The People's Alliance is gone, but not forgotten
Now-defunct populist party made its mark, and its influence could live on within the PC Party
For two years, the People's Alliance was at the centre of New Brunswick politics.
The protest party founded by Kris Austin in 2010 was key to the government of Progressive Conservative premier Blaine Higgs staying in power in its first term.
That makes the Alliance's disappearance last week all the more stunning. Once an essential element of New Brunswick conservatism, it is now non-existent.
"This is what victory looks like, folks," Austin declared on election night in 2018.
The party won three seats — the right number at the right time.
The PCs had 22 seats, three short of what they needed to win confidence votes, adopt budgets and pass legislation.
The Green Party also won three seats that day, but Austin, a folksy populist on the right of the spectrum, with a knack for channelling voter anger, was the obvious choice for Higgs.
The Alliance leader was a critic of how the Official Languages Act was applied.
Higgs himself opposed the act decades earlier when he ran for the leadership of another protest party, the Confederation of Regions party.
The two leaders saw eye to eye on other issues as well. Austin quickly pledged to keep Higgs in power for 18 months.
In return, the PC premier regularly consulted the three Alliance MLAs on policy.
"I'm here today in front of you because the Alliance party supported me to be here," Higgs told reporters a week after being sworn in, explaining why he sought its input.
Austin's clout was symbolized by his participation in a November 2018 government announcement on ambulance services. Opposition leaders rarely take part in such events.
The Alliance had made paramedic shortages an issue in the provincial election, claiming that bilingualism requirements were exacerbating the problem.
The announcement was a new category of non-emergency ambulance transfers that did not require bilingual crews because a patient could indicate their language choice in advance.
A year later Austin told reporters he might support the PCs for even longer than 18 months.
"I believe New Brunswickers want stable government and we're happy to provide that and continue to provide that," he said. "Beyond the spring, I'm optimistic we can continue to work together.'"
Around that time, he scored another win: he threatened to vote against government bills if the PCs didn't accelerate the reclassification of paramedics into a new union that entitled them to wage increases.
Ted Flemming, the health minister at the time, quickly announced the change.
That alliance's leverage expired, however, when Higgs won a majority in the September 2020 election.
Austin told CBC's election-night broadcast the new reality was "more about the power of persuasion than it is about having the leverage in a minority, when you have clearly a bigger hammer."
The Alliance also lost one of its three seats that night. The two setbacks led Austin to reflect on the party's future.
In March 2022 he and the other remaining Alliance MLA, Michelle Conroy, joined the PCs.
He later explained that another factor was that Higgs had moved the PCs further to the right, creating a clearer contrast with the Liberals.
"I saw the PC party and the PC government starting to adopt our policies: taxation, smaller government, this sort of thing," Austin explained in November 2022.
"At that point you're either going to build together stronger and take that message forward, or you're going to continue to work against each other and not have the same success."
As a PC MLA, Austin vocally supported Higgs's shift in a more populist and conservative direction, even as other more moderate PC members chafed at the premier's approach.
Austin enthusiastically backed Higgs on changes to gender identity guidelines for provincial schools, an initiative that led six PC MLAs to break ranks with the premier.
Austin blamed the polices of the former federal government under Justin Trudeau for increases in crime, drug use and homelessness, calling them "leftist agendas" that were "degrading our society."
The Alliance, meanwhile, was trying to patch itself back together.
Members chose former MLA Rick DeSaulniers as their new leader.
But the party struggled in the 2024 election, running only 13 candidates and not bothering to release a campaign platform.
With Higgs taking a more rightward approach, and the tiny Libertarian Party advocating dramatically smaller government, the Alliance had a hard time articulating a distinct position.
"Our party is still relevant," DeSaulniers said last fall. "We're still right of centre. We're not as far right as Higgs and them."
The party ended up with only 0.9 per cent of the vote. Last week it filed paperwork to de-register the party.
"It's really too bad, because I think the more voices, the better," Libertarian Party Leader Keith Tays said.
But he added that the Alliance's philosophy had been "all over the map," and his party stood to gain from its demise.
"We're putting out the call to any freedom-loving Alliance members to join us."
Tays acknowledged some Alliance voters were "begrudgingly" following Austin to the PCs, where the former leader is playing a prominent role.
He's an effective questioner in the legislature, and he declared victory last fall when the new Liberal government upheld his decision while a PC minister to locate a new provincial jail in Grand Lake, in his riding.
He has not ruled out becoming a candidate to lead the party next year.
Other potential candidates, including former cabinet minister Daniel Allain, have advocated moving the party back to a more moderate, centrist position.
That means next year's leadership race may determine whether the legacy of the People's Alliance lives on within the PC Party.
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