Austin's attack on 'leftist agendas' aims to draw sharp contrast with Liberals

Kris Austin's comments this week blaming federal Liberal policies for the death of a homeless man in St. Stephen may have shocked some New Brunswickers — but they are hardly a surprise.

The Progressive Conservative public safety minister relishes the opportunity to draw sharp ideological contrasts with his Liberal opponents.

"All of these issues that we're facing today is based on Trudeau policies, leftist agendas, that is degrading our society that we're seeing right across the country," he thundered in question period on Wednesday.

Austin had just recited a list of Higgs government initiatives on crime, drug addiction, mental health and homelessness — challenges he explicitly blamed on what he considers a too-far-left philosophy adopted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

St. Stephen council voted on Monday to declare a state of local emergency, asking the province for immediate action on a warming shelter, after a homeless man died in the cold. The next day Public Safety Minister Kris Austin complained of the council's 'political posturing.' He also cancelled the state of emergency. (Holly Johnson/Facebook)

If it's a polarizing approach, it also represents a binary that the minister, a former leader of the populist right-wing People's Alliance party, not only welcomes but advocates.

Last year, Austin told CBC News he created the Alliance in part to pull the PC party in a more firmly conservative direction, away from the political centre where it used to compete with the Liberals for votes.

"I think there needs to be a separate distinct ideology between the two," he said.

"That's a problem with democracy if you don't have those distinctions. … Today I feel there is a little more of a difference between the two."

Austin qualified the concept at the time, saying the differences should not go "so far that that we don't have that common purpose and that middle ground that we can find at times on public policy."

Still, his appetite for the contrast is clear — and not unique in the party.

'Authentic conservative option'

Faytene Grasseschi, the Christian conservative activist poised to become the PC candidate in Hampton-Fundy-St. Martin's in the next election, says her supporters "appreciate having an authentic conservative option in our province."

As with Austin, the implication is that previous PC governments led by Richard Hatfield, Bernard Lord and David Alward were insufficiently conservative.

"People recognize society is poorly served when all parties are on one side of the political spectrum — an authentic conservative expression is important to the health of democracy," Grasseschi said in a recent email to CBC News.

"Only a strong conservative option provincially will push back to protect our province from damaging federal policies."

Austin's words imply that former PC premiers Bernard Lord, David Alward, and Richard Hatfield were not conservative enough. (CBC)

Not everyone in the PC party is comfortable with the approach.

Former MLA Troy Lifford, a cabinet minister in the apparently too-moderate Alward PC government, said in a social media post that Premier Blaine Higgs should distance himself from Austin and Grasseschi.

"I'm all for fiscal prudence which represents the conservative in PC. But under your leadership you have obliterated any resemblance of being progressive, the other part of PC," Lifford said in an email to Higgs that he posted online.

Austin's approach could also make life awkward for his cabinet colleagues who need to work with the Trudeau Liberals in Ottawa.

This week, the two governments signed a $16.3 million agreement on a gender violence action plan.

Earlier this year, they struck a 10-year, $900-million health care funding deal.

And in April 2022, they agreed to spend $492 million over five years to improve access to child care — a major new social program that the PC government now brags about in budget speeches and throne speeches.

Health Minister Bruce Fitch, another veteran of past PC governments, wouldn't comment on how Austin's comments would affect federal-provincial collaboration.

"You'd have to ask the federal ministers how they felt about it, and you'd have to ask Mr. Austin," he said.

"I concentrate on my portfolio."

Despite Austin's complaints about Liberal policies, New Brunswick and the feds have recently completed several deals, including on health care and addressing gender-based violence. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Doug Williams, the PC party's executive director, said this week that under Higgs, the party remains "a big-tent party that brings together a broad voter coalition."

And the premier himself is often more pragmatic than Austin's rhetoric would indicate.

Higgs mused this fall about preventing the collection of the federal carbon tax in New Brunswick, then acknowledged it wouldn't be legal.

He hinted he might block Ottawa from signing housing deals directly with municipalities, then clarified he would simply encourage the federal government to respect the province's jurisdiction on the issue.

Still, the more confrontational tone from Austin — and the drawing of sharp distinctions — is a clue to the PC election strategy for the year to come.

A "messy middle" for N.B. Liberals

Holt may have played into that strategy this week when she told reporters the Trudeau government has, indeed, sometimes veered too much to the left.

"I think at times, yeah," she said.

When reporters pressed her for examples, she was not specific, eventually mentioning Trudeau's deficit spending.

"It looks like on the continuum they're more left than us, because we're more centrist here in New Brunswick," she said.

"But there've been several things over several years [when] people have thought Justin's words have been in that direction."

Liberal Leader Susan Holt concedes her party's attempts to stay in the political centre and avoid ideological labels is tricky. (Ed Hunter/CBC)

Housing, however, is "not something that's left or right," Holt added. "It's actually good for society and it's good for our economy."

"Right now I'm focused on New Brunswickers and serving them, not some location on a spectrum."

Even so, the Liberal leader conceded her party's attempts to stay in the political centre and avoid ideological labels is tricky, with Higgs veering more to the right and the Green Party articulating more explicitly left-leaning ideas.

"It's a bit of the messy middle for the Liberals," she said.

Holt's Liberals moved into a six-point lead over the PCs in the latest quarterly Narrative Research poll released this week.

But the concentration of Liberal support in northern francophone ridings, and the PCs'  continued strength in southern New Brunswick, where most of the seats are, may still prevent Holt from turning that into an election win next year.

Which means the Austin approach of ideological contrasts is not necessarily fatal at the ballot box — and could help pave the way for a new PC mandate built on a harder-edged, more confrontational conservatism.