People's Alliance set to welcome unhappy PC party members

The People's Alliance of New Brunswick says it's ready to capitalize on a nomination battle within the Progressive Conservative party.

Leader Kris Austin says he's already hearing from Tory members in the riding of Carleton-York who aren't happy with the disqualification of a party member who wanted to run in the next provincial election.

Chris Duffie is challenging his disqualification in court. The next hearing is scheduled for Monday.

"We've had a couple of phones from some people in that area that are certainly looking our way," Austin said. "Our door's open and we welcome people to check out our message and what we're saying, and the way we do politics."

Missed deadline

Duffie missed a May 5 deadline to submit his paperwork to run for the nomination against PC Carl Urquhart, who is the sitting MLA.

The nomination was scheduled for May 19 but Justice Judy Clendening ordered it postponed until Duffie's case is decided.

He's arguing the party didn't give PC members, including himself, proper notice that the nominating convention was coming up, and that caused him to miss the deadline. He says the party wanted to protect Urquhart from a contested nominating convention.

The party argues it followed all its own rules, and says the courts should not get involved in an internal dispute.

Austin said the PC party's actions have struck some members as old-fashioned politics and those voters are welcome in the People's Alliance.

Do things differently

"If people are not happy with the way the Progressive Conservatives are doing business, like I said, our door's always open," he said. "We do things differently.

"We don't hide anything. We don't try to squeak anything through unknowingly. We want people to participate in the functioning of the party."

Austin himself founded the new party after he lost a bid to be nominated as the PC candidate in Grand Lake-Gagetown. His party has never elected an MLA but Austin came within 26 votes of winning Fredericton-Grand Lake in 2014.

Duffie said he's not ready to think about running for another party if his legal challenge fails.

"I'm not looking at that as a consideration at this time," he said. "At this stage the answer is no."

He said other parties have contacted him about running for them. Asked if he'd rule it out, Duffie said, "Why don't you consider asking me that question after our court date?"

No comment

Don Moore, the PC party president, said that so far, no one else has applied to challenge a sitting Tory MLA for the nomination in any other riding.

Moore said everything about the Carleton-York nominating convention followed the PC party constitution and the party encourages open nominations, including in ridings now held by Tory MLAs.

"There's no guarantee that a sitting MLA is protected," he said. "There's nothing in the party's constitution concerning such. In fact, actually the constitution requires that each registered district association holds a nomination convention."

He said PC leader Blaine Higgs wants to make sure the party has "an open nomination process that is fair and accessible to any member of the party."

The party has two nominating conventions coming on the weekend, in Fredericton-York and Saint John East. Sitting PC MLAs Kirk MacDonald and Glen Savoie are running unopposed.

The next provincial election is scheduled for Sept. 24, 2018.