Potential king-maker open to all parties

Voters gave mandate to work together, People’s Alliance leader says

A potential king-maker in New Brunswick’s deadlocked election says he’s willing to work with any party to make a minority government work — even if some leaders say they’re not willing to work with him.

“We understand that the people of New Brunswick have given all of us a mandate to work together,” Kris Austin, leader of the right-of-centre People’s Alliance, said Wednesday.

“That requires negotiation. That requires give and take. I’m willing to do that, and I think if the other parties are not willing to do that, I think New Brunswickers will see that for what it is as well.”

He said it’s unfortunate that Liberal Premier Brian Gallant has stated the Liberals would not form a coalition with his party, which won three seats.

The Liberals won 21 seats in Monday’s election — one less than the Progressive Conservatives — but Gallant remains premier as he tries to get support from other parties to maintain the legislature’s confidence.

“I’ve made it very clear that I would have no coalition government with the People’s Alliance,” Gallant said on election night.

“There are some fundamental values that I need to share with any party that we would be working with, and that’s not the case there. With that said, if we put something forward and they vote for it, that’s going to be their prerogative,” said Gallant, who told reporters he plans to call the legislature back before Christmas.

Green Leader David Coon, whose party also won three seats and is another potential kingmaker, has been meeting with his new MLAs to discuss their next steps.

On Wednesday, he said the legislature session will be a real test, especially for the mainline parties.

“The others keep talking about doing politics differently but they never do. So I see that we as a Green caucus have a real opportunity here to help make that happen where we create a legislative assembly that actually starts to co-operate on behalf of the people of this province,” he said.

Coon said there are similarities in all the parties’ platforms, and he’s sure they can all find issues to support.

“Take the People’s Alliance even. They have a clear policy against spraying glyphosate over the forests. We agree with them. That’s a particular issue we could co-operate with them on. The Tories seem to be leaning in that direction too, so that’s interesting,” Coon said.

But Coon made it clear the Green party is not willing to compromise on linguistic rights. The People’s Alliance has called for efficiency in the delivery of services and not just what is known as “duality,” particularly in health and education.

Austin said party leaders need to put aside egos and agendas to make a minority legislature work.