appeared to challenge him to a physical confrontation.
"My address hasn't changed," Stewart wrote, daring him to "bring it" and using a profanity to describe Morrision.
Morrison and Brennan would not do interviews with CBC News.
Kelly Wilson, the president of the Conservative riding association board, did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, Stewart's office on the King George Highway in Miramichi was closed for several weeks after the Christmas break, with a sign in the window citing "security reasons."
Stewart posted two photos on his social media accounts on Feb. 11 showing him greeting constituents at the office, and when CBC News photographed the office the next day, the sign was gone.
But Brunswick News reported the sign was back later in the day.
When CBC News visited the office again on Feb. 20, there was no such sign in the window, but the door was locked and no one responded to repeated rings on a buzzer.
Stewart took part in a community event in Miramichi the same day.
The cease-and-desist letter to Morrison was signed by Aleksandra Pisarek, a lawyer in the office of the House of Commons law clerk.
It says Morrison has engaged in "unwelcome, malicious and vindictive behaviour," including unwelcome contact with Stewart's staff and his spouse.
It asks him to "immediately cease and desist" and warns him that if he continues, "all possible legal recourses will be considered."
Two spokespeople for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre did not respond to a request for comment. Kevin Price, the New Brunswick representative on the party's national council, did not respond either.
Stewart was first elected to the New Brunswick legislature in 2010 and was re-elected in 2014, 2018 and 2020.
He ran for the provincial Progressive Conservative Party leadership in 2016, placing fifth in the first round of voting.
Premier Blaine Higgs appointed Stewart minister of aboriginal affairs when the PCs formed a minority government in 2018, but dropped him from cabinet after winning a majority in 2020.
Stewart resigned as an MLA the following year to run federally and was elected MP for Miramichi-Grand Lake in the September 2021 election.
He was among the first MPs to endorse Poilievre for leader of the federal Conservative Party after MPs pushed Erin O'Toole out of the position in early 2022.
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