By Canadian Press

Former New Brunswick NDP leader joins Conservatives as strategic issues director

Jan 27, 2017 | 6:15 AM

FREDERICTON — New Brunswick’s former NDP leader, who resigned earlier this month over party in-fighting, has joined the provincial Conservative party.

Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs said Dominic Cardy will start as the party’s strategic issues director Monday.

“We need to break down party barriers and the lines that separate good ideas,” said Higgs in a phone interview Friday. “What better way to do that than to have a quality individual join our team with great ideas about how we can move our province forward.”

Cardy, who was NDP leader for about five years but never won a seat, has said he left that party because he “cannot lead a party where a tiny minority of well-connected members refuse to accept the democratic will of the membership.”

He said he worked directly with Higgs when he was finance minister under the David Alward government to create legislation on fiscal transparency and accountability.

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“What I saw from Blaine Higgs when he was finance minister was a real effort to push his own party and his government to embrace change,” said Cardy in a phone interview.

“He gets what the job of government is, which is to make the programs run properly and make sure that we’ve got money to invest in programs that matter to New Brunswickers, which means being really careful stewards of the public purse.”

Cardy said it’s “not my intention” to run for a Tory seat. He also said a “great many” of his former NDP colleagues plan on joining the Conservative party.

Cardy said he’s eager to improve New Brunswick’s education system and lower taxes in his new role with the Conservatives.

He will work with Higgs and his Official Opposition team “to build a far-reaching coalition of New Brunswickers who share the goal of reforming government,” a statement said.

Cardy announced his resignation on Jan. 1, citing “endless internal battles” within the party.

He has said his platform had been thwarted by party members at both the provincial and federal levels, saying the NDP is “one-stop shop … whether you like it or not.”

“Limited time and energy is being wasted on infighting before the election,” he said in a statement at the time.

“That contributed to our loss in 2014 as it will in 2018. Those same destructive forces continue their sterile battle, ignoring the will of the party they claim to champion, using language from the 1930s and policies from the 1970s. There is nothing progressive about this behaviour.”

Cardy announced his intention to step down after New Democrats didn’t win any seats in the 2014 provincial election, but he stayed on after the party’s council unanimously rejected his resignation.

Rosaire L’Italien, the NDP’s interim leader, said Friday it’s now clear Cardy was only a “visitor” to the NDP.

“It’s sad to see that Mr. Cardy’s actions confirm the opinion of most of his detractors: he was and is a conservative,” L’Italien said in a statement.

“Together, Higgs and Cardy are turning the Progressive Conservative party into a populist right-wing movement. They are trying to import Donald Trump’s way of doing politics, and it won’t work.”

— By Aly Thomson in Halifax.

The Canadian Press