PC MLA latest to announce she won't be re-offering

Fundy-The Isles-Saint John West MLA Andrea Anderson-Mason says she's not re-offering for the Progressive Conservatives six years after first winning in the long-time Liberal riding.

Anderson-Mason, who announced her decision Friday afternoon, served as attorney general and justice minister and regional minister responsible for the Regional Development Corporation from 2018 to 2020.

She was first elected in the riding, which includes St. George, Grand Manan, Deer Island, and parts of Saint John West, in 2018 before being re-elected in 2020.

She is the latest Tory "rebel" who has chosen not to run again after previously opposing the government's changes in June 2023 to Policy 713, which sets gender rules in the province's public schools.

Speaking to Brunswick News on Friday, Anderson-Mason said that she came to the decision based on the way backbench MLAs "are not engaged in any way in government decisions," and said she hasn't had a direct line to Premier Blaine Higgs since her demotion from cabinet in 2020.

"Because there is little-to-no communication between myself and the premier, I think that makes getting things done for my area challenging," she said. "At the end of the day, we have to make the best decision for myself, my family, but most of all for my area."

Anderson-Mason said she is "focused" on her constituency duties until the end of her term. While former riding president Glenn Hawkins said "the speculation was" that Higgs would not have signed her papers if she were nominated, Anderson-Mason said she was not pressured directly and said "if I wanted to run I would run."

Anderson-Mason unseated incumbent Liberal cabinet minister Rick Doucet, who was elected in 2003 after the retirement of fellow Liberal Sheldon Lee, who had been the region's MLA since 1978.

"We won a riding ... and basically it was thought to be unwinnable by the Conservatives," Hawkins said, noting that the government was in a minority position at the time.

A request for comment with the office of the premier was not returned by press time.

Stepping back was a difficult decision because "many people" reached out to urge her to run again, Anderson-Mason said.

"I feel like I have a lot to offer," said Anderson-Mason, citing 17 years of legal experience. "I feel like my biggest gift is representing those who feel represented, and government didn't really give me the opportunity to do that the way I expected."

She said some departments were "very closed," and said that decision-makers in Fredericton often didn't understand "what island life was like" for Deer Island or Grand Manan Island or the "uniqueness" of the region.

"But I really had so much pleasure introducing the rest of the province to this amazing area that I represent, and ... I think we made some real progress," she said.

PC MLAs Trevor Holder, Dorothy Shephard, Daniel Allain, Jeff Carr and Ross Wetmore have announced that they will not re-offer in the next provincial election, with Arlene Dunn resigning her ministerial and MLA duties in February. Jill Green said in October she will re-offer. All were part of the June 2023 statement declaring their "extreme disappointment in a lack of process and transparency" regarding proposed changes to Policy 713.

Regarding Policy 713, Anderson-Mason said she didn't consider it a "defining moment of my political career."

She said it was "more than it needed to be," and that they could have given teachers "a path to engage parents" while allowing children to feel safe at school and respecting the law.

"The explosion that was Policy 713 did not have to happen, and I think the momentum kept rolling when there was an indication that this might ... garner more votes," she said. "There's an expression that's repeatedly used in the PC party, and it's 'fish for the fish are.' I personally don't think that should be the focus of a government."

Anderson-Mason said that the issues between herself and Higgs go back to 2020 when she was demoted from cabinet following the Progressive Conservative majority election win. She was one of a handful of Tories who voted that June to defeat the government's proposed mandatory vaccination bill, which had initially invoked the charter's notwithstanding clause.

When asked what caused the issues, Anderson-Mason did not mention any particular issue but said she is "an ardent defender of the rule of law."

"There were different times where I may have been perceived as obstructionist because I felt that we should not dismiss the rule of law," she said. "We shouldn't spend all of our time caught up in courtroom challenges because we were not willing to do the hard work up front."

She said that while some politicians have issues with policy debates in public, she considered that "her strength."

"The difficult part is not being engaged and involved in the decisions of government," she said, adding it was difficult to affect policy when caucus members were informed of some decisions just before the general public hears them.

"I think people believe we're involved in those decisions and we're not," she said. "When I would speak up about it, it would appear I was going up against my government, but I never had an opportunity beforehand to discuss it behind closed doors."

She also mentioned the government's proposed French Immersion changes and said when she consulted others, she heard that they would be "devastating" to literacy, and that she was a part of arguing against that.

"In the future, who will be there to dig in and listen?" she said, but added people always step in to fill a gap.

She said she was not considering a run as an independent, although she said she is "not opposed" to municipal politics. With 17 years of legal experience, she said she'd recently had a conversation about a legal issue with someone and said it was "refreshing using my mind again."

She said things she was proud of included, as minister for the regional development corporation, securing funding for the redevelopment of the Fundy Quay site on Saint John's waterfront and work supporting smaller municipalities to upgrade their water and septic systems at a time when current population growth trends were not in the cards.

"I don't feel that I'm done, but I feel that in the system that I'm in, I brought everything to the table," she said. "I found it a real privilege to serve the people of Fundy-The Isles-Saint John West for six years, they were Liberal for 40 years.

"Thank you for taking a chance on a Conservative, it's been a joy, an honour and a privilege."

- With files from Andrew Waugh, John Chilibeck & Barbara Simpson

Andrew Bates, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Telegraph-Journal