Susan Holt elected as New Brunswick Liberal leader
CBC
In a historic victory Saturday, Susan Holt has been chosen as the new leader of the New Brunswick Liberal Party.
She is the first woman to win the party's leadership in the province.
She won on the third ballot with 51.67 per cent of the vote. Former Liberal MP T.J. Harvey was the runner-up.
Holt will lead the party into the next election against the governing Progressive Conservatives now led by Premier Blaine Higgs.
The former business leader and one-time adviser to former premier Brian Gallant pitched herself as someone who would bring a fresh approach to politics, a theme she repeated in her victory speech.
"The people of New Brunswick have told us they are tired of politics as usual. They are tired of the conflict and the fighting. They are tired of partisanship," she said.
"They want to see something different. We can be the party that leads a change for a new politics in New Brunswick that is transparent, authentic, empathetic and collaborative."
In part, Holt's victory was based on being the second or third choice of two of the other candidates.
The party used preferential balloting, meaning members voting over the past week ranked their first, second, third and fourth choices for leader. In order for a winner to be decided, a candidate needed 50 per cent of the vote.
Former cabinet minister Donald Arseneault and current MLA Robert Gauvin were the others on the ballot.
During the first round of balloting, Harvey had 33.9 per cent, Holt had 32.12 per cent, Gauvin had 19.76 per cent and Arseneault had 14.22 per cent of the points awarded in the party's weighted voting system.
Arseneault was dropped off the ballot and the votes were redistributed.
Harvey polled 39.58 per cent in the second vote while Holt had 36.76 per cent and Gauvin had 23.67 per cent. Gauvin fell off the ballot.
Shopping local may be the desire, but affordability might decide where shoppers spend their money this Christmas season.
As classes across New Brunswick pause for the holidays, it’s not yet clear which schools are making a dent in chronic absenteeism — a stubborn post-pandemic trend that mostly afflicts the high school cohort, especially in the Anglophone West school district.
CBC Quebec has launched its Make the Season Kind campaign. It's our annual campaign that focuses on food insecurity, while also celebrating kindness, generosity and community spirit around the province.
Premier Wab Kinew says Manitoba will hold a public inquiry as soon as 2026 into the former Progressive Conservative government’s post-election efforts to approve an environmental licence for sand-mining company Sio Silica.
Premier Scott Moe has led the Saskatchewan Party through two straight elections, winning majority governments each time.
Eight weeks after adding a GM BrightDrop van to the fleet of his plumbing and heating business, Marty Salliss has no complaints, only praise.
Nearly half of Alberta’s Grade 6 students failed the provincewide math test in 2024, three years after the province started rolling out its new elementary school curriculum.
Toronto could get new cars on the road whose drivers will never get frustrated by gridlock — because the cars would be driving themselves.
Amidst a cost-of-living crisis, some London-area organizations say they have noticed a decline in donations this holiday season.
Prominent northern leaders have been touting the Arctic economic and security corridor as a "nation-building" project that will bring economic benefits to the two territories it straddles, but others are split on how much good will come out of it.
When the federal government tabled its 2025 budget last month, it included a proposal that tax fraud experts say is long overdue — if also a belated acknowledgement that the Canada Revenue Agency has been repeatedly duped into paying out untold millions in bogus tax refunds to scammers.
Talking with an AI chatbot can successfully convince people to change their votes and could affect the outcome of future elections, according to a new study.
While some are writing wishlists for Santa Claus, a group of Newfoundland and Labrador youth are writing their wishlist for the provincial government.