Former minister says NB prime minister’s response to her resignation ‘says it all’

As Prime Minister Blaine Higgs spoke in the legislature on Thursday about his belief that gender dysphoria has become “trendy,” and that its increased acceptance is harming children and excluding parents, Cabinet Secretary Dorothy Shephard stood up and left the chamber.

She returned to vote with five of her colleagues for an opposition motion against Higgs’ wishes.

Then she took her name tag from her desk, put it in her purse, and handed the Progressive Conservative Prime Minister a two-sentence handwritten letter of resignation from her post as Minister of Social Development.

“He said, ‘Well, it’s good to get there early,'” Shephard said Information Morning Sint Jan on Friday, the morning after the dramatic legislature meeting.

“That was his reaction, and I’ll never forget it.”

Shephard said Higgs’ response “says it all” and may have indicated he was already considering a cabinet shuffle.

“I don’t think he’s used to people rising up against him, and I’ve certainly done that a number of times over the years,” she said. “Maybe it’s anger, maybe it’s surprise. It’s hard for me to be in his shoes so I can only speak to myself, but it was just as disappointing as I thought it would be.”

The Prime Minister’s rhetoric about overhauling education policy meant to protect LGBTQ students – an issue she described as “mismanaged” – may have been the last straw for her, but she said it came after years of trying to work under Higgs’ “difficult” management style.

Shephard is the third minister to resign from the cabinet, the other two being former education minister Dominic Cardy, who now sits as an independent, and former deputy prime minister Robert Gauvin, who now sits as a liberal.

Shephard said she struggled with his leadership style from the start — Higgs has been prime minister since 2018 — but especially since October 2021.

That month, she sent a six-page letter to Higgs expressing her concerns about his unilateral decision-making. She said they didn’t meet until January to discuss the letter, and even then she didn’t feel like they were accomplishing anything.

“I can’t say anything productive came out of it,” she said.

LOOK | Dorothy Shephard, social development minister, resigns from cabinet:

Dorothy Shephard resigns from Cabinet

In a letter to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Social Development said: “I can no longer stay in your cabinet.”

Shephard was Secretary of Health at the time and helped lead the county’s COVID-19 response. CBC News has asked Shephard for a copy of the letter.

Shephard and Cardy both cited Higgs’ one-sided decision-making and lack of consideration for other points of view as one of the reasons for resigning from the cabinet.

Cardy famously quoted Higgs’ statement “data my ass” in response to French immersion figures. Higgs said those numbers he was referring to were “irrelevant” to the issue at hand.

When asked about Shephard’s concerns on Thursday, Higgs said “everyone had their own opinion”.

“Despite Blaine Higgs, we have achieved many good things”

Shephard said that since she sent her letter in 2021, she’s made a commitment to herself and her colleagues that she would stay and do her best.

“I just put my head down and did my job and I spoke up when I needed to,” she said.

But the revision of Policy 713 was the “breakwater,” she said.

Education Secretary Bill Hogan said the policy now makes it mandatory to get parental consent to use a child’s chosen name and pronoun, even informally in class. The entire review process and results have been criticized by many, including the child and youth advocate, the New Brunswick Association of School Psychologists, and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

The opposition motion passed by the legislature on Thursday called for consultation on the policy by child and youth attorney Kelly Lamrock, with a report in August.

Shepherd said during the 713 review, the prime minister’s response to differing opinions within his own caucus showed her that she can do no more that would warrant her stay.

“We achieved some good things under Blaine Higgs and I believe we achieved a lot of good things despite Blaine Higgs being challenged and challenged and challenged,” she said.

The Saint John Lancaster MLA served 13 years. She said she would run again, but not if Higgs is still leader of the party.

She said several other MLAs share her view and hinted there could be further unrest in the party.

“I’ve made this clear to a lot of my colleagues. You know, some of us are going to have an expiration date and we need to recognize when that expiration date may have happened.”