Brian Gallant
Brian Alexander Gallant, Q. C. is a Canadian politician who served as the 33rd Premier of New Brunswick from October 7, 2014 until November 9, 2018. Of Acadian and Dutch descent, Gallant practised as a lawyer before winning the Liberal leadership in October 2012, securing the riding of Kent in a by-election on April 15, 2013, shortly followed by his swearing in as Leader of the Opposition. After the 2014 election, in which the Progressive Conservative government of David Alward was defeated, Gallant was sworn in as Premier at the age of 32. Gallant represents the riding of Shediac Bay-Dieppe. Gallant announced, on November 15, 2018, that he will be stepping down as Liberal leader as soon as a leadership election is held to choose his successor. At age 32, he was the second youngest Premier of New Brunswick to assume office When Gallant left office at age 36, he was the youngest premier in Canada. Gallant was born in Shediac Bridge, his Acadian father, was the youngest of seven children, while his mother, was the child of Dutch immigrants who arrived in the 1950s.
He has two siblings and Pierre. In his youth, he was educated at a variety of schools across New Brunswick, he ended up graduating from Polyvalente Louis-J.-Robichaud back in Shediac - his principal recalled telling Gallant he predicted he would one day be Premier, saying, "You have all the qualities of being a future premier here in New Brunswick." Gallant says his interest in politics started when, with nobody else offering, he became vice president of his grade 5 class, by the end of his teenage years he decided he would pursue a political career. In order to pay his way through university, he started and ran two small companies allowing him to graduate from the Université de Moncton with both a BA in Business Administration and a Bachelor of Laws degree receiving a Master's in Law from McGill University. Whilst at Moncton, he was made president of the student federation. Afterwards, he practised corporate and commercial law with the firm Stewart McKelvey, became a partner at Veritas Law in Dieppe.
His first foray into provincial politics was an ambitious one as, at 24, he secured the Liberal nomination to run against Premier Bernard Lord in the Progressive Conservative's riding of Moncton East for the 2006 election. Although in the end Lord held his seat, the election was far from being a runaway; the campaign against a sitting premier gave added exposure to Gallant. When the Liberal government of Shawn Graham was defeated in 2010, Gallant authored a paper on reforming the Liberal Party, to make it more accessible for new members and a new generation of leaders to emerge. After Graham's resignation as leader of the party, Gallant put himself forward to succeed him, winning against former justice minister Mike Murphy and dairy farmer Nick Duivenvorden in its 2012 leadership election. After a successful by-election run in Graham's former riding of Kent, where he gained a commanding lead, Gallant was sworn into the Legislative Assembly on April 30, 2013, making him Leader of the Opposition to David Alward's PC government.
Heading into the 2014 election campaign, Gallant pushed a $900 million package of infrastructure spending over six years as a way to create 1,700 jobs for a province with one of the country's worst unemployment rates. He campaigned on a tax rate increase for some of the province's biggest earners, on removing property tax breaks for businesses; the Liberal platform promised a rise in the minimum wage, from $10 per hour, to $10.30 per hour by the end of 2014, to $11 by the end of 2017. On an election night marred by technical glitches with the voting tabulators, the Liberals won a majority and formed the government in the 58th New Brunswick Legislature with Gallant as Premier on October 7, 2014. Gallant's first cabinet, of 13 members, was smaller than the outgoing cabinet. During his government’s mandate the province’s economy and exports grew each year; the Gallant government increased the budget for education and early childhood development by 15% over its mandate in order to invest in literacy initiatives, introduce coding in more schools, reintroduce trades in high schools.
The Gallant government created programs to help the middle class with the cost of childcare and to provide free childcare to families which need the most support. The Gallant government created programs to help the middle class with the cost of tuition and to provide free tuition for those who need the most support; the Gallant government eliminated the unconstitutional two doctor rule, hindering a women’s right to choose for decades in New Brunswick. In 2016, New Brunswick welcomed the most Syrian refugees displaced by the humanitarian crisis per capita of all the provinces in the country. Gallant was the first premier in the history of New Brunswick to walk in a pride parade; the Gallant government advanced women’s equality by moving pay equity forward to the point of New Brunswick ha
Saint John Harbour (electoral district)
Saint John Harbour is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, Canada. It was represented from its creation for the 1995 election until October 13, 2005 by Elizabeth Weir, the leader of the New Democratic Party of New Brunswick from 1988 to September 25, 2005. Liberal Ed Doherty had taken the spot by winning a by-election on November 14, 2005 and was re-elected in the 2006 general election, it is represented by Liberal Ed Doherty, re-elected in the 2014 general election. Prior to the New Brunswick electoral redistribution of 1994, the district had moderately different boundaries. In that year it was split in two, with part being merged with Saint John South to form this current Saint John Harbour district, while the other half of the former Harbour district became a part of Saint John Lancaster; this district was created in the early 1990s using all of the district of Saint John South and a small portion of the old Saint John Harbour district, resulting in some confusion as most of what had been known as Saint John Harbour became a part of Saint John Portland.
In the 2006 redistribution it underwent only minor changes. Liberal Ed Doherty faced NDP candidate Dan Robichaud, whom he had run against in the 2005 by-election, as well as Conservative candidate Idee Inyangudor, an aide to a member of the cabinet and David Raymond Amos. Elizabeth Weir, who had held this riding since its creation, resigned on October 13, 2005 and Premier of New Brunswick Bernard Lord called a by-election for the riding on October 15; the by-election was held on November 14, 2005 and was from the outset thought to be a close race between Lord's Progressive Conservatives and the Liberals with Weir's New Democrats unlikely to be able to compete without her personal popularity against the large organizations the other parties were to bring into the riding from around the province. In the end the Liberals won the race in a landslide, more than doubling their vote over the previous election, with an absolute majority of 55% in a race with four candidates. Bernard Lord placed his reputation on the line, according to pundits, due to his choice of a high-profile candidate and his announcing over $50 million in spending over the course of the four-week campaign.
As a result, many viewed this election as a huge blow to Lord's leadership and that it, along with two years of opinion polling showing Lord's PCs trailing the Liberals, the beginning of the end of his government. The by-election had immediate province-wide repercussions, bringing the standings in the legislature to 27 government, 27 opposition and the speaker; these standings would mean that the absence of one government member - if he or she did not vote with the opposition - could defeat the government. October 13, 2005 - Elizabeth Weir resigns from the seat to accept the post of President and CEO of the new Energy Efficiency and Conservation Agency. October 14, 2005 - Michelle Hooton announces she will be a candidate for the Progressive Conservatives in the by-election. October 15, 2005 - The Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives both hold their conventions, which were scheduled. Bernard Lord, the premier and leader of the PCs, drops the writ at his convention. October 17, 2005 - Hooton is acclaimed as PC candidate.
October 18, 2005 - Dr. Ed Doherty is acclaimed as Liberal candidate. October 20, 2005: Glen Jardine files papers to run as an independent. Dan Robichaud is elected as New Democratic Party candidate in a three-way race, though only 19 people voted at his nominating meeting. October 21, 2005 - The Liberals announce their platform for the by-election, promising to invest $50 million in and around the riding if they win the next general election; the Liberals highlight that the majority of this money would come from federal funding, available but Lord has refused to accept based on the conditions attached thereto. They argue. November 1, 2005 - An all candidates debate is co-hosted by Rogers Cable and the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal newspaper, Independent Glen Jardine does not participate due to his late announcement as a candidate; the debate is televised once on each of the two following days. November 8, 2005 - An all candidates debate is held live on popular radio talk show Talk of the Town on CFBC.
All four candidates participate. November 9, 2005 - Michelle Hooton unveils her platform. Unlike the Liberal candidate, she does this individually. Where the Liberals promised what they would do with Doherty as a part of their team, Hooton promised what she would try to change from within the government if she was elected, she promised to change the government's position on nursing home payments, powers of municipalities in dealing with slum landlords, harbour cleanup, the St. Joseph's Hospital and affordable housing caps, she pledged to build a new justice complex, a skateboard park, several community police stations and focus on waterfront development. November 11, 2005 - A Telegraph Journal / Corporate Research Associates poll reveals a runaway lead for Doherty; the poll shows Hooton at 10 %, Robichaud at 9 % and Jardine at 1 % with 34 % undecided. Undecided voters were asked if they were leaning toward any candidate and, with leaning voters factored in, the result was Doherty 53%, Hooton 20%, Robichaud 19% and Jardine 2%.
November 14, 2005 - Ed Doherty wins the election in a landslide. He takes the stage to read his victory speech at 9:05 local time to announce Michelle Hooton has conceded to him; as of his announcement, he is ahead of Hooton by more than a 2 to 1 margin. * This was a new riding created out of a merger of the whole of the electoral district of Saint John Sou
2014 New Brunswick general election
The 38th New Brunswick general election was held on September 22, 2014, to elect 49 members to the 58th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, the governing house of the province of New Brunswick, Canada. The 2013 redistribution reduced the size of the legislature from 55 seats to 49; the New Brunswick Liberal Association, led by Brian Gallant, won a majority government, defeating Incumbent Premier David Alward's Progressive Conservatives, which became the second single-term government in New Brunswick's history. The New Democratic Party, led by Dominic Cardy won the highest support in its history, though failed to win any seats; as a result of these losses, both Alward and Cardy resigned as leaders of their respective parties. The Green Party of New Brunswick improved on its results from the previous election, with party leader David Coon winning the party's first seat, becoming only the second Green politician elected to a provincial legislature. Fracking was a major issue in the election as a whole.
Most commentators described the election as a referendum on it. Polling in the weeks leading up to the campaign gave the Liberals a wide lead over the governing Progressive Conservatives; some commentators speculated about whether the Liberals were on track to repeat the 1987 provincial election, when they won every seat in the Legislative Assembly. As the campaign progressed, the gap in popular support between the two parties narrowed significantly; some attributed this in part to a television interview with CBC New Brunswick anchor Harry Forestell in which Gallant gave inaccurate numbers relating to his proposal for a tax increase on the province's wealthiest residents. In the final poll of the campaign, the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives were tied at 40 per cent support each. September 27, 2010 – The Progressive Conservatives under David Alward win 42 of 55 seats; the Liberals are reduced to 13 seats and Shawn Graham announces that he will step down as leader. October 25, 2010 – NDP leader Roger Duguay resigns.
He was replaced by interim leader Jesse Travis. November 9, 2010 – Liberal leader Shawn Graham resigns, he was replaced on an interim basis by Victor Boudreau and was permanently replaced by Brian Gallant in late 2012. March 2, 2011 – Dominic Cardy is acclaimed as the new leader of the NDP. September 12, 2011 – Green leader Jack Macdougall resigns, he was replaced by interim leader Greta Doucet. May 16, 2012 – Resignation of Margaret-Ann Blaney as MLA of Rothesay. June 25, 2012 – Ted Flemming is elected MLA for Rothesay, following the resignation of Margaret-Ann Blaney. September 20, 2012 - Jim Parrott is expelled from the PC caucus after making statements questioning linguistic duality in the healthcare system. September 22, 2012 - David Coon is elected new leader of the Green Party. October 27, 2012 - Brian Gallant is elected leader of the New Brunswick Liberal Party. March 11, 2013 - Shawn Graham resigns as member for Kent. April 15, 2013 – Brian Gallant is elected MLA for Kent, following the resignation of Shawn Graham.
June 6, 2013 - New electoral districts are finalized and will take effect at this election. April 30, 2014 - Jim Parrott rejoins PC caucus. June 27, 2014 - PC MLA Bev Harrison announces he will seek re-election as a New Democrat, he leaves the PC caucus to sit as an independent. August 18, 2014 - Premier Alward meets with Lieutenant-Governor Graydon Nicholas who grants the premier's request to dissolve the legislature effective August 21, 2014 for a general election to be held September 22, 2014. August 21, 2014 - New Brunswick legislature dissolved by the lieutenant-governor. September 22, 2014 - general election; the election marked the first time that the province used electronic vote tabulation machines from Dominion Voting in a provincial election. They had been used in New Brunswick municipal elections. On election night, the machines displayed vote totals which were verified by Elections New Brunswick officials and entered into a province-wide database for the media. By 11:45 PM, these unverified numbers were to have been replaced by machine-reported numbers from the tabulators themselves with no human interventions or errors possible to distort results.
It was "a program processing the initial results that had a glitch", not the tabulators themselves, according to officials. Elections New Brunswick grew uncomfortable with the human involvement and influence of the unevenly tabulated results, it brought the results reporting to a standstill as counts were reverified by hand before further resignations or concessions were triggered. At 10:45 p.m. Atlantic time, Elections New Brunswick suspended the results reporting count, with 17 ridings still undeclared, while it investigated the delay, it called for over sixty tabulator count devices to be brought to central locations for verification without relying on the reporting program. At no time was there an allegation of fraud by any party or public official; as a result of the controversy, both the Progressive Conservatives and the People's Alliance Party called for a hand count of all ballots, with the former refusing to concede the election until the following day. Michael Quinn, the province's chief electoral officer determined.
Recounts were held in 7 of 49 ridings and the results were upheld with variations of no more than 1 vote per candidate per riding. The following sitting members of the legislative assembly had announced that they would not re-offer at this election: John Betts, MLA for Moncton Crescent Jack Carr, MLA for New Maryland-Sunbury West Greg Davis, MLA for Campbellton-Restigouche Centre Dale Graham, MLA for Carleton and Carleton North Wes McLean, MLA for Victoria-Tobique Wayne
Montreal
Montreal is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec and the second-most populous municipality in Canada. Called Ville-Marie, or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city; the city is centred on the Island of Montreal, which took its name from the same source as the city, a few much smaller peripheral islands, the largest of, Île Bizard. It has a distinct four-season continental climate with cold, snowy winters. In 2016, the city had a population of 1,704,694, with a population of 1,942,044 in the urban agglomeration, including all of the other municipalities on the Island of Montreal; the broader metropolitan area had a population of 4,098,927. French is the city's official language and is the language spoken at home by 49.8% of the population of the city, followed by English at 22.8% and 18.3% other languages. In the larger Montreal Census Metropolitan Area, 65.8% of the population speaks French at home, compared to 15.3% who speak English.
The agglomeration Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with over 59% of the population able to speak both English and French. Montreal is the second-largest French-speaking city in the world, after Paris, it is situated 258 kilometres south-west of Quebec City. The commercial capital of Canada, Montreal was surpassed in population and in economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s, it remains an important centre of commerce, transport, pharmaceuticals, design, art, tourism, fashion, gaming and world affairs. Montreal has the second-highest number of consulates in North America, serves as the location of the headquarters of the International Civil Aviation Organization, was named a UNESCO City of Design in 2006. In 2017, Montreal was ranked the 12th most liveable city in the world by the Economist Intelligence Unit in its annual Global Liveability Ranking, the best city in the world to be a university student in the QS World University Rankings. Montreal has hosted multiple international conferences and events, including the 1967 International and Universal Exposition and the 1976 Summer Olympics.
It is the only Canadian city to have held the Summer Olympics. In 2018, Montreal was ranked as an Alpha− world city; as of 2016 the city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs festival. In the Mohawk language, the island is called Tiohtià:ke Tsi, it is a name referring to the Lachine Rapids to the island's Ka-wé-no-te. It means "a place where nations and rivers unite and divide". In the Ojibwe language, the land is called Mooniyaang which means "the first stopping place" and is part of the seven fires prophecy; the city was first named Ville Marie by European settlers from La Flèche, or "City of Mary", named for the Virgin Mary. Its current name comes from the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. According to one theory, the name derives from mont Réal,. A possibility by the Government of Canada on its web site concerning Canadian place names, is that the name was adopted as it is written nowadays because an early map of 1556 used the Italian name of the mountain, Monte Real.
Archaeological evidence demonstrates that First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago. By the year AD 1000, they had started to cultivate maize. Within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villages; the Saint Lawrence Iroquoians, an ethnically and culturally distinct group from the Iroquois nations of the Haudenosaunee based in present-day New York, established the village of Hochelaga at the foot of Mount Royal two centuries before the French arrived. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at other locations in the valley since at least the 14th century; the French explorer Jacques Cartier visited Hochelaga on October 2, 1535, estimated the population of the native people at Hochelaga to be "over a thousand people". Evidence of earlier occupation of the island, such as those uncovered in 1642 during the construction of Fort Ville-Marie, have been removed. Seventy years the French explorer Samuel de Champlain reported that the St Lawrence Iroquoians and their settlements had disappeared altogether from the St Lawrence valley.
This is believed to be due to epidemics of European diseases, or intertribal wars. In 1611 Champlain established a fur trading post on the Island of Montreal, on a site named La Place Royale. At the confluence of Petite Riviere and St. Lawrence River, it is where present-day Pointe-à-Callière stands. On his 1616 map, Samuel de Champlain named the island Lille de Villemenon, in honour of the sieur de Villemenon, a French dignitary, seeking the viceroyship of New France. In 1639 Jérôme Le Royer de La Dauversière obtained the Seigneurial title to the Island of Montreal in the name of the Notre Dame Society of Montreal to establish a Roman Catholic mission to evangelize natives. Dauversiere hired Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve 30, to lead a group of colonists to build a mission on his new seigneury; the colonists left France in 1641 for Quebec, arrived on the island the following year. On May 17, 1642, Ville-Marie was founded on the southern shore of Montreal is
Premier of New Brunswick
The Premier of New Brunswick is the first minister for the Canadian province of New Brunswick. They are the province's head of government and de facto chief executive; the premier of a Canadian province is much like the Prime Minister of Canada. He or she is the leader of the party or coalition with the most seats in the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick; the premier is styled Honourable but is not a member of the privy council so this title is only for the duration of his or her term of office. Prior the establishment of the office, the Government leaders prior to responsible government was the chief political position in New Brunswick; the premier is chosen by the Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick. The province of New Brunswick, since being established in 1785, has had a variety of leaders. Since the 1840s responsible government has been in place and the position of Premier has been formalized; the current Premier of New Brunswick is Blaine Higgs, sworn in November 9, 2018. Office of the Premier List of premiers of New Brunswick
Moncton
Moncton is the largest city in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the Maritime Provinces; the city has earned the nickname "Hub City" due to its central inland location in the region and its history as a railway and land transportation hub for the Maritimes. The city proper has a population of 71,889 and has a land area of 142 km2; the Moncton CMA has a population of 144,810, making it the largest city and CMA in New Brunswick, the second-largest city and CMA in the Maritime Provinces. The CMA includes the neighbouring city of Dieppe and the town of Riverview, as well as adjacent suburban areas in Westmorland and Albert counties. Although the Moncton area was first settled in 1733, Moncton is considered to have been founded in 1766 with the arrival of Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants from Philadelphia. An agricultural settlement, Moncton was not incorporated until 1855; the city was named for Lt. Col. Robert Monckton, the British officer who had captured nearby Fort Beauséjour a century earlier.
A significant wooden shipbuilding industry had developed in the community by the mid-1840s, allowing for the civic incorporation in 1855, but the shipbuilding economy collapsed in the 1860s, causing the town to lose its civic charter in 1862. Moncton regained its charter in 1875 after the community's economy rebounded due to a growing railway industry. In 1871, the Intercolonial Railway of Canada had chosen Moncton to be its headquarters, Moncton remained a railway town for well over a century until the closure of the Canadian National Railway locomotive shops in the late 1980s. Although the economy of Moncton was traumatized twice—by the collapse of the shipbuilding industry in the 1860s and by the closure of the CNR locomotive shops in the 1980s—the city was able to rebound on both occasions; the city adopted the motto Resurgo after its rebirth as a railway town. The city's economy is stable and diversified based on its traditional transportation, distribution and commercial heritage, supplemented by strength in the educational, health care, information technology, insurance sectors.
The strength of Moncton's economy has received national recognition and the local unemployment rate is less than the national average. Acadians settled the head of the Bay of Fundy in the 1670s; the first reference to the "Petcoucoyer River" was on the De Meulles map of 1686. Settlement of the Petitcodiac and Memramcook river valleys began about 1700 extending inland and reaching the site of present-day Moncton in 1733; the first Acadian settlers in the Moncton area established a marshland farming community and chose to name their settlement Le Coude, an allusion to the 90° bend in the river near the site of the settlement. In 1755, nearby Fort Beausejour was captured by British forces under the command of Lt. Col. Robert Monckton; the Beaubassin region including the Memramcook and Petitcodiac river valleys subsequently fell under English control. That year, Governor Charles Lawrence issued a decree ordering the expulsion of the Acadian population from Nova Scotia; this action came to be known as the "Great Upheaval".
The reaches of the upper Petitcodiac River valley came under the control of the Philadelphia Land Company and in 1766 Pennsylvania Dutch settlers arrived to re-establish the pre-existing farming community at Le Coude. The Settlers consisted of eight families. There is a plaque dedicated in their honor at the mouth of Hall's Creek, they renamed the settlement "The Bend". The Bend remained an agricultural settlement for nearly 80 more years. By 1836, there were only 20 households in the community. At this time, the Westmorland Road became open to year-round travel and a regular mail coach service was established between Saint John and Halifax; the Bend became an important rest station along the route. Over the next decade and shipbuilding would become important industries in the area; the turning point for the community was when Joseph Salter took over a shipyard at the Bend in 1847. The expanded shipyard grew to employ about 400 workers; the Bend subsequently developed a service-based economy to support the shipyard and began to acquire all the amenities of a growing town.
The prosperity engendered by the wooden shipbuilding industry allowed The Bend to incorporate as the town of Moncton in 1855. The town was named for Lt. Col. Robert Monckton, but a clerical error at the time the town was incorporated resulted in the misspelling of the community's name, perpetuated to the present day; the first mayor of Moncton was the shipbuilder Joseph Salter. Two years in 1857, the European and North American Railway opened its line from Moncton to nearby Shediac. At about the time of the arrival of the railway, the popularity of steam-powered ships forced an end to the era of wooden shipbuilding; the Salter shipyard closed in 1858. The resulting industrial collapse caused Moncton to surrender its civic charter in 1862. Moncton's economic depression did not last long and a second era of prosperity came to the area in 1871 when Moncton was selected to be the headquarters of the Intercolonial Railway of Canada; the arrival of the ICR in Moncton was a sem
Cathy Rogers (politician)
Cathy L. Rogers is a Canadian politician, elected to the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick in the 2014 provincial election, she represents the electoral district of Moncton South as a member of the Liberal Party. She was New Brunswick's Finance Minister
