A decade after NDP surge, Dominic Cardy's star recruits have drifted away

A decade ago everything was coming up roses for New Brunswick's NDP.

The New Democratic Party was showing strength in the polls. Its leader, Dominic Cardy, recruited an eclectic and compelling slate of candidates aiming for a historic breakthrough in the upcoming provincial election.

Ten years later, the NDP is struggling to stay relevant in provincial politics, Cardy is gone and many of the New Brunswickers who joined the party because of him have drifted away.

"I'm not a member of any provincial party. I would consider voting for anybody, I guess," said  Nick Taggart, who joined the New Democrats because of Cardy and became its provincial secretary-treasurer.

"In the upcoming provincial election, I don't know who I'm going to vote for this time." 

Sharon Levesque, who won 20 per cent of the vote in Fredericton-York in 2014, declined an interview request from CBC News but said she's no longer politically involved and is also unsure who she'll vote for.

Other NDP candidates from that campaign ended up with other parties.

Brian Duplessis, who ran in Fredericton North, now supports the Liberals. Jason Purdy, the Moncton Northwest NDP candidate in 2014, is volunteering for the Progressive Conservatives in Fredericton this summer.

Both came to the NDP because of Cardy.

"I was definitely a Cardy person back then," said Purdy, who ran for the party when Cardy managed its 2010 campaign and again when he was leader in 2014.

Duplessis said he was won over by Cardy's intellect, his international experience and his progressive views. New Brunswick was "lacking that kind of experience in the past," he said.

Cardy moved the NDP away from some of its traditional big-spending, social-democratic positions.

He embraced balanced budgets and was at odds with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, a longtime NDP ally.

It rubbed some party members the wrong way.