Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick

The Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick (French: Assemblée législative du Nouveau-Brunswick) is the deliberative assembly of the New Brunswick Legislature, in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. It is located in Fredericton. It was established in Saint John de jure when the colony was created in 1784 but came into session only in 1786, following the first elections in late 1785. It was the lower house in a bicameral legislature until 1891, when its upper house counterpart, the Legislative Council of New Brunswick, was abolished. Its members are called "Members of the Legislative Assembly," commonly referred to as "MLAs".

Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick Assemblée législative du Nouveau-Brunswick
59th New Brunswick Legislature
Type
Type	Lower house (1786–1891) then unicameral house of the New Brunswick Legislature
History
Founded	1785 (1785)
Preceded by	Nova Scotia House of Assembly
Leadership
Lieutenant Governor	Brenda Murphy
Speaker	Daniel Guitard, Liberal since 23 October 2018
Premier	Blaine Higgs, Progressive Conservative since 12 February 2019
Leader of the Opposition	Denis Landry, Liberal since 12 February 2019
Structure
Seats	49
Political groups	Government   PC (20) Confidence and supply   PA (3) Opposition   Liberal (20)   Green (3)   Independent (1)   Vacant (2)
Elections
Last election	September 24, 2018
Next election	On or before September 26, 2022
Meeting place
Legislative Building, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada
Website
www.gnb.ca/legis/

History

Saint John was chosen as the original capital when New Brunswick was formed in 1784 as it was the centre of commerce and the only city at that time.[1] The New Brunswick Legislative Building is the current building that houses the Assembly. It opened in 1882, having been constructed by J.C. Dumaresq, following the destruction of the original building, known as Province Hall, by fire in 1880.

The legislative chamber is designed to have four rows on the government side and three rows on the opposition side. This is because elections have traditionally yielded a strong government majority; in fact on occasion, even with many of the seats on one side of the House, the government has spilled over to the opposition side. Quite often the House is oriented to have only two rows on the opposition benches, in the event of a large opposition adding a third row makes the opposition benches rather crowded.

Seating plan

		J.LeBlanc	K.Chiasson	Horsman	Lowe	McKee	D'Amours
		Bourque	F.Landry	Thériault	LePage	C.Chiasson	M.LeBlanc		Arseneau	Gauvin
	Arseneault	Melanson	D.LANDRY	Rogers	Harvey	Harris	Kenny	COON	Mitton
Guitard
	Holder	Savoie	HIGGS	Steeves	Shephard			AUSTIN	Conroy
	S.Wilson	Flemming	Anderson-Mason	Fitch	Stewart	Cardy		DeSaulniers
	Wetmore	M.Wilson	Carr	Holland	Urquhart	Oliver
	Northrup	Fairgrieve	Crossman

Current members

	Name	Party	Riding	First elected	Notes
	Mike Holland	Progressive Conservative	Albert	2018 g.e.
	Denis Landry	Liberal	Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-Saint-Isidore	1995 g.e.	Opposition Leader
	Brian Kenny	Liberal	Bathurst West-Beresford	2003 g.e.
	Guy Arseneault	Liberal	Campbellton-Dalhousie	2018 g.e.
	Isabelle Thériault	Liberal	Caraquet	2018 g.e.
	Stewart Fairgrieve	Progressive Conservative	Carleton	2015 by-e.
	Andrew Harvey	Liberal	Carleton-Victoria	2014 g.e.
	Carl Urquhart	Progressive Conservative	Carleton-York	2006 g.e.
	Roger Melanson	Liberal	Dieppe	2010 g.e.
	Jean-Claude D'Amours	Liberal	Edmundston-Madawaska Centre	2018 g.e.
	Kris Austin	People's Alliance	Fredericton-Grand Lake	2018 g.e.	Third Party Leader
	Stephen Horsman	Liberal	Fredericton North	2014 g.e.
	David Coon	Green	Fredericton South	2014 g.e.	Third Party Leader
	Dominic Cardy	Progressive Conservative	Fredericton West-Hanwell	2018 g.e.
	Rick DeSaulniers	People's Alliance	Fredericton-York	2018 g.e.
	Andrea Anderson-Mason	Progressive Conservative	Fundy-The Isles-Saint John West	2018 g.e.
	Ross Wetmore	Progressive Conservative	Gagetown-Petitcodiac	2010 g.e.
	Gary Crossman	Progressive Conservative	Hampton	2014 g.e.
	Kevin Arseneau	Green	Kent North	2018 g.e.
	Benoît Bourque	Liberal	Kent South	2014 g.e.
	Bill Oliver	Progressive Conservative	Kings Centre	2014 g.e.
	Francine Landry	Liberal	Madawaska les Lacs-Edmundston	2014 g.e.
	Megan Mitton	Green	Memramcook-Tantramar	2018 g.e.
	Michelle Conroy	People's Alliance	Miramichi	2018 g.e.
	Lisa Harris	Liberal	Miramichi Bay-Neguac	2014 g.e.
	Rob McKee	Liberal	Moncton Centre	2018 g.e.
	Monique LeBlanc	Liberal	Moncton East	2014 g.e.
	Ernie Steeves	Progressive Conservative	Moncton Northwest	2014 g.e.
	Cathy Rogers	Liberal	Moncton South	2014 g.e.
	Sherry Wilson	Progressive Conservative	Moncton Southwest	2010 g.e.
	Jeff Carr	Progressive Conservative	New Maryland-Sunbury	2014 g.e.
	Mary Wilson	Progressive Conservative	Oromocto-Lincoln-Fredericton	2018 g.e.
	Trevor Holder	Progressive Conservative	Portland-Simonds	1999 g.e.
	Blaine Higgs	Progressive Conservative	Quispamsis	2010 g.e.	Premier
	Daniel Guitard	Liberal	Restigouche-Chaleur	2014 g.e.	Speaker
	Gilles LePage	Liberal	Restigouche West	2014 g.e.
	Bruce Fitch	Progressive Conservative	Riverview	2003 g.e.
	Ted Flemming	Progressive Conservative	Rothesay	2012 by-e.
	Greg Thompson	Progressive Conservative	Saint Croix	2018 g.e.	Died September 10, 2019
	Vacant
	Glen Savoie	Progressive Conservative	Saint John East	2010 g.e.
	Gerry Lowe	Liberal	Saint John Harbour	2018 g.e.
	Dorothy Shephard	Progressive Conservative	Saint John Lancaster	2010 g.e.
	Brian Gallant	Liberal	Shediac Bay-Dieppe	2013 by-e.	Resigned October 7, 2019
	Vacant
	Jacques LeBlanc	Liberal	Shediac-Beaubassin-Cap-Pelé	2018 g.e.
	Robert Gauvin	Progressive Conservative	Shippagan-Lamèque-Miscou	2018 g.e.	Left caucus on February 14, 2020
		Independent
	Jake Stewart	Progressive Conservative	Southwest Miramichi-Bay du Vin	2010 g.e.
	Bruce Northrup	Progressive Conservative	Sussex-Fundy-St. Martins	2006 g.e.
	Keith Chiasson	Liberal	Tracadie-Sheila	2018 g.e.
	Chuck Chiasson	Liberal	Victoria-la-Vallée	2014 g.e.

Standings changes

Number of members per party by date		2018	2019		2020
		September 24	September 10	October 7	February 14
	Progressive Conservative	22	21	21	20
	Liberal	21		20
	Green	3
	People's Alliance	3
	Independent	0			1
	Total members	49	48	47
	Vacant	0	1	2
	Government Majority
		–3	–4	–3	–4
	Government with Confidence-and-Supply Partners Majority
		1	0	1	0

Membership changes in the 59th Assembly
Date	District	Name	Party before		Party after		Reason
September 10, 2019	Saint Croix	Greg Thompson		Progressive Conservative		Vacant	Death
October 7, 2019	Shediac Bay-Dieppe	Brian Gallant		Liberal		Vacant	Resignation
February 14, 2020	Shippagan-Lamèque-Miscou	Robert Gauvin		Progressive Conservative		Independent	Left Progressive Conservative caucus

See also

• Category:Members of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick
• 53rd New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
• 54th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
• 55th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
• 56th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
• 57th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
• 58th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly
• 59th New Brunswick Legislative Assembly

References

1. "Fredericton, Saint John capital quarrel revisited in study". CBC. Retrieved 20 July 2017.