FREDERICTON –
New Brunswick’s Liberal leader is on the defensive for comments she made on a podcast months ago that her opponents charge make northern residents in the Bathurst area seem uneducated.
In January, Susan Holt told the True North Eager Beaver Podcast that the province is diverse and her party can’t have one-size-fits-all policies. However, she said, there are certain issues on which her caucus must stay united “regardless of the price they might pay in their communities.”
She was referring to a controversial change the Blaine Higgs government made to Policy 713 — rules around how transgender children can be referred to at school. In 2023 the Progressive Conservatives required teachers to get parental consent before they can use the preferred first names and pronouns of children under 16 — a policy that was criticized around the country but one that remains popular in the province, according to polling.