A decade after NDP surge, Dominic Cardy's star recruits have drifted away

A decade ago everything was coming up roses for New Brunswick's NDP.

The New Democratic Party was showing strength in the polls. Its leader, Dominic Cardy, recruited an eclectic and compelling slate of candidates aiming for a historic breakthrough in the upcoming provincial election.

Ten years later, the NDP is struggling to stay relevant in provincial politics, Cardy is gone and many of the New Brunswickers who joined the party because of him have drifted away.

"I'm not a member of any provincial party. I would consider voting for anybody, I guess," said Nick Taggart, who joined the New Democrats because of Cardy and became its provincial secretary-treasurer.

"In the upcoming provincial election, I don't know who I'm going to vote for this time."

Sharon Levesque, who won 20 per cent of the vote in Fredericton-York in 2014, declinedan interview request from CBC News but said she's no longer politically involved and is also unsure who she'll vote for.

Other NDP candidates from that campaign ended up with other parties.

Brian Duplessis, who ran in Fredericton North, now supports the Liberals.Jason Purdy, the Moncton Northwest NDP candidate in 2014, is volunteering for the Progressive Conservatives in Fredericton this summer.

Both came to the NDP because of Cardy.

"I was definitely a Cardy person back then," said Purdy, who ran for the party when Cardy managed its 2010 campaign and again when he was leader in 2014.

Duplessis said he was won over by Cardy's intellect, his international experience and his progressive views. New Brunswick was "lacking that kind of experience in the past," he said.

WATCH | Former New Democrats reflect on 2014 campaign:

What might have been? Former supporters of Dominic Cardy's NDP reflect

2 months ago

Duration 1:32

A decade after the NDP came close to a major election breakthrough in New Brunswick, two former members speak with CBC News about the year they almost had 'a chance to make a difference.

Cardy moved the NDP away from some of its traditional big-spending, social-democratic positions.

He embraced balanced budgets and was at odds with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, a longtime NDP ally.

It rubbed some party members the wrong way.

"It was not a party focused on progressive values," said Alex White, the NDP's current leader. "It was a party just looking to move into government."

A more pragmatic approach

But Cardy's pragmatism attracted new supporters.

"He was saying a lot of things that just sort of made sense to me," Taggart said, while Liberals and PCs "were just bickering at each other."

The federal NDP was also popular, which helped lift support for the provincial party.

In New Brunswick, the NDP had never won more than a single seat at a time in a general election. But, hovering around 25 per cent in some polls, it looked like its time had finally come.

"We really thought, 'OK, we can really do something here,'" Taggart said.

In 2014, Cardy recruited former PC MLA Bev Harrison and former Liberal MLAs Kelly Lamrock and Abel LeBlanc to run as NDP candidates.

"I was super-impressed with this guy," Harrison said of Cardy.

But it wasn't to be. The NDP's popular vote on election day in 2014 was 13 per cent, an all-time high but not enough to win a single seat.

Taggart and Duplessis both say the party made a mistake trying to campaign provincewide rather than putting all its resources into getting Cardy into the legislature.

Making matters worse, many longtime NDP activists, unhappy with Cardy's moderate direction, moved to the Green Party, helping leader David Coon win in Fredericton South.

"It was very frustrating for a lot of people," White said.

"It was a very opportune moment for the New Brunswick Greens."

The Greens went on to win three seats in 2018 and 2020, and have now eclipsed the NDP as the leading progressive party.

The New Democrats fielded only 33 candidates in the last election and won a mere 1.7 per cent of the popular vote.

"Nobody hears about them," Harrison said. "Nobody talks about them."

NDP trying to rebuild

Cardy eventually quit the party in 2017, after feuding with party members whom he accused of wanting "an old NDP of true believers, ideological litmus tests and moral victories."

He joined the PC Party because, he said, leader Blaine Higgs was creating "a big, broad tent of people who want to change New Brunswick."

But he resigned in 2022 after four years in Higgs's cabinet. He is now an independent MLA and interim leader of the new federal Canadian Future Party.

The NDP, meanwhile, is trying to rebuild.

White said the party is reconnecting with "some of the natural allies who were, let's say, put off by [Cardy's] leadership style."

He hopes the party will field a full slate of 49 candidates in October.

The Cardy New Democrats are scattered in all directions.

"We jumped when Dominic jumped," Purdy said of his decision to follow Cardy to the PCs.

Unlike Cardy himself, Purdy believes Higgs has remained true to the "common sense stuff" that attracted them to the PCs. Purdy is volunteering for Tory candidates this summer.

Harrison, on the other hand, joined the Liberals, saying they are now the natural home for one-time "Red Tories" like him.

He said he's still a Cardy fan but has lost faith in the rigid party system.

"I'm big on individuals the right people thinking the right way."

Duplessis donated money to Cardy's 2018 PC campaign and has also supported Liberal and Green candidates in the last decade. He's now part of the Liberal riding executive in Fredericton South-Silverwood, where Holt is running.

A changed political landscape

What strikes him about the NDP's 2014 campaign was that all three main political parties were competing in the political centre, not the extremes.

"Before, we had a much smaller range," he said. "You could easily supportthe Liberals, the Conservatives, the NDP, without thinking they were going to take you in one hard direction on virtually any issue. Today that's not the case."

Taggart has devoted his time to non-partisan politics, as vice-chair of the Premier's Council on Disabilities, which helped persuade the Higgs government to adopt new accessibility legislation this year.

"When you're in politics and you're involved and you're an activist, you don't ever lose that itch completely," he said.

"There's always ways to get involved and make a difference without having to have your face on a ballot."