PC members set to vote on rule changes in wake of election defeat
CBC
Members of New Brunswick's Progressive Conservative Party are facing major decisions on the future of their battered and divided organization.
They will gather in Moncton on May 24 to debate and vote on a series of motions that could change the rules for choosing a new leader and give more power to grassroots members over nominating candidates.
Another motion would give the party the authority to expel members who dissent.
If adopted, a three-person committee of the party could revoke the membership of someone who "publicly brings the party into disrepute," a phrase that could apply to any number of situations.
In 2023, six PC MLAs voted in the legislature against then-premier Blaine Higgs. Instead, they supported a Liberal opposition motion calling for further study of his proposed changes to the province's gender identity and sexual orientation policy for schools.
One of those former MLAs, Jeff Carr, told CBC News that internal disagreements should not get to that point.
"There are different opinions on how we got where we are and why we're at where we are as a party," he said.
"I always believe a strong leadership contender or a stronger leader can settle those differences within the party before they get to be a public spectacle."
The package of 47 motions obtained by CBC News does not indicate which riding association or party member authored the motion on expelling members.
There are also questions about the process being used to decide which motions will go to a vote at the May 24 meeting.
Each motion must win the support of a threshold number of local riding associations to advance to the full provincial meeting.
But former party president Don Moore of Moncton says a resolution he drafted, to give all 49 ridings in the province equal voting weight in the choice of a new party leader, was quashed before it could go through that process.
"It was disqualified, and the only reason I was given was it was considered 'undemocratic,' and that doesn't make sense to me," said Moore, who was party president in 2017.
"There seems to be sort of a strange process that's been brewed up lately that is not part of the party constitution," he said.
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