Cardy is N.B.'s new NDP leader

New Brunswick's NDP has acclaimed Dominic Cardy asits new leader.

Cardy was the only candidate in the running by Wednesday's 5 p.m. AT deadline. Pierre Cyr, another party member, was disqualified. He said he is considering consulting his lawyer about fighting the decision.

Roger Duguay resigned as leader after the party failed to win a single seat in last year's provincial election.

Cardy was the campaign director for the 2010 election and was the first candidate for the vacant leadership position.

At the time, he told CBC News he wanted to continue the message of fiscal responsibility that saw the NDP earn 10.3 per cent of the vote, which was double its take in the 2006 election.

The NDP has been shut out of the legislative assembly since 2005 when leader Elizabeth Weir resigned to become the president and chief executive officer of Efficiency New Brunswick.

"The message that [Duguay] started to develop, and that I think resonated quite strongly with the people in the province, was the theme of fiscal responsibility, of linking government programs to the financial base that the province rests upon," Cardy said in December.

"Rather than doing anything particularly differently, I just want to take what Roger Duguay started and do it more, and faster."

According to his website, Cardygrew up in Fredericton before taking a political science degree at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He spent 2001 to 2008 living and working in Asia for an non-governmental organization before returning to New Brunswick.