Longtime PC supporters face a dilemma in high-profile Hampton election race

For Dorothy MacDonald, and lifelong Progressive Conservatives like her in Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins, this month's New Brunswick election represents an agonizing choice.

MacDonald worked for almost three years as the constituency assistant for Gary Crossman, a former MLA and PC cabinet minister.

Yet she's not sure she can vote for the party she has supported since she was a child.

"I still haven't made up my mind. I'm still anxious," she said after attending a recent candidates debate at Hampton High School.

"Two of the candidates have never been to my house, so I'd really like to have more one-on-one with them. It's been very difficult."

MacDonald is not alone. Her decision, and the choice of other PC stalwarts in the riding, will not only determine who gets elected here but could have a role in shaping the future of the PC Party itself.

Many longtime party supporters were upset last December when Christian conservative activist Faytene Grasseschi was nominated as the candidate over the objections of Crossman and members of the PC riding association board.

"My personal and political beliefs no longer align in many ways with the direction of our party and government," Crossman said when he resigned as minister and MLA in April.

Grasseschi has been a Christian activist for two decades and has been accused of harbouring extreme views on issues such as gay rights and abortion.

In her 2009 book Marked, she wrote, "We are to make disciples of every people, group and culture, yes and teach nations to obey all that the Lord has commanded."

At last December's nomination, PC Leader Blaine Higgs praised "the conviction, the determination and the pure ability" of Grasseschi and said her candidacy was part of a "revolution" within the PC Party.

That makes the Hampton race, and Grasseschi's possible presence in a future PC caucus, a potential turning point for the party itself, as Tories wrestle witha more socially conservative direction or return to the political centre.

Longtime Hampton PC supporter Al Walker said in an interview that her nomination, and Higgs's attitude, were the breaking points for him.

"I just had to change this time. I said 'enough's enough.' She would be a national embarrassment if we elected her," he said.

Walker is one of the Tories who convinced former federal PC MP John Herron, who switched to the federal Liberals toward the end of his House of Commons tenure, that he should runas the provincial Liberal candidate in Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins.

"I've never donated to the Liberal Party before in my life," Walker said. "This time I certainly have, and I was proud to do so, because this will make the difference."

Last Wednesday's debate was the first time Herron, Grasseschi and the other candidates shared a stage.

The event, organized by the Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce, attracted about 250 people.

WATCH |Four candidates clashed in Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins election debate:

Hampton candidates clash in high-profile race

3 days ago

Duration 2:19

Liberal John Herron calls his PC opponent fringe, but Faytene Grasseschi pushes back and cites the Charter in Hampton election debate.

Chamber president Luke MacGregor said the high-profile nature of the race is generating a lot of discussion.

"It's a bit more exciting than it has been in the past," said MacGregor, who has heard lots of election talk at the local craft brewery he owns.

"We have a big crowd Friday nights, and that is the number one topic until everybody has moved on to the next couple of rounds."

Grasseschi told the crowd that she decided to get into provincial politics last year when she saw Higgs "assaulted by the liberal media" over his changes to Policy 713.

Those changes require school staff to obtain consent from parents if a student under 16 wants to adopt a new name or pronoun reflecting their gender identity.

Before the change, parental consent wasn't required.

But after raising the issue, Grasseschi pivoted, saying that knocking on doors in the riding, "the number one issue that I heard about is cost of living."

Throughout the night she articulated the PC Party positions on issues from the environment to property taxes and from health care to housing.

She departed from the party line twice: to say she was open to "a conversation" about not applying sales taxes to N.B. Power bills as the Liberals have promised and to an inquiry on forest clearcutting and glyphosate spraying.

Herron argued that Grasseschi, who lives just outside the riding, doesn't represent the political mainstream and that he is the only one who can defeat her.

He referred to her as "this version of the Conservatives, whose candidacy lives outside the fringes of this riding, who represents an extreme fringe politics that goes beyond the modern traditions of the province."

Answering a question about 2SLGBTQ+ issues, Grasseschi argued her opponents have denigrated her based on things she said 20 years ago.

"Let me tell you what I believe in 2024," she said. "I believe in the Charter [of Rights and Freedoms]."

She read from Section 2 of the Charter, which guarantees freedom of religion, expression and assembly, among others.

"I would run in front of a bullet to protect these fundamental rights and freedoms for our LGBTQ+ kids and for every single one of us, no matter who we are and how we express ourselves," she said.

She did not mention other sections of the Charter, such as Section 7 protecting security of the person the clause that led to the decriminalization of abortion or Section 15 on equality, which helped pave the way to legalize same-sex marriage.

Grasseschi has been attacked, mocked and insulted on social media for her views, including by critics who have posted old videos of her speaking in tongues and claiming to heal people through faith.

"I'd like to propose that there's been no one in this town that has been more bullied, more shamed, more harassed online, than the woman that you're looking at right now," she said at the debate.

"But you know what? That doesn't change who I am. I still love, and I'll still fight for you and your loved ones, and I still care."

Four other candidates are running in Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins, though the NDP and Libertarian candidates did not appear at Wednesday's debate.

The Green Party's Laura Myers rejected Herron's argument that only the Liberals can block Grasseschi.

"The comment I hear the most at the door is 'Well, I know who I'm not voting for,'" she said. "You can't get what you want by voting for what you don't want."

Myers, a welll-known community volunteer and former teacher, earned enthusiastic applause from many of the people at the debate.

People's Alliance candidate Peter Graham said he also left the PC Party over its direction and argued the formerly right-leaning, populist Alliance is now a moderate, middle-of-the-road option.

"We reject extremism," he said. "We've got this dichotomy of the Liberal Party and the PCs, and they're at loggerheads and they won't work collaboratively on anything. As a centrist party, we can bridge that gap."

For MacDonald, the lifelong PC member and former assistant to Crossman, the 90 minutes of discussion wasn't enough for her to make a decision.

"The first part of the debate, I was saying, 'This is the way I'm going to go.' Then in the second part, things changed around a bit," she said.

Ultimately, she said, the fraying of old party loyalties may be healthy.

"In some ways it's good, because it's really got people thinking outside the box," she said.

"It really makes you look at what's going on, instead of saying, 'I'm a PC, I'm always going to be a PC.' Now I'm starting to look at party policies, what people are saying, what the constituents are saying, and really listening."