New Brunswick's legislative assembly.

• Author: Desserud, Donald
• Position: Canada - Report

New Brunswick entered Confederation in 1867 with the rudiments of the Westminster model of legislative democracy--representative and responsible government--already in place. These particular institutions were typical of those in other British colonies at the time, which were characterized by a relatively small electorate, a limited scope for governmental activity, and elitist decision-making practices. But while the parliamentary institutions and political culture in other former British colonies developed and matured over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, New Brunswick seemed caught in a time trap. Until the 1960s which were characterised by sweeping changes in governance, social services, education and income redistribution, all under the visionary programme known as Equal Opportunity shepherded by Liberal Premier Louis Robichaud. Since then, a parade of premiers and party leaders have tried to put their own stamp on the province. When the Liberals were defeated in 2010, it marked the first time a New Brunswick Government had been defeated after just one term. This paper portrays legislative democracy in New Brunswick as it has evolved from its 18th-century origins into the early years of the 21st century.

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Representative government in Canada first took root with the establishment of the legislature in Nova Scotia in 1758, and was well established by the time of the great influx of Loyalists who began arriving in the 1780s following the American Revolution. Nova Scotia once encompassed much of today's Maritime Provinces, including the territory north of the Bay of Fundy then known as the (Nova Scotian) county of Sunbury. This territory became the home for many of the Loyalist newcomers, with most of them settling in Saint John (incorporated as a city in 1784) and further up the St. John River.

Given their physical distance from the seat of government in Halifax, the new settlers soon demanded their own representative assembly. There was little opposition from authorities in Halifax: Nova Scotia had been "neutral" during the Revolution, but many Nova Scotians had been quite sympathetic with the revolutionary rather than the Loyalist cause, and did not always agree with the politics expressed by the Loyalist newcomers, who in turn wondered about Nova Scotia's loyalty to the Empire. In any case, as both R. MacGregor Dawson (1) and J.R. Mallory (2) have observed, the new settlers had British common law on their side because as a "settled" colony (that is, not conquered), they had the right to have such a representative assembly. Exercising his royal prerogative, King George III granted the settlers' request in 1784 by granting Sunbury County status as a separate colony, naming it New Brunswick after his ancestral home, and sending Thomas Carleton to be its first governor. The first elections were held in November 1785, with the first meeting of the legislature taking place in Saint John the following January.

New Brunswick's new government followed the model used by the other colonies. The legislature was bicameral with an upper assembly known as the Legislative Council, and a lower house called the Legislative Assembly. The Governor appointed the Legislative Council and, as was the case across British North America before the advent of "responsible government," the council commanded more power than did the elected assembly. But the Governor, who was appointed by the King through the British Colonial Office, wielded most of the power, or at least he did if he chose to. As well, all members of the Legislative Council were also members of the Governor's privy council--known as his Executive Council--and in this capacity (in addition to their legislative functions) they assisted the Governor in the administration and governance of the colony. Most of the time, the councillors met as the Executive Council; when the legislature was in session, however, they met as the Legislative Council.

The practice of choosing the prime minister and cabinet from the elected assembly, upon which the government then depends for support, derives from the parliamentary reforms that took place in Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In Upper and Lower Canada, as well as in Nova Scotia, the impetus for these reforms was led by charismatic local politicians, and in some cases came in the aftermath of violent protests. But in New Brunswick, responsible government crept rather than marched into the province. New Brunswick did have its own reformers, such as Charles Fisher and Lemuel Allan Wilmot, but neither captured the province's imagination the way that Joseph Howe did in Nova Scotia or Louis Papineau did in Lower Canada. On the other hand, some New Brunswick's lieutenant-governors during this period were less than enthusiastic when it came to the day-to-day governance of their colony, largely leaving the job to a succession of premiers. These premiers soon found it useful to appoint members from the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) to the Executive Council, and so eventually Premier and Council did come to depend on the support of the lower chamber in order to govern. Nevertheless, and with the benefit of hindsight, it can be said that the implementation of responsible government in New Brunswick was largely a matter of emulating developments in the other colonies. Furthermore, the proclivity of the Colonial Office to interfere in New Brunswick's provincial affairs did not end until Confederation in 1867. In synch with the rest of British North America, New Brunswick was granted responsible government in 1854, but it arrived with little fanfare.

This is not to say that 19th-century New Brunswick politics was devoid of passion; curiously, a relative indifference to issues such as responsible government coincided with strong public emotions concerning alcohol consumption in the province. Political factions like the Rummies faced off against temperance advocates such as the Smashers, and their members included people like New Brunswick's future premier and Father of Confederation, Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley. As well, the various Women's Temperance societies played an unusually active role in providing the disenfranchised women of New Brunswick a forum for political activism. Some of these societies even drafted legislation on a variety of social causes and then convinced sympathetic MLAs to introduce the bills on their behalf. The legacy of these societies is no less than the right of women to vote and run for office in New Brunswick, as much of the success of what would be the New Brunswick Women's Enfranchisement Association is attributable to the political acumen and organizational skills of these societies.

New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and what would become Quebec and Ontario are Canada's founding provinces. But New Brunswick was not, at first, a willing participant in Confederation. (3) While Premier Tilley led the New Brunswick delegation to the Confederation meetings in Charlottetown and Quebec City, he was defeated in an election on the Confederation question in 1865, losing to the Anti-Confederation Party led by Albert J. Smith. Nevertheless, New Brunswick's Governor, Arthur Hamilton-Gordon, was ordered by the Colonial Office to dismiss the duly elected government and call another election, which was held in 1866. This time, New Brunswickers saw the writing on the wall--that they had little choice but to join Confederation--and the Confederation Party led by Peter Mitchell won with a substantial majority. Meanwhile, Tilley left provincial politics and would serve in Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's first cabinet in Ottawa.

As was the case in the other provinces, New Brunswick soon took steps to abolish its upper chamber, the Legislative Council a job it completed in 1891. The impetus to rid the province of its upper assembly seems to have been less a concern over the council's elite status, and more because it cost money to operate. Nevertheless, the time it took to abolish the upper chamber tested the patience of New Brunswick's premier, Andrew Blair (1883-1896), who complained that his appointees to the upper chamber--chosen for their supposed willingness to support his reform agenda--developed an alarming independence once they took their seats. Blair eventually got the vote he wanted; however, the council imposed a condition: the council would continue until the next election. So Blair requested and was granted a dissolution two years early, and "An Act Relating to the Legislative Council" formally abolished the chamber on April 16, 1891.

Political Parties

Highly disciplined parties were slow to emerge in the province, but since the early years of the 20th century two parties and only two have dominated: the Liberals and the Conservatives (or PCs). Of the twenty-six provincial elections held between 1908 and 2010, the Liberals have won thirteen and the PCs thirteen. Only the Liberals and the PCs have ever won elections in New Brunswick, and until 2010 neither party had ever been defeated after just one term and only rarely after two. Of the 1371 seats up for election in this time period, 51 per cent have been awarded to Liberals and 47 per cent have been PCs. Third parties have rarely received significant support in New Brunswick. The New Democratic Party (NDP) won a single seat in five general elections (1982, 1991, 1995, 1999, and 2003), and was briefly represented by two members following a by-election victory in 1984. The only other parties to win seats in the Legislative Assembly were the United Farmers of New Brunswick, which won six seats in 1920, and the Confederation of Regions party (CoR), which won eight and three seats in 1991 and 1995 respectively. The CoR party is also notable for being the only party other than the Liberals or the PCs to ever form the Official Opposition in the province.

New Brunswick's two-party system, then, has been highly stable, and...