Higgs losing chief of staff Louis Léger

Premier Blaine Higgs is losing his chief of staff.

Louis Léger, a longtime Progressive Conservative staffer, operative and volunteer, confirmed to CBC News on Tuesday that he's leaving the position, nominally the top political adviser to a premier.

He said he made the decision during a Christmastime vacation to Hawaii.

"It was the right time for me to do that," he said in an interview.

Léger's departure coincides with several controversial moves by the government on language issues and calls for a party vote on Higgs's leadership from some francophone members of the PC party.

He said the premier encouraged him to "speak truth to power" about what was important to francophones.

"There are many things that the premier and I agreed on. There were things every so often that we less agreed on, but those things will stay between he and I," Léger said.

"I'm a big believer in the importance of our institution, in the relationship between the chief of staff and the premier.… My job was to make sure the premier understood the aspirations and understood the reality of things. I did that.

"I'm not going to get into the details of those things. I don't think it would be appropriate to do, certainly not today."

Moncton South PC MLA Greg Turner called Leger's departure "a very, very amicable separation."

Turner said Léger told the PC caucus his plans Monday night.

"He found he'd contributed a lot over the time he was in that position, and felt it was a good time for him to relax a bit more and take some time off."

Liaison to Acadian community

Léger was widely seen as the most influential francophone in Higgs's government and was frequently the go-between with Acadian organizations wary of the premier's approach to language issues.

"It's a big loss," said Alexandre Cedric-Doucet, president of the Acadian Society of New Brunswick.

"Mr. Léger played a diplomatic role, maintaining the relationship between the Premier's Office and the Acadian and francophone communities."

Léger advised Higgs after the party won the most seats in the 2018 election and then spent weeks jockeying with Liberal  Brian Gallant over who would govern the province.

When Higgs prevailed, Léger became his chief of staff.

Doucet said it was hard to assess Léger's contribution, especially on language issues, but said he had likely influenced Higgs to not make decisions that would have been even worse for francophones.

Léger said there are "things we need to worry about" in the English-French relationship. "I'm not minimizing that." But he said it was the relentless, 24/7 pace of the job — and not recent controversies over bilingualism and French immersion — that led him to leave now.

Subject of complaint

Léger was the subject of a conflict of interest complaint to the province's integrity commissioner last fall but he said that was not a factor in his departure.

He said the confidential complaint is "pretty much dead and over with" and said it involved a lease.

"That was someone that wanted something, and in my job I said no, and the individual was unhappy." 

Integrity Commissioner Charles Murray wouldn't comment and would not confirm whether there had been a complaint against Léger.

In a statement, Higgs said Léger's business and political experience "benefited our office, our province, and the PC Party during these past four and a half years.

"During his time as chief of staff, we worked together to navigate through an unprecedented global pandemic, while still moving forward with platform commitments we made to New Brunswickers."

"We also grew our party from a minority to a majority," he said, referring to the 2020 election.

The premier's statement said an interim replacement "will be decided and announced at an appropriate time in the future."

Turner pointed out that the position "is a high-pressure, high-intensity job," and most people in the position don't last four years.

Léger first became involved with the PC Party as as youth member during Richard Hatfield's time as premier. He is the son of Omer Léger, a Hatfield-era cabinet minister.

Léger worked as a political staffer to provincial and federal PC cabinet ministers and also worked as a communications consultant.

He was also on the board of the Conservative Fund, the fundraising arm of the federal Conservative Party.