6 oct 2014 – Times & Transcript Q& A with -DESIGNATE

Brent mazerolle’s

On Tuesday, Bridge’s Brian Alexander Gallant will be sworn in as the

33rd premier of .

It’s the climactic end to years of climbing through the political ranks for Gallant, a McGill and Université de educated lawyer who first ran for the legislature in 2006 while still a student. It’s of course the beginning of a much bigger journey for both Gallant and the province he will lead.The recent election campaign was spirited,occasionally nasty and ultimately a bit bizarre because of an election-night failure of the province’s vote tabulation system.

By the time the premier-designate dropped by the Times & Transcript last week for a post-election chat, it seemed likely a million words had already been written about the election and its every issue,from the economy and education to abortion and shale gas exploration.

The goal, then, was for the premier-designate and Times & Transcript reporter Brent Mazerolle to not debate the election and its issues all over again. Tuesday will mark the beginning of another four years of that. Instead, Gallant’s and Mazerolle’s conversation was a pause from that to talk more globally about what the results of Sept.22,belated as they were, mean for Brian Gallant and for the rest of the people of New Brunswick. An abridged transcript of the conversation appears below:

Brent Mazerolle: First off, let me get my backup tape recorder turned on for our conversation. My usual recorder has been acting up and is even less reliable than

Elections New Brunswick’s tabulating machines.

Brian Gallant: (Shaking his head and laughing).

BM: Sorry. Is it too soon? Don’t worry, though, no matter how they count it, I think everyone is now pretty confident you won, so congratulations.

BG: Thank you.

BM: Nevertheless,the way it all worked out on election night,you’re probably the first elected premier in a generation who didn’t get his photograph on the front page of the Times & Transcript the next morning. Because your victory speech didn’t happen, the two beautiful little girls looking bored and frustrated at the lack of results ended up telling the story of the election night better. We photographed them at your gathering. Were they part of your family?

BG: That’s my niece, Annabelle, in the back and that’s her friend with her. And you know, (grabbing a copy of last Tuesday’s paper and opening it to A-3) this picture here that says,“a Brian Gallant supporter …”That’s my sister.

BM: Oh, OK, I guess you had her support for sure.

BG: (Smiling) My family had to pick up five or six extra copies.Annabelle wanted some. So this helped you guys.

BM: So they bought copies because of her, not the small matter of you becoming the province’s 33rd premier? That sounds about right.

Not counting the software glitch, because that’s too easy,what was the biggest surprise you had in the campaign?

BG: One of the things is the crowds who came out. For example, we did an announcement at one point in the definition of rural New Brunswick, on the Coles

Island Road,and we had a crowd of 40 people come out to meet the bus.

BM: Coles Island, 40 people — so basically you got everybody.

BG: (Laughing) Anyway, it was awesome. I think like any political leader I’m sure, you get exhausted. When you see those crowds, it kind of rejuvenates your energy and you get going.

BM: On that topic, have you managed eight hours sleep any time recently?

BG: I haven’t. No, in the last two months, I don’t think I’ve hit eight hours in a night. Now things are a little bit better. I spent some time with my family on the weekend,though because I wanted to spend time with them, I still didn’t get as much sleep as I could have.

BM: But at least you had some family time. I suspect it’s just begun for you, though. I remember after the last provincial election, some of the Liberal MLAs who got elected but found themselves in opposition told me,“Jeez, I’m getting more sleep, some exercise. I’ve lost some weight.”It didn’t sound so bad to be out of power. Nevertheless, I’m sure you didn’t come this far without being in it for the long haul.

BG: Absolutely. Nevertheless, I have been trying to get some sleep. I don’t want to burn myself out. But it’s not as much as I probably should be getting.

BM: What was the best moment of the campaign?

BG: It’s funny. I was asked that the last day of the campaign, the day before the election, and it was actually that day it happened. I got to stand before the Louis J. Robichaud monument in St. Antoine. I have a lot of idols, and certainly one of them in politics would be . It was pretty inspiring to be in front of his monument and think that I have the same job as him as head of the Liberal party,vying for the same job.And now I have the other job he had as well. And we had a great crowd there and great supporters. So that was probably one of the better moments, and that was 24 hours before the election.

BM: We’ve spoken before about how, despite your early immersion in politics as a young man, you did not grow up in a political family.But last time we sat down for one of these chats,you said your political activity had resulted in them getting more interested. What’s their reaction been to the election?

BG: So my father’s reaction the last three years is he’s been engulfed in politics. He’s been to some nominations and he got really into it, which is great. Then my mother over the past two years has been very supportive of course but doesn’t really follow politics. I came home once,and my father said,“Oh,your mother met

Ted Fleming at the McDonald’s, and they had a quick chat.”

It was all nice, and my father thought that was pretty funny. Then my mother came in, and I said,“So, Mom, I hear you met Ted Fleming,”and she said,“Who?”

BM: That just might be why the Liberal leader’s mother and the Tory cabinet minister had such a nice conversation.

BG: Fast forward to the night of the election. So my father is pacing back and forth just as nervous as can be and didn’t want to talk to a soul. Because of the delay,the media were trying to talk to some of my family to fill the air,which is fine

…

BM: Trust me, those were desperate hours for us.

BG: … my family just by nature wouldn’t be very excited about doing that. My brother stepped up to the plate and he got to suck it up and did an interview. But my mother was the only one of the family just walking around looking to do interviews. She really enjoyed it and she seemed to like talking about the past. I like to think she’s proud of me so obviously she wanted to show that to people. All of this to say my father was in the room, and one reporter came up to one of my main organizers on the ground and asked,“Do you know if Brian’s father is here?

We would like to interview him”

The guy said, “Oh, I don’t know, I haven’t seen him.I’m not sure I would know who he is.”And he’s looking around, and my father is standing right next to him. (Afterward), my father said,“I didn’t say a word. I just stood there and stared at them”

BM: That’s awesome. That sort of discretion should serve you well, I’d think. So you’re in town today for transition meetings. We all sort of think we know what transition means,but what is it,precisely?

BG: It is a lot more work than some people would think. First you have to unwind your campaign.You can’t forget that there’s a campaign that you just went through that you’re sort of turning the keys on. Then obviously you had some people for filling functions during the campaign that will be filling functions in the premier’s office,so you have to figure out that transition. A lot of it’s HR: We have to find out which ministers will take which ministries. We also have to figure out how departments can be divided as well. I want to make some changes. I’ve committed to having fewer ministers, so you want to get a sense in terms of workload of files that will be pulling the minister in one direction and files that will be pulling the minister in different directions. You want to get a feel of all that before you make those decisions. That’s part of the transition. I’m talking to the civil service of course to find out some of that stuff.

You obviously need the premier as well because of some things he has to unwind in his government as we’re ramping up.

BM: The public likes to think in a democracy that the transition is civil and smooth whatever the rancour that might have existed during an election. Is that true?

BG: It’s been very smooth, and I have to commend the premier immensely. He’s been very cordial. His staff has been very open. The lines of communication of been open. It’s been very helpful. The meeting I had with the premier was very nice as well. I asked him what he thought we should continue with our government, things that are working well that we should keep doing. He’s been very helpful, and that obviously makes it easier for us.

BM: When you’re campaigning, especially in opposition, you have to set yourself apart from the governing party, tell people what you will do different. What are some of the examples of things that you will hang on to?

BG: I think one of the things they were doing that was interesting was with the civil service. They were trying to find a lot of efficiencies, and I thought that was very good. I think it was something I should definitely continue, empowering the civil service to help improve our finances and deliver services in the most efficient way possible.

I also think there are programs like the One Job Pledge that are very interesting.It’s a way to keep some young people working in the province and to give support to some small, medium-size, and even some large businesses in the province. They did some good work on inclusion in our schools, which I thought was pretty good.There’s still some work to be done there, but I thought it was a good start. And unfortunately you’re right: When you’re in a campaign,what catches the attention of the media and the public is when we disagree. The highlights of the debate won’t be when were all agreeing on something, which happened a few times — and unfortunately at other times it …

BM: … it didn’t.

BG: And unfortunately for the vibe of politics in general, I think, what people mostly focus on is the division.

BM: Although these are surely not the most difficult times we’ve had, these are nevertheless difficult times for New Brunswick. Four years ago, had the unfortunate distinction of being the first-ever one-term premier who failed to get a second term from the people. It seemed like an historic aberration, but now we’ve gone and done it twice. What do you take as a message from the electorate with this?

BG: It is tough times, and I thank Premier Alward for his work. As we just discussed, we differed on what direction to take the province, but I never doubted his commitment to the province. The last couple of elections have been unusual, but if you look around us as a region or country, there have been lots of that. We saw the first NDP government in Nova Scotia,we saw some political turmoil in

Quebec,where things are certainly changing quite rapidly.

BM: Federally we saw the NDP become the official Opposition. That has never happened before.

BG: Absolutely. A decade ago we saw parties merging with the Conservatives. There’s a lot of things happening in the last little while that we are seeing for the first time. I think it’s because people aren’t necessarily linked to a brand as much as they used to be, which is fine. That is how democracy should work.

BM: You shouldn’t vote for a party just because your grandparents did.

BG: Right, with the traditional parties. Three years ago,when I was vying for the Liberal leadership, I said we can’t take any vote for granted. We have to work every single election and work hard for the people who voted for us in between.

It’s not going to be the way it was decades ago.

BM: Honest answer — did you think we would have a Green MLA coming out of this election?

BG: Honestly, no. Like every New Brunswicker, I was surprised. I should preface that with I wasn’t completely surprised because that riding was going to be interesting.You had five candidates and three that on a provincial level had quite a high profile. With all that said, Mr. Coon is someone I respect. I think he worked very hard. We don’t always agree, that’s very clear; however, I like to think we would be very open to admitting when we do agree.

BM: It’s funny. We were just talking about how you barely slept in the last couple months and you’re running a campaign, and I know there were all sorts of incredible pulls on your time. But yet I’m also aware that you took time out to make hospital visits to a woman named Kay Rafferty. Except for the Liberals, I’m guessing few people reading the transcript of this conversation will know who she is, but as a guy on the outside looking in, I’ve determined over the years that she has a huge impact on your party.

She got sprung from the hospital for a couple hours one day this summer to attend a birthday party for my best friend’s five-year-old daughter — my best friend grew up next door to the Raffertys — and you had just been to see her at the hospital earlier that day. My friend’s -born, -resident companion was curious why the 32-year-old leader of New Brunswick’s official Opposition, busy with a campaign to run, was hanging out with a senior citizen busy recovering from a stroke.

My friend told her Kay was the moral compass of the Liberal party, and I told her

Mrs. Rafferty was, best as I could tell, sort of its Jedi master. Your take?

BG: Yup.Throw in“Liberal”in the title, and I would say she’s the Liberal Jedi master. Let me put it this way: She embodies what is the best about politics.

When I ran for the first time in 2006 against , the thing that struck me the most in that campaign about politics — and I was obviously someone who really believed in politics-as-a-way-to do-good sort of guy of course — was the amount of people, the amount of time given by volunteers in the community just trying to make a difference.It was really inspiring to see dozens and dozens of people donating their time, their nights and weekends to this cause and really expecting nothing in return except the chance to maybe make their community a little bit better.

That was really inspiring, and if there’s one person that embodies that, it’s Kay Rafferty. She’s been behind the scenes volunteering her time to make calls, to chair meetings, to give advice on everything you possibly can imagine. She’s done it for federal, provincial and municipal politicians.

When I ran in 2006,I was lucky that one of the very first meetings I had with the Liberals in Moncton East was with her. That’s how we got to know each other, and I was just so impressed with her integrity and her hard work, and she’s just such a kind person.

At one point I was at a rally for (candidates and now MLAs) Cathy Rogers and Monique LeBlanc, and I was giving my speech, and all of a sudden everybody stopped listening and started looking at the door. And there was Kay.

BM: You got upstaged.

BG: Yes, she trumped me, and rightfully so. She still had her hospital bracelet on. They let her out for 10 minutes, and she came right to the rally,so it was a special moment. She’s the key part of anyone’s campaign if you can get her support because with it you get the support of the all people who believe in her.

BM: I’ll admit I brought up her name not to talk about her specifically but as an antidote to the cynicism so many people have about political life. Not everyone in the back room is a bag man, for instance.

On the topic of democracy and its alternatives, we now all know for the worst possible reason that your grandfather was thrown into a concentration camp by the Nazis for harbouring Jews and working with the Dutch resistance. I look at how the recent campaign got ugly at times but hear you describe a smooth transition with Premier Alward. I think about how, technical glitch notwithstanding, most of us have faith in a free, fair and transparent election. And those who did speak out with concerns had no fear of imprisonment or worse. All that rambling to ask a short question: What do you think your grandfather Scholten would think of you becoming premier?

BG: I unfortunately didn’t get the chance to meet him. He died when my mother was nine, and my grandmother died when she was 11.

BM: As unfortunately can happen when you’re the 16th of 17 children.

BG: My mother doesn’t remember as much as her older brothers and sisters, but from them what I can tell is my grandfather was a high-spirited individual. I think he would have been very proud. He probably would have cracked a few jokes about me winning.

And I’ve got to say when I go through tough times personally, professionally, anything, I always remind myself what they went through,and it really puts it in perspective.Life could be a lot worse.I’m really lucky to be where I am and doing what I’m doing.

Premier-designate and Liberal Leader Brian Gallant PHOTO: GREG

AGNEW/TIMES & TRANSCRIPT

Brian Gallant PHOTO: GREG AGNEW/TIMES & TRANSCRIPT