Blaine Higgs

Blaine Myron Higgs (born March 1, 1954) is a Canadian politician who is the 34th and current premier of New Brunswick since 2018 and leader of the New Brunswick Progressive Conservative Party (PC Party) since 2016.

Higgs graduated from the University of New Brunswick as an engineer.

He then worked for 33 years for Irving Oil.

Higgs ran for the leadership of the anti-bilingual New Brunswick Confederation of Regions Party in 1989.

His party deemed programs such as the Timely Completion Benefit, established in May 2009, to be "very costly".

The Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick believed redistributing the funds allocated to this program through a tuition tax credit was a "better" way to reach more students.

This move, along with the removal of the Free Tuition Program, were highly criticized by students across the province, with some emphasizing that there is no longer any incentive to remain in New Brunswick to work or study.

Higgs was first elected to the legislature in the 2010 provincial election and served as minister of finance from 2010 to 2014 in the government of David Alward.

Higgs retired from Irving Oil in 2010.

He lives in Quispamsis.

Higgs has belonged to three political parties and ran for the leadership of two.

Before joining the Confederation of Regions party, Higgs was a Liberal party member but left the Liberals because he opposed Canadian bilingualism and the New Brunswick Official Languages Act.

In his mid-thirties, Higgs ran for the leadership of the New Brunswick Confederation of Regions (COR) party, stating that he was in favour of "common-sense".

In his bid for the COR leadership, Higgs "complained about francophones 'who can speak the common language, but refuse to'".

He also supported an elected Senate, opposed the Meech Lake Accord, favoured fixed terms for government, and stated "We do not have an obligation to cater to those people who can speak the common language, English, and refuse to do so".

On October 12, 2010, Higgs was sworn-in as Minister of Finance, Minister responsible for the New Brunswick Liquor Corporation, Minister responsible for the New Brunswick Investment Management Corporation, Minister responsible for the New Brunswick Lotteries and Gaming Corporation, and Chair of the Board of Management.

He also served as Minister of Human Resources until October 9, 2012.

While Higgs was Minister of Finance, the decision was made to stop making regular payments to pension plans, later causing pension issues for Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) members leading to the strike in 2021.

Higgs represents the electoral district of Quispamsis as a member, and, since October 22, 2016, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick.

On that date the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick leadership election was held and on the third ballot he defeated former Saint John Mayor Mel Norton, 1,563 to 1,169.

In the 2018 provincial election, Higgs narrowly carried the PCs to a minority government, despite losing the popular vote.

In the 2018 provincial election, Higgs and his party won the largest share of seats in the legislature, 22, compared to 21 for the governing Liberal Party of New Brunswick, which opted to attempt to remain in power as a minority government by presenting a Throne Speech in hopes of retaining the confidence of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick.

On November 2, 2018, the Progressive Conservatives and the People's Alliance combined to defeat Premier Brian Gallant's Liberal minority government via a non confidence vote in the legislature.

Higgs was appointed Premier on November 9, 2018.

Higgs raised the idea of cutting equalization payments made to 'have-not provinces', including New Brunswick during a First Ministers' meeting in Montreal in 2018.

The New Brunswick government budgeted for $1.8-billion worth of equalization transfers in 2018-19.

Without 30 per cent of the budget coming through federal transfer payments, Higgs suggested attitudes might change about resource development.

Higgs's government had to deal with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) strike in October and November 2021.

About 20,000 workers in the education, health, transportation and infrastructure sectors went on strike for 16 days.

At 64 years of age at the time of swearing-in, Higgs is the oldest person to be sworn in as Premier in New Brunswick history, and in April 2019 became the oldest ever Premier in New Brunswick history, surpassing Leonard Percy de Wolfe Tilley in both records.

In 2019, Higgs began repealing several financial assistance programs for New Brunswick students attending post-secondary institutions.

Higgs and the PCs were re-elected in the 2020 provincial election, though this time with a majority government.

Higgs was born in Woodstock, New Brunswick and grew up in Forest City.

and graduated from the University of New Brunswick as an engineer.

He worked for 33 years for Irving Oil, rising to the position of senior executive overseeing oil transportation across eastern Canada and New England.

In 2020, Higgs opted out of a federal program to fund public transit in New Brunswick, as he "misunderstood details" of the federal program designed to rescue municipal transit services.

Higgs claimed multiple times that the funding was for capital projects, but according to a government backgrounder on the agreement, that specific program was meant to address the operating deficits and revenue shortfalls caused by the pandemic.

Higgs also claimed that the program was only for larger provinces, stating, "that was a specific request for infrastructure funding for subways and for systems in Toronto and Montreal and BC — for the big cities."

Documents later showed that Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nova Scotia have received a combined $57.1 million from Ottawa's "Safe Restart" public transit aid program.

New Brunswick asked for and received $0.