The deadlock in government formation in New Brunswick have the very real possibility of eroding some of the fundamental tenets of our democratic system, starting first and foremost with undermining the very foundations of Responsible Government. Apparently 170 years of being self-governing is quite enough for political leaders from that province, as the intransigence of the parties in their positions is putting the province's lieutenant governor in a very precarious position, which her own office's behaviour is only exacerbating.
To recap, following the provincial election the incumbent Liberals were returned with 21 seats to the Progressive Conservatives' 22, with the upstart People's Alliance and Green parties each capturing an additional three seats apiece. Premier Brian Gallant signalled that he wants to test the legislature and try to continue to form government (he did, after all, win the greater share of the popular vote, if you believe it's a real thing and not the logical fallacy that it is), while no other party wants to enter into a coalition with him, though the People's Alliance have stated that they're willing to enter into some kind of agreement with the PCs for a period of 18 months or so, and the Greens have instead tried to push all parties into signing onto some kind of pledge of principles that they would support.
Complicating matters are the fact that as of Thursday, all MLAs in the assembly (who aren't incumbent cabinet ministers) have all withdrawn their name from consideration for the role of Speaker. If there isn't a Speaker, the Assembly can't form, and there can't be a Speech From the Throne, and then things get really dicey. But add to that, PC leader Blaine Higgs did say that his party would put up a Speaker if they get to form government, holding that as a threat or promise take your pick as to which though even if Higgs got his way and got to form a government, his putting up a Speaker would still have him in an essential stalemate with the Liberals, again putting the minority parties in the real bind, and to be even more accurate, if the Alliance says they're going to support the PCs, it leaves it up to the Greens to decide if they will either which is a very big question given that Higgs wants to join the fight against the federal carbon price framework (which Gallant was already waffling over as he attempted to count provincial gas taxes as a carbon price, though the federal government was signalling that they weren't going to buy it). Would the Greens really prop up a government whose stated goal is to weaken the province's environmental policies? Well, stranger things have happened, particularly if they want to force some other kinds of concessions like electoral reform.
Why this gets problematic, however, is the fact that both sides seem keen to drag the lieutenant governor into the fray, thus politicizing her and her role in all of this and that's a Very Bad Thing. From the very beginning, both parties ran to meet with her, as though it was her call to pick the winner of the election if they could each present the better case that they were the real winner but it's not her role. Her role is to take the advice of the premier, and he is the one who needs to advise her as to whether he can meet the Assembly and command its confidence, and if not, he needs to resign, and anything more is an overreach that betrays the principles of Responsible Government.
This is why the statement put out by her office this week, that called on the leaders to work together to avoid another election, which she cautioned against, was straying outside of her lane of responsibilities. While it's all well and good for her to offer this kind of advice and warning to the premier in private that is absolutely her job doing so publicly and in a proactive fashion casts her in the light of a political actor, and this is extremely dangerous for our system of government. She needs to be seen to be the fire extinguisher that she is and not a referee inserting herself into the process.
Why does this matter so much? For one, I do worry about contagion as we seem to be entering into a period where established "big tent" parties are losing some of their voter share in favour of upstart third parties, as has been demonstrated in a growing number of provincial elections. That we have more minority parliaments in the works means that we need to have functioning vice-regal offices that can discharge their duties properly. If one of them screws up and becomes a political actor, it becomes a precedent to be cited in future cases.
Another big reason is the fact that a more politicized vice-regal officer becomes a target in the partisan gamesmanship between parties in a situation like the one we're facing in New Brunswick. Want to see a twenty-first century version of the King-Byng affair with a political leader running against the LG using a "how very dare you" platform? We're far more likely to see that now, especially if the LG issues another such public statement.
The last danger I would point to is how a more proactive vice-regal officer would further erode what little public understanding of our system there currently is, because it projects the image that the LG or the governor general is the boss of the first minister, which is not how things work, and yet, it's already too pervasive a belief that risks blowing up. It's bad enough that certain civically illiterate activists try to draw the vice-regal into their battles when they lose at politics witness the Idle No More movement trying to use the GG to force Stephen Harper's hand on Indigenous issues, or the calls to have the LG of Ontario refuse to give royal assent to the aborted bill that would have invoked the Notwithstanding Clause. Such actions would move from the margins to the mainstream if the vice-regal looked like they played an active role. Responsible Government would be weakened, and 170 years later, we would have the Crown asserting itself. That's not a road we want to go down, which is why the leaders in New Brunswick need to start behaving like adults.
Photo Credit: Global News
