New Brunswick's Progressive Conservatives have chosen a familiar face to rebuild with. Former minister Daniel Allain won the party leadership on Saturday with 58.5 per cent of the ballots, defeating Don Monahan, a rookie legislator elected to the legislative assembly two years ago, The Canadian Press reported on October 17.
Allain served four years as a city councillor in francophone-majority Dieppe, was elected to the legislature in 2020 and was appointed local government minister by then-premier Blaine Higgs. He was removed from cabinet three years later after voting with opposition parties to request a review of the Higgs government's changes to a school policy on LGBTQ students.
Allain told reporters the party will hold a 'robust discussion' on that policy as it firms up its platform ahead of the next provincial election, scheduled for October 2028, and described his party as one that believes in being 'socially progressive and fiscally conservative.'
He does not currently hold a seat in the legislature — he chose not to run in the 2024 provincial election — and said a leader does not need one, pointing to former premier Bernard Lord and current Premier Susan Holt, neither of whom held a seat when elected leader. Monahan pledged support and called for a unified party.
The fall session of the legislature opens Tuesday, with Allain choosing a house leader to front the official Opposition while he runs the two-year rebuild from outside the chamber.
