PC rebels, Liberal opposition seem unsure how to push Higgs on Policy 713

The uprising against Premier Blaine Higgs last week over Policy 713 was a very New Brunswick rebellion.

There was that remarkable expression of "extreme disappointment" by eight Progressive Conservative MLAs — including six cabinet ministers — who refused to take their seats Thursday morning.

But there was no firm, sustained pressure to force the premier to back down or quit.

The opposition Liberals, meanwhile, seemed unsure how to leverage the turmoil to inflict maximum damage on Higgs or compel him to reverse course.

It's probably a symptom of decades of top-down, leader-driven, party-line governance that elected members of the legislature are so uncertain of the powers they have and the best way to use them.

"Obviously, it was certainly breaking the conventions of the British parliamentary system," Higgs said last week in Question Period of the statement by six ministers and two backbench MLAs.

The premier was right: normally, ministers who disagree with a government policy resign.

But the six ministers breaking ranks last week identified themselves as members of caucus — trying to distinguish between their cabinet jobs and their roles as ordinary MLAs, who have more leeway to disagree.

That's not a distinction our British cabinet system of government normally allows.

There's no rulebook for this in Canada, but the U.K. government has a manual for how cabinet works — and it says decisions are "binding on all members of government" and even if ministers disagree privately, they must maintain "a united front" publicly.

And, it says, they should quit or be removed, "when they are not able to continue to accept collective responsibility" — precisely where the six ministers found themselves Thursday.

Not only did the six not quit, their no-show lasted just two hours. After lunch, they were back in the legislature voting for government legislation.

That indicated that they weren't willing to resign or be fired over Policy 713.

So what other options do they have?