New Brunswick Liberal Association Early Years And Andrew Blair

Today, the New Brunswick Liberal Party is one of two major political parties in the province. The other is the Progressive Conservatives.

Like its sister organizations in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchwan , the NBLA serves both the federal Liberal party and acts as the provincial party. Thus, its leader acts only in the provincial capacity, but the party executive organizes for both provincial and federal election campaigns.

1 Early Years and Andrew Blair

Prior to Canadian confederation, advocates of responsible government ran under the labels Reform or Liberal, while opponents of responsible government were known as Conservatives. With the debates over confederation in the 1860s, the party lines which had emerged blurred as Reformers split along pro and anti-Confederation lines, resulting in ConfederationThe Confederation Party was the name of parties supporting Canadian confederation in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland in the 1860s when politics became polarised between supporters and opponents of Confederation. The Confederation parties were and Anti-Confederation Parties.

Following 1867, supporters of Confederation generally became known as Liberal-Conservatives, or just Conservatives . Those who had been against confederation regrouped loosely as Liberals, but did not become a coherent party until Andrew Blair became Premier New Brunswick and forged members of his parliamentary government and their supporters into the New Brunswick Liberal Association in 1883Events January January 16 The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil service, is passed January 19 The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service ( Roselle, New Jersey) It was built by Thomas E.

2 Early 1900s

The Conservatives were largely dominant after Blair left the province to join Wilfrid Laurier's cabinet in 1896. Though the Liberals were briefly in power from 1917Events January 2 The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank. January 22 World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe. January 25 The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million January 25 Anti- - 1925Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s Years: 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 See also 1925 in aviation 1925 in film 1925 in literature 1925 in mu following several Conservative scandals.

3 Dysart and McNair

In the midst of the depression, the Liberals made a resurgence in 19321932 is the leap year starting on Friday. see link for calendar) Events January-February January 3 British arrest and intern Mohandas Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel January 8 In Britain the Archbishop of Canterbury forbids church remarriage of divorcees Jan with Allison Dysart becoming premier. McNair was Dysart's right hand, serving as Attorney General until replacing him as premier in 1940. McNair served until 1952 when he was defeated by Hugh John Flemming.

4 Louis J. Robichaud

During the 1960s, the Liberals under Louis Joseph Robichaud were instrumental in bringing Acadians into the mainstream of life in New Brunswick, declaring the province to be officially bilingual. The English and French languages were given equal status.

5 Opposition in the Hatfield Years

Following defeat in the New Brunswick general election, 1970 , the Liberals were largely in disarray. They had a good shot at winning in 1978 but changed leaders on the eve of the election and still managed to narrow the gap to 30-28. Between 1978 and 1982 the Liberals had four different leaders and suffered their worst defeat in modern electoral (since parties were legally recognized in 1935) history.

6 Frank McKenna

In 1985, the party choose Frank McKenna as leader. McKenna, a young lawyer representing Chatam in the legislature in his first term, ran as the underdog in a leadership race against party stalwart Ray Frenette who had served as interim leader from the disasterous 1982 election until the eve of the 1985 leadership race. McKenna, who campaigned hard, won by significant margin.

McKenna immeadiately set out to prepare the party for returning to government after 15 years in opposition. The momentum was on the side of the Liberals and it seemed inevitable that McKenna would be premier as soon as an election was held. Few expected, though, that the Liberals would sweep the province, winning every seat -- a first in any jurisdiction in Canadian history.

McKenna was regarded as a fiscal conservative and was called by some the "Best Tory Premier New Brunswick never had". Despite this, McKenna was a progressive on many issues. Though he made considerable cuts to social programs due to the dire fiscal situation in New Brunswick and due to cuts to federal equalization payments and other transfers, he also instituted new programs. Notably, McKenna instituted a publicly funded kindergarten program -- something that had been promised by the Hatfield Conservatives in the previous four elections. McKenna also launched a homecare program called Extramural Nursing which has been hailed as the best in Canada. In the 2002 Romanow report on the Future of Healthcare in Canada , New Brunswick's system was specifically cited as a model for homecare in Canada.

Despite riding high in the polls, McKenna resigned on October 13, 1997, ten years (to the day) since his first election as premier, fufilling a promise to serve for only ten years.

McKenna was replaced by Frenette, who had served as his right-hand in the legislature throughout his term, who was Premier for the following seven months while the party chose a new leader. Frenette was replaced by Camille Thériault who served as premier until the 1999 election when the Liberals were defeated despite having begun the campaign with a double-digit lead in opinion polls.

7 Present

Shawn Graham has been the leader of the party since May 11, 2002, and it currently holds 26 of 55 seats in the New Brunswick legislature.

Its federal wing boasts 7 of the 10 MPs in the province, including two cabinet ministers: Minster of State for Human Resources Development Claudette Bradshaw and Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Andy Scott.

8 Related articles

9 External link

http://www.nblib.nb.ca

New Brunswick political parties

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