Dominic Cardy has resigned as New Brunswick’s Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development.
Cardy announced in a tweet that he would be leaving Premier Blaine Higgs’ cabinet, but would continue as the Progressive Conservative MP for Fredericton West-Hanwell.
In a searing resignation letter to Higgs, Cardy criticized the Prime Minister’s leadership style, saying “change requires care, not a wrecking ball” and that some reforms to French second language education “are ‘will stop because of your micromanaging.’
“You cannot change deadlines in large systems based on your emotional state, without undermining the quality of your work or the morale of your team,” the letter said.
“Government is not the same as building oil tankers,” Cardy wrote, apparently referring to the prime minister’s previous run with Irving Oil.
He also accuses Higgs of “choosing to yell ‘fuck me’ at a senior official” because he didn’t like what the department’s numbers showed.
“That was the end of your political project in my eyes: if you reject evidence because you don’t like it, you don’t believe in evidence,” he wrote.
Dominic Cardy will stay on as an MP after resigning from Prime Minister Blaine Higgs’ cabinet. (CBC)
Cardy also said Higgs’ abolition of partially elected regional health authority boards represented “a steady consolidation of power in your hands” and was trying to delay or undermine reconciliation between language communities and with the natives
Cardy did not immediately respond to a request for an interview.
The resignation letter said Higgs has a plan to “abolish” French immersion by September 2023, prompting an independent review of the program earlier this year.
Cardy said getting rid of the program was not in the government’s election platform or throne speech and has not been approved by cabinet or PC caucus.
Eliminating it “would put a huge strain on the education system and harm the education of our province’s English-speaking youth,” he wrote.
Liberal leader Susan Holt said criticism of Cardy’s letter “seems to reflect what we’ve heard from other people and reflects some of the concerns we’ve had about this government and its approach to leadership”.
Cardy, the former New Brunswick NDP leader, joined the PCs in 2017 as an adviser to Higgs and ran for the Conservatives in the 2018 election.
At the time Cardy switched parties, Higgs said they were “directly aligned on so many issues”, but admitted they wouldn’t see eye to eye on everything.
Dominic Cardy’s resignation letter to Blaine Higgs criticizes his leadership style and some of his decisions. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
“I want people who bring ideas and actions to the group,” Higgs said.
“We can work out any minor issues that come up, because I do that every day with everyone.”
In 2020, Cardy failed to get enough support from the PC caucus to pass a bill that would have removed philosophical and religious exemptions from the mandatory vaccination policy for school children.
And last year, he criticized the government’s ban on provincial officials handing out acknowledgments of indigenous lands at public events, saying it “added unnecessary conflict that is creating confusion and justified anger toward our government.”
Cardy has also been a vocal supporter of the Center Ice Canadians, a group of moderate conservatives who have criticized federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
The six chiefs of the Wolastoqey Nation in New Brunswick issued a statement Thursday calling on other PC ministers to join Cardy in resigning.
“It is more evident than ever that your leader is not operating within the fundamental principles of good government, nor the goals and principles of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick,” the statement said.
“Stop standing by and allowing one person to carry out these harmful practices. Indigenous people and New Brunswickers are watching closely and applauding the winds of change.”