Brian Gallant, Blaine Higgs urged to form a grand coalition to govern New Brunswick

An elder statesman of New Brunswick politics is pushing a bold idea to resolve the political standoff in the legislature: a coalition government between the Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties.

Bud Bird, a former Fredericton mayor, PC provincial cabinet minister and MP, made the proposal in a letter to Liberal Premier Brian Gallant and Progressive Conservative Leader Blaine Higgs.

"There can be no doubt of the strength and direction that would be inherent in the principles of a coalition between Liberal and Conservative parties working together in common cause for the future of New Brunswick," he said.

In an interview, Bird said Gallant and Higgs could work as co-premiers, heading a cabinet of ministers drawn in equal numbers from the Liberal and PC caucuses.

He believes a coalition of the two traditional mainstream parties is the best way out of the impasse created by the Sept. 24 election, which saw no party capture a majority of seats.

The PCs won 22 and the Liberals 21, with the Greens and the People's Alliance winning three seats each.

The Liberals hope to hold on to power by winning a confidence vote in the legislature in the coming months, even though neither of the smaller parties has committed to voting for them.

A'historic opportunity' proposed

Bird said a better solution would be a Liberal-PC or PC-Liberal agreement. He wrote in his letter that it represents a"historic opportunity" for a new approach to politics.

Relying on the smaller parties would mean "we will end up governing to the lowest common denominator, as opposed to the highest common strength," he said.

A Liberal-PC government would hold a commanding majority of 43 out of 49 seats in the legislature.

Without such a deal, Bird said,another election is inevitable soon, and he believes the two smaller parties will gain more seats and make the province even harder to govern.

Such "grand coalitions" between two large, rival parties are common in European politics but almost unheard of in Canada. One of the few examples when this country came close was the federal Union government, made up of Conservatives and Liberals, during the First World War.

But Bird said many other organizations have been run well with two people at the top, including McCain Foods and J.D. Irving Ltd.

Bird sent the letter quietly on Oct. 2 and had not planned to make it public until he was contacted by CBC News.

He said in an interview that both Higgs and Gallant turned down the idea, Higgs through an intermediary and Gallant in a phone call to him directly.

"In both cases the message was that it would be impossible to get together, that feelings were so deep as a result of political conflicts over the past several years that this just would not work," he said.

Even so, "I do think it's a wonderful opportunity and I've not been dissuaded. But I don't think it's likely. I know there are all kinds of political obstacles and so on, but none that could not be surpassed if all the people involved put their minds to it."

Gallant said Tuesday afternoon that while he will consult all other parties on the upcoming Liberal throne speech and in the legislature, "fundamental differences" between his party and the PCs make a coalition impossible.

Bad blood between leaders

The bad blood between the Liberal and PC leaders has been on public display since election night, when Gallant announced he would rely on parliamentary precedents to convene the new legislature and try to win a confidence vote with the support of at least one smaller party.

Higgs has complained that Gallant should have called him to concede when the results showed the PCs winning more seats.

"I guess I would have expected to get a call from him on election night because that's how the system works, but I didn't," Higgs said last week.

Gallant in turn has accused Higgs of ignoring the parliamentary rules that let the Liberals try to govern.

"He's tried to tell New Brunswickers he's the premier-elect, which is just not the case. So obviously it puts all of us in a very difficult situation."

The two men spoke for the first time since the election on Oct. 11, when they encountered each other at an orientation session for MLAs.

"We haven't talked much directly," Higgs told Gallant.

The premier ignored the remark and congratulated the PC leader for winning his Quispamsis seat on Sept. 24.

Bird suggested the two men "get together in a closed room, with or without the lieutenant-governor, and talk seriously about this. I know at first glance it will raise hackles all over the place."

But he said Gallant and Higgs would "set a tone" that's different from the political climate throughout North America and go down in history as statesmen willing to rise above their partisan interests.

"If they reflect on the model and the example they would be setting, I think their marks in New Brunswick history would become indelible," he said.