Dissenting minister who survived New Brunswick cabinet firings puzzles scholar

Premier Blaine Higgs is entitled to appoint or dismiss whomever he wants to his cabinet, but not all scholars are buying his argument that two government ministers who voted against a government policy inside the legislature had to be fired to uphold parliamentary traditions, while a third who voiced the same opposition outside the legislature did not.

"The convention of cabinet solidarity was broken by all three," said Emmett Macfarlane, a political scientist at the University of Waterloo.

"Arguably the premier has misunderstood the convention."

On Tuesday, Higgs shuffled his cabinet and removed former local government minister Daniel Allain and former transportation minister Jeff Carr.

Two weeks earlier the pair, along with then social development minister Dorothy Shephard and then post secondary education minister Trevor Holder and two additional backbench government MLA, voted for an opposition motion to further study government changes to Policy 713, which covers the treatment of LGBTQ students in public schools.

Shephard submitted her resignation from cabinet on June 15 following the vote, as did Holder days later.

A fifth government minister, Arlene Dunn, was not in the legislature for the vote but publicly announced the following day she, too, would have sided against the government had she been there. 

On Tuesday, while Allain and Carr were fired, Dunn retained her job and was given additional responsibilities.

Higgs explained that although Dunn had publicly opposed the government's plan in interviews and public statements, that wasn't the same violation of cabinet solidarity committed by those ministers who voted against it.

"When you have cabinet ministers who take a position against the government in the legislature, it's very significant," said Higgs.

"If you look at the parliamentary system we operate under, cabinet support is paramount."

But Macfarlane said that is not a full understanding of the principles and traditions involved.

"The convention does not apply to voting. It applies to any public disagreement with the government," said Macfarlane.

He explained that in a parliamentary system the premier and cabinet ministers are "collectively" responsible for government policies and decisions and are required to defend all of them, even those they might disagree with privately, or resign.