25 years of N.B. politics: experts gather at Mount Allison

From the Frank McKenna years right up to Susan Holt's premiership, a new book to be published by the University of Toronto Press will examine New Brunswick's political history so far this century.

Politicians, academics, students and members of the public gathered at Mount Allison University on Saturday for a workshop about New Brunswick's political past, present and future. Feedback from the attendees will be used to guide the development of the upcoming book, New Brunswick Politics: A Canadian Microcosm.

"This is, hopefully, the first edited volume on New Brunswick politics across time," said Jamie Gillies, a political scientist from St. Thomas University who co-hosted Saturday's event.

The book will look at the challenges New Brunswick has faced over the past 25 years, from housing and development, to what lessons other provinces can learn from the decisions made by New Brunswick politicians.

Gillies, a co-editor of the book, is writing the chapter on former premier Blaine Higgs. Other chapters will examine other premiers, going back to Bernard Lord, who was New Brunswick's 30th premier from 1999 to 2006.

"It's really a tale of two premierships with Higgs," Gillies said.

"You have the 2018 and pandemic premier, and then when he gets a majority government, we have what's happened in the last couple of years, which are things like his stand on Policy 713 and some of the policy areas that he engaged in prior to the election, and we all know the result of the 2024 election."

Workshop attendees participated in sessions covering topics on public policy, housing policy and the role of L'Acadie in the past 25 years.

While the morning focused on historical background, a large portion of the afternoon focused on where New Brunswick is headed, especially emerging from the pandemic and entering an era of political tension with the United States and the threat of heavy tariffs under a Trump administration.

"It's going to be a fascinating, wild ride," Gillies said. "New Brunswick is going to play a central role in this because we're so highly dependent on the United States." 

Keynote speaker Julia Woodhall-Melnik, Canada Research Chair in Resilient Communities at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, delivered a session on housing policy and rental housing affordability in the province. 

The takeaway from her session, she said, is that New Brunswick is facing a catastrophe when it comes to renting affordability.

"This magical idea that we can build our way out of this quickly is not something that actually exists," she said. "We've been headed towards this crisis for years, and the warning signs were there." 

Woodhall-Melnik and her colleagues hope to work with the current government to climb the "steep hill" of New Brunswick's housing crisis, suggesting changes like vacancy control to discourage rent spikes in between tenancies, which she said also lowers the incentive to "renovict" tenants.