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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

NDP Aiming To Stop Patronage With Government Jobs

The leader of the Provincial NDP introducing two draft bills in hopes of cutting patronage within the government.

In the first bill, Dominic Cardy suggests that once an MLA is defeated or resigns, they can't get a government job appointed by the government for a year. Cardy says that cooling off period would leave positions open for competition. He points to Margaret Ann-Blaney's appointment as CEO for Efficiency New Brunswick as an appointment that could've been stopped.

The second bill relates to NB Liquor, with the aim of removing political influence when appointing a new president and CEO of the crown cooperation. Cardy says the province has a weird history of hiring campaign managers, like the current CEO Daniel Allain and former premier Shawn Graham's campaign manager Dana Glendenning.


Cardy says people should be hired on their merits, not by who they know. He says New Brunswick is far behind many provinces in Canada and places across the world that have rules such as this in place to stop patronage.