Higgs attack on Trudeau and Holt bears hallmark of N.B. premier's new social media guru

A new partisan attack by Premier Blaine Higgs on Liberal Leader Susan Holt's stance on LGBTQ issues is strikingly similar to the tactics of a Prairie communications guru that quietly started working for the premier this spring.

Derek Robinson, a key player in western Canadian conservative groups, is advising the premier through his communications firm MASH Strategy.

In 2019 one of those groups helped defeat longtime Saskatchewan Liberal MP Ralph Goodale by running aggressive advertising tying him to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

On Saturday night, Higgs linked Trudeau's stand on LGBTQ issues to Holt — even though Holt herself is keeping her distance from the prime minister.

"Susan Holt & Justin Trudeau don't believe parents need be involved in such critical discussions as gender identity, even in children as young as 4," Higgs said in two tweets posted Saturday night at 6:53 p.m. and again at 9:18 p.m.

Hired same month review of Policy 713 began

Higgs's spokesperson Nicolle Carlin recently confirmed that Robinson's firm is providing "communications services" to the New Brunswick government.

"Most of their work is dealing with the Premier's Office," Carlin said in an emailed statement.

The firm starting advising the premier's office in April, the same month the government began reviewing Policy 713, which sets minimum standards for ensuring safe and inclusive schools for LGBTQ  students.

Trudeau called out the province's changes to the policy at a Pride event in Toronto last week.

The changes announced last week remove an obligation teachers had to respect a child's choice of name and pronouns in the classroom whether parents consent or not.

"Trans kids need to feel safe, not targeted by politicians," Trudeau said.

Higgs's initial response Friday was mild.

He told reporters it was "not unusual" for Trudeau to wade into provincial issues and said it was "unfortunate the prime minister wouldn't look at the big picture" and was "playing to the audience" at the Pride event.

Saturday's tweets went further, invoking four-year-olds and linking Trudeau to Holt, Higgs's main opponent in the next election — even though Holt distanced herself from the prime minister on Friday.

"It's not clear to me why Trudeau would be commenting on provincial education policy," she said.

Higgs's social media accounts generally avoid direct political attacks on the prime minister.

Carlin said the premier's office works "with many people in communications" but the Saturday tweets were written by Higgs himself.

Campaign in Manitoba subject of complaint

Robinson was the chief of digital strategy for Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall from 2011 to 2018.

After leaving Wall's office he got involved with the Buffalo Project, an initiative aimed at having Alberta and Saskatchewan take control of some policy areas now under federal jurisdiction, including pensions and immigration.

He was also part of the Canada Growth Council, which ran the 2019 third-party advertising campaign to defeat Liberal MPs in Western Canada.

That campaign included large billboards in Regina with photos of Trudeau and Goodale, who was a minister in the prime minister's cabinet at the time.

The group is now the subject of a complaint from the Manitoba NDP about pre-election ads in Manitoba tying that party's leader to Trudeau and federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.

After Goodale lost his seat in 2019, Robinson warned the west needed more autonomy — and many people there would consider separating – in response to federal Liberal policies.

"There's going to be a lot of people who say, 'I don't know if this whole Canada thing is working for us anymore,'" he told Global News.

He said western Canadians were upset at funding social programs in other provinces through equalization, a program that benefits New Brunswick.

Robinson has also argued Saskatchewan should set a date for a referendum on the program, which distributes public funds from wealthier provinces to so-called "have-not" provinces.

While some form of sharing wealth was a good idea, "at the levels it's been happening, it's not fair, it's not right, and that needs to change," he said.

In a 2020 podcast by Sen. Pamela Wallin, Robinson said the Buffalo Project was espousing policies to counter, not encourage, separatist sentiment on the prairies.

"Our movement is really about trying to make sure we don't separate," he said.

"If we don't get a fair deal within Confederation within a decent period of time here, I think the flames of separation are going to be burning much hotter in the very near future."

Robinson did not respond to an interview request sent by email to his firm's office.