New Brunswick NDP leader proud Liberals, Tories now among his prize candidates

When the NDP leader in New Brunswick promotes some of his prize candidates, he’s happy to emphasize they were once his political foes.

Dominic Cardy says each convert from the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives gives voters confidence his party, without a seat in the last legislature, will make gains after Sept. 22.

“They (voters) can see that people they’ve heard of … now have positions of responsibility within my party,” he said in a recent interview.

“That’s a message that helps to amplify the NDP’s push to become a contender in this election.”

Cardy, 44, spoke by telephone on his way to a rally, travelling through Rothesay, an upscale neighbourhood where one-time Liberal candidate John Wilcox is now representing the NDP.

Other NDP converts include former Liberal cabinet minister Kelly Lamrock in Fredericton South; Bev Harrison, a former Tory and Speaker of the legislature, in Hampton; and ex-Liberal Abel LeBlanc in Saint John-Lancaster.

“I’m absolutely proud to have them,” Cardy said of his various recruits.

Liberal Leader Brian Gallant dismisses the party switchers as a sign of desperation by a party short on candidates.

“It’s ironic to see a party that uses the word ‘new’ twice in their name accept so many candidates who were unsuccessful candidates in other parties,” he said in a telephone interview.

Premier David Alward of the Progressive Conservatives was unavailable for comment.

Roger Ouellette, a political scientist at the University of Moncton, said party switchers may contribute to vote splits in some ridings rather than NDP seats.

“There will be a few spots where the NDP can make a difference. … They will split the vote,” he said.

But another analyst says the political musical chairs may bode well for the NDP.

Don Desserud, a political scientist at the University of Prince Edward Island who is an expert on New Brunswick politics, says it’s rare to have so many defectors in a province where party loyalty is considered part of a citizen’s identity.

“The NDP has decided to move themselves into the middle of the political spectrum … and one way of doing this is to showcase candidates who were previously Conservatives or Liberals,” he said.

In the past, the party wouldn’t have attracted Harrison or Lamrock because it was too closely associated with spend-and-tax policies, said Desserud.

However, the New Democrats have attracted some fiscal conservatives by avoiding major spending promises and vowing to balance the books by 2018.

Harrison said he was courted by Cardy to run for the NDP.

“We had so many discussions about philosophical issues, parliamentary democracy,” he said.

“We just always were on the same page. We were agreeing and slowly realized we should be on the same team.”

But Chris Rendell, who tried to run for the New Democrats in Hampton, said Harrison’s recruitment in that riding is a sign of a party leadership that has lost touch with its grassroots. He’s sitting out the election.

“There seems to be a willingness in the party leadership to accept candidates and policy which are not necessarily in keeping with the traditions of the NDP,” he said in a telephone interview.

Geoff Martin, a professor of political science at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., said Rendell’s dissatisfaction reflects wider left-wing discontent with Cardy.

“There are longtime New Democrats who are asking, ‘What do we stand for? Are we actually a party of the left?’ ” he said.

He also said the party switchers can bring political baggage, such as a 2010 incident when LeBlanc raised his middle finger and fist at the government benches in the legislature.

Cardy said LeBlanc is a hard-working advocate for the poor and was operating under legislature rules that need reform.

People may be forgetting, said Cardy, that it wasn’t that long ago when the NDP had only 200 paid-up members, was $300,000 in debt, lacked a database and was unable to field a full slate of candidates who were based in their communities.

After making changes to the party’s organization, Cardy said the next logical step was to throw open the doors.

“The thing that’s been greatest about it is getting former Liberals and Tories together in the same room and realizing there’s so many things we have in common,” he said.