PC leadership race swells to 7 candidates

Former Progressive Conservative MLA Jean Dub has become the seventh candidate in the party's leadership race, positioning himself as someone to soothe language tensions in New Brunswick as premier.

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Dub says he believes the leader of the party must be fluently bilingual, a standard that favours him over several other candidates in the race.

But he would not have required a bilingual commissionaire be posted at Chancery Place, the main government office in Fredericton.

Unilingual commissionaire Wayne Grant had his hours cut last year after New Brunswick's official language commissioner encountered him and launched an investigation into bilingual commissionaire services.

No, he should not have been bilingual.-Dub on Wayne Grant controversy

"This is pushing the envelope a little bit too far," Dub said of Grant's case. "Some people like to push things but I'm not that kind of person."

While Dub saidhe'd requirebilingualism in "crucial jobs where it's life-threatening" such as ambulance paramedics, he saidGrant could have been allowed to find a bilingual colleague rather than be demoted.

"We have to be as fair as humanly possible," Dub said. "I know there are people who will say. `He should have been bilingual.' No, he should not have been bilingual I'm sure there are people who speak French in that service who could have served that person."

Dub saidhe also believes the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does require the province to provide dual school bus systems for English and French schools, though he'd apply "common sense" in places where only one or two students might need a bus.

Dub officially announced his campaign in Campbellton Monday evening.

The son of former Hatfield cabinet minister Fernand Dub, hewas elected a federal PC MP for Madawaska-Restigouche in 1997.

He lost the seat in 2000, was elected a provincial PC MLA in a 2001 by-election, and was defeated by the Liberals in 2003.

Dub's entry swells the race to seven candidates, the largest field for any party leadership race in recent memory.

The winner will lead the party into the 2018 election.

The other PC leadership candidates are MLAs Blaine Higgs, Brian Macdonald, and Jake Stewart, former Saint John Mayor Mel Norton, former federal MP Mike Allen, and Moncton lawyer Monica Barley.

Dub saidhe waited until now to declare because he wanted to meet Tories around the province and find out what is on their minds.

In favour of Energy East

As premier, he said, he'd support the Energy East pipeline and make cuts to what he calleda "top-heavy" civil service.

PC party members will vote Oct. 22.

While there are seven declared candidates heading into the summer barbecue season, the deadline for candidates to pay the $10,000 entry fee is only in September.

With a large field, lining up supporters and donations will be harder with party loyalists dividing their efforts and money seven ways.

Dub acknowledgedthe large field presents challenges. "It'll make it interesting. The bar is high and the hill is steep."

But, he said, party members have to decide who they think is best positioned to win the next election, a standard he saidhe can meet due to his federal and provincial experience and his bilingualism.

Says leadership race rules unfair

Dub said in May that leadership race rules were tilted against a candidate like him from northern New Brunswick and that was "certainly going to weigh" on his decision.

The party's four satellite voting stations aren't in locations convenient for people from the north shore, he said, and the $40 voting fee is prohibitively expensive for some New Brunswickers.

But now Dubsaidsome other leadership candidates he wouldn't name have agreed to join him in pushing for changes.

"It's not over yet," he said. "It's never too late to do the right thing. You'll be hearing more about it."

The PC party says with a tax deduction, the voting fee will end up costing party members less than the previous $25 fee.

In May party president Jason Stephen said the rules couldn't be changed because five candidates had entered the race under those rules at that time.