Former N.B. PC minister Jeff Carr says he's leaving politics
CBC
Former New Brunswick cabinet minister Jeff Carr, who was shuffled out of the provincial cabinet last year for breaking ranks on Policy 713, says he is leaving provincial politics.
Carr, a former minister of transportation and of environment and local government, says he won't be a Progressive Conservative candidate in the election scheduled for Oct. 21.
He warned last year after being dropped from cabinet that he was unlikely to run again if Premier Blaine Higgs led the PC Party into the next election.
"I think we saw over the last number of months that the signals were there that I probably wouldn't re-offer for the next election," he told CBC News and Radio-Canada Tuesday.
Carr was one of six Tory MLAs who broke ranks with the government last June and voted with opposition MLAs for a motion calling for further study of potential changes to Policy 713.
He said Tuesday the PC party has changed under Higgs but he wouldn't elaborate or discuss in detail his disagreements with the premier, saying he wanted to leave on a positive note.
Carr has been the MLA for New Maryland-Sunbury since 2014, the third brother to hold a seat in the legislature after his siblings Jody and Jack.
Asked if they still felt welcome in the party with Higgs as leader, Carr said they were "still welcome with a majority of PC members" and said he would have a private discussion with Higgs eventually about the last year.
"I am still a PC member. I will always be a member of the PC Party. There are good things in the future that will come from the PC Party," he said.
"The PC Party isn't about one person. It's not about me. It's not about the premier. It's not about anybody else. It's a family that has just gone through a bit of a bump and a hurdle."
Higgs's changes to Policy 713 included requiring parents be notified if their children under 16 wanted to change the names or pronouns they use in school to reflect their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Carr said last May that governments should "strengthen policies and not take away the rights of marginalized individuals, to not have them live in fear."
After the dramatic vote last June, two other PC cabinet ministers who dissented, Dorothy Shephard and Trevor Holder, resigned.
Carr and colleague Daniel Allain were shuffled out of cabinet later that month.
All public schools on P.E.I. are closed Friday and thousands of Maritime Electric customers are without power as strong winds create hazardous travel conditions across the province.
Prince Rupert, B.C., residents are celebrating the holidays this year with coastal flair.
In the four years Chelsey Simmonds has worked at the Eva Rothwell Centre, she has seen the need increase every year at the centre’s community food pantry.
CBC is once again looking to make the holiday season kind in Windsor-Essex.
Acute Care Alberta has extended its contract for another year with a private surgical facility at the centre of probes into health procurement and contracting.
As food bank use continues to climb across the province, front-line workers in Thunder Bay, Ont., are working to improve both food security and education.
More ads could soon be coming to Toronto’s subway system.
The driver wanted in connection with a fatal hit and run on Highway 401 earlier this week has been identified, police say.
There are mixed feelings about the proposed Grays Bay road and port project, among people who live in nearby communities.
WARNING: This story details allegations of child abuse and includes graphic content.
Provincial police in Lambton County have charged a 23-year-old man with second degree murder following a death investigation that began this past Saturday.
The Newfoundland and Labrador government is forming a working group to tackle what it calls systemic issues in the justice system, but answers or solutions could still be months away.
A woman has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death in a 2024 fatal hit and run in Truro, N.S., where the victim was dragged down the street, a case that went unsolved for more than six months.