The legislature will resume on Tuesday, October 23rd and the first order of business is to elect a speaker before the Liberals can deliver a throne speech.
On Friday, the Gallant government said the Liberals will elect a speaker and the party will meet again to determine who it will be.
Mario Levesque is professor of Canadian Politics at Mount Allison University and says none of the other MLA’s wanted the role because of the number of seats they hold.
The Progressive Conservatives have 22 and the Liberals 21.
If a Conservative MLA took the job, it would mean an equal number of seats with the Liberals.
The Green and Peoples Alliance parties have three seats each and they weren’t willing to give any of those up.
Levesque adds that once a speaker is finally chosen, the Liberals will present a throne speech.
But PC leader Blaine Higgs has been pretty adamant that he won’t vote in favour, one way or another.
“He is showing that he doesn’t want to work with others parties. He doesn’t want to work with the people of New Brunswick. All he wants is he seems to crave power. I don’t think that is the best message to be putting out to the citizens of new Brunswick. If I was Blaine Higgs, I would be treading very lightly here to make sure that my overall party interests are looked after. My party interests would be what are best for the people of New Brunswick, and in the Throne speech if there are good initiatives, then I would think of the people of New Brunswick first,” Levesque says.
