There are a lot of new faces in the New Brunswick legislature, with first-time ministers making up the majority of the newly sworn-in Susan Holt cabinet.

That’s a typical outcome when a party hasn’t been in power for a while, said J.P. Lewis, a political science professor at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John.

He said the true measure of a good minister, as well as experience, was how well they worked in the enduring public service that underpinned every department, and how well they could communicate with the public and defend their portfolio.

“Are you a good communicator? Can you advocate for your department or portfolio area when things get a little heated? Can you sell the government line on some issues?” he said. “You may come from a different background, you may have never been in cabinet, and you may be good at these things.”

Lewis said the 19-person cabinet includes only two former ministers: Robert Gauvin and Gilles LePage. The rest are either first-time ministers or both first-time MLAs and first-time ministers.

He said the fact that many of the Liberals were elected for the first time contributed to that outcome.

“If you’re getting votes from a caucus with so many rookies, there should be a lot of rookies in the cabinet as well,” he said.

There are three former Liberal ministers missing from the cabinet: Francine Landry was appointed speaker of the Legislative Assembly, and Guy Arseneault and Benoît Bourque were appointed vice-speaker.

Meet with permanent public officials

Lewis, Dr. He said some appointments made sense, such as the selection of John Dornan as health minister. Dornan, who was elected out of Saint John Portland-Simonds, previously led Horizon Health Network before getting fired by former prime minister Blaine Higgs.

Although Dornan has experience in the healthcare system, his portfolio will likely be the most challenging, Lewis said. It’s a lot to deal with, including difficulty recruiting healthcare providers, long wait times in emergency rooms, thousands of people without a primary care provider, and difficulties accessing mental health services.

In an interview with Morning of Knowledge St. JohnDornan said his first action would be to speed up developments by contacting the deputy minister. People who have spent their lives working in the system will likely have the best ideas, he said.

“There are a lot of good MPs and members in our chamber who have ideas that I will benefit from,” he said. “In my experience, I have found that if you listen to people with strong ideas and put your shoulders behind those ideas, you often see fruit.”

He said he will begin work on three shared care clinics expected to open by 2025. The Holt government has said it plans to eventually open 30 of these clinics in the state.

“What we want to do is cover New Brunswick with collaborative primary care so that no one has a place to call home,” Dornan said.

A cabinet focused on Saint John

Lewis said the Liberals have historically found it difficult to get into southern drives in the Saint John region. But in this election, they won nearly every race in the district, with Aaron Kennedy unseating former premier Blaine Higgs in Quispamsis.

The cabinet includes four people from the Saint John region; these include Saint John Harbor MLA David Hickey as housing minister and Rothesay MLA Alyson Townsend as minister of post-secondary education, training and employment.

“Winning the Valley was a big deal and he rewarded a lot of those people,” Lewis said.

Kennedy is currently minister of local government and minister responsible for the Service of New Brunswick. He has served as chief administrative officer for the town of Quispamsis since 2021 but has never been elected at the state level.

Kennedy said he plans to listen to municipalities when discussing any reforms. He also said he plans to make property tax increases more equitable.

“You need to have a balance where people can anticipate that and budget appropriately,” he said.

He also said he plans to contact the federal government to defend his riding.

Possible trap

Lewis said one possible downside of a rookie cabinet is that power could become centralized as new ministers learn the ropes.

“Because there is so much trust in the center,” he said. “If everyone is learning somehow, then they don’t have their own way of doing things.”

He said it wasn’t a guaranteed outcome, but it was a risk, especially given Holt had criticized the former prime minister for top-down leadership.