Political Party System in Province the End of Accommodation? Roger Ouellette Commentary
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29 oct. 2016 – Telegraph Journal Political party system in province the end of accommodation? ROgeR Ouellette commentary In his 1963 book, Politics in New Brunswick, Hugh G. Thorburn concluded that New Brunswick had a two-party system composed of the Liberals and the Progressive Conservative party. The first could depend on the Acadian and Irish Catholic votes while the latter benefited from the massive support of the Anglo-Protestants. Jean-Guy Finn demonstrated in his political science master’s thesis for the University of Ottawa that there was an Acadian ethnic vote in New Brunswick. It was not before the 1970 election of Richard Hatfield’s Progressive Conservative government that we witnessed for the first time in the history of this province a premier from that political party actively wooing the Acadian vote that, until then, had been the preserve of the Liberal party. With the help of his francophone lieutenant, Jean-Maurice Simard, he undertook a systematic charm offensive that would be highly successful in the 1982 election. The Progressive Conservative troops made a historic breakthrough in ridings that were either predominantly or mixed francophone ridings that gave a strong majority to the government. It was by means of specific actions that Richard Hatfield’s government was able to get its candidates elected in francophone areas of the province. Among those actions mention can be made of the creation of educational and community centres in Fredericton, Saint John and Miramichi, implementing full duality in the Department of Education, followed by the adoption of Bill 88 that recognized the full equality of both official languages communities in the province. The heavy defeat of the Richard Hatfield government in 1987 after 17 years in office, but with a premier that had become highly unpopular in the wake of several scandals in his personal life, would be marked by the arrival on the political scene of CoR, an anti-bilinguism party that formed the official opposition in 1991. With a Progressive Conservative party in tatters, the francophone electorate once again gave its overwhelming support to the Liberal party. The choice of new francophone leader by the Progressive Conservative party, Bernard Lord, allowed a strong comeback to power with a healthy majority in the 1999 election. Having rebuilt unity within his party, Bernard Lord was able to recapture the votes of the francophones. The adoption of a new official languages law in 2002 that included the creation of the post of commissioner of official languages would become the hallmark the Bernard Lord government insofar as the francophone community was concerned. The 2014 election gave a small majority to the Liberal party, thanks to the large support of the francophone regions. It was the signal of a return to a party system in this province evidenced by an electoral split on a linguistic basis. Acadians and the Irish Catholics returned to the Liberal fold and the Progressive Conservative party was able to depend on its traditional electoral base, that is to say the Anglo-Protestants. The selection of a new leader of the Progressive Conservative party,a former member of CoR and a unilingual anglophone last Saturday in Fredericton, without the support of francophones, represents a setback for all those in his political party who believe in a party system that can accommodate both linguistic communities. The offhand remarks by Blaine Higgs about bilingual buses and the pointlessness of having a really bilingual paramedic service to accommodate the provincial population in both official languages revealed a leader insensitive to the fundamental rights of francophones to have access to services in their language. Contrary to what Blaine Higgs believes, to get access to essential services, such as ambulances at any time in French or in English is not a whim of the francophone community. It is not Blaine Higgs’improvised promise to become bilingual in record time for the 2018 election that will gain him the respect, and eventually the francophone votes in this province. Like Richard Hatfield and Bernard Lord, he will have to take specific actions in order to deserve the support of francophones. The Progressive Conservative party has lost all its seats in francophone areas, with the exception of Madeleine Dubé in Madawaska in the 2014 election. One is justified in thinking that Madeleine Dubé has kept her seat because of her huge personal popularity. Will Blaine Higgs be able to convince other Madeleine Dubé to climb aboard his bus in 2018? He will have to truly extend the hand of friendship to the francophone community, showing respect for duality and a bilingualism that is not mere window dressing in this province. If not, linguistic tensions only increase and our party system will become forever flawed by linguistic barriers very similar to a real wall of intolerance. Faced with the innumerable challenges that beset the province, struggling with a galloping debt, a sluggish economic growth, an aging population, we cannot afford the luxury of feeding toxic linguistic quarrels. Roger Ouellette is professor of political science and Fellow at the Donald J. Savoie institute at l’université de Moncton .