UNB Saint John Associate Professor J. P. Lewis (submitted by UNB Saint John)
Tuesday’s announcement that 14 members of the NDP jumped to the provincial Green Party shouldn’t come as a big shock, according to an associate professor of political science from UNB Saint John.
J.P. Lewis says the provincial party has been in a bad way for quite some time.
“Dominic Cardy’s messy departure from the provincial party leading up to a disappointing 2018 provincial and then some of the stumbles federally are just some of the issues,” Lewis said.
Lewis also says the federal leader’s decision to not come here yet doesn’t help either.
“You want to present the image that if you are Prime Minister, you are Prime Minister of all the provinces, you don’t want to be skipping parts of the country, a key component of being the Prime Minister is bringing the country together,” stated Lewis.
Another factor, according to Lewis, is weeks before an election, no New Brunswick candidates have been nominated or even announced.
“The fact that you don’t have candidates lined up is a sign of a lot of things, it’s also the sign of a lack of enthusiasm on the ground that there aren’t people willing to step forward,” he said.
Lewis says we will have to wait and see until after the election if the abandonment will have any impact on the national stage.
