okay! so in New Brunswick, as some of you might have heard, we had a conservative Premier/government for several years now.

(Premier is kinda like a state Governor. not sure how comparible their power is but just go with it.)

nods

Blaine Higgs was Premier of a minority government in 2018, and had to share power during the start of Covid. but called an election in 2020 (after doing a somewhat decent job at handling the pandemic early on, got annoyed with it taking so long and opened up the province early) and won a majority

Higgs was... awful.
Anti bilingualism (especially in the 80s), anti trans/queer people,
hated the French (tried to force close French immersion as an option in schools),
ended tax sharing with indigenous folks in province,
refused to put in rent control
and pretty much was an absolute control freak.

tried to make it illegal for kids/teens to use their preferred pronouns in school (look up policy 731), etc etc. they say that polling suggests "most people wanna know if their kids switch pronouns in school) but I knoe for a fact they used phone polls, so who's gonna answer that but old people?

Blaine Higgs - Wikipedia

he tried to force privatize school buses and then refused to negotiate with the unions, but probably what's worse is how he treated the health system

my people, my folks, he fucked health in this province.

now the system was already pretty fucked. we did not plan for the amount of people we'd lose when boomers retired. it was always kicked down the road. but when covid hit, people either all left? or got extremely burnt out on an already weakened system.

Higgs was already disliked because he micromanaged everything. soooo many of his minsters resigned or left because he refused to let them work.

And the thing about Higgs-- and this is me speaking about him from people who knew him, my old doctor and my new boss?

OH AND ONE MORE THING I forgot-- he was a financial guy for the Irvings, the oil company family that basically owns the province

so a conservative through and through

but like I was saying-- the thing about him Is all this?

he wasn't like a republican down south saying this shit for show.

he actually sincerely believed in what he was doing was the best for the province

he was actually committed to all this because he believed it was morally right.

He was a fundamentalist Baptist, who was nicked named 'Daddy Higgs' because he truly went the whole 'father knows best' trope.

but.

but.

WITH ALL THIS ESTABLISHED

NOW TO THE GOOD BIT.

STAY WITH ME.

so in 2021, the gov hired John Dornan to be interm CEO of Horizon Health Network, the English side of the provincial health care system.

he was a doctor with nb for years as an endocrinologist, business masters degree from Dalhousie University along with his doctor stuff. and in March 2022, he was confirmed as the CEO. all good, right?

JULY 2022.

at the ER at the Hospital I work at, the Dr Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital (aka the DECH), we unfortunately lost someone in the ER room. the ER was severely understaffed, and he wasn't checked as regularly as he should've been. it was a tragic loss that no one should suffer.

the next day?

Higgs just up and fired the guy at press conference, along with the then Health Minister and the boards for Horizon and our French System Hospitals, Vitalité. Just. poof!! fired!!

just... just like that, in the middle of a health crisis!

so of course, John Dornan sues them for wrongful termination, right?

because what the fuck, Higgs didn't even tell him before the meeting. totally threw him under the bus! (and let him put his underlings in the system so he could legit, try to collapse the provincial system and force us into privatization)

so he sues under the Provincial Public Service Labour Relations Act.

he won and got awarded 1.8 million in lost salary, pension and benefits, along with 200,000 $ of aggravated damages for 'breach of employers' implied obligation to act in good faith when dismissing him'

so Higgs, due to firing this guy, just lost out 2 million,

suffer

IT GETS.

EVEN.

BETTER!!!!

So Higgsy just lost the province 2 mil due to being a bullhead dumbass who thinks he knows best. The province tried everything not to pay-- review it, appeal it, etc.

but. April this year.

John Dornan announced he was going to run for the Provincial gov at our next election, running for the Liberal Party.

aka the major party opposed to the cons, other than the green party here

and this past October 21st?

despite Higgs being so CONFIDENT he was going to win?

The Liberals won.

Including John Dornan.

now it's pretty amazing, since we also got our first Lady Premier, Susan Holt, ever.

but even more delicious?

John Dornan was just confirmed as The Provincial Minister of Health for the Liberals.

just.

let that marinate.

Higgs lost his own riding, Quispamsis, which apparently is known to be rich conservative territory.

they voted him out.

it wasn't even close, the Liberals won 31 of the 49 seats, and the Greens won 2. you need 25 for a majority. the cons got SMASHED.

and this dude?

not only did he get a rightfully owed 2mil for his humiliation due to Higgs bully behavior ...

but now he's in that very gov that kicked him out.

just.

poetic. poetry.

That is great.

and hopefully he can advocate for all the docs and nurses who desperately need help

We had a similar story (Carolyn Brost Strom ran for the NDP this past election, though her "wrongful termination during a health crisis" story is a little different) but unfortunately the Sask Party still won... though the NDP doubled their caucus size from the last election and the SUP got nothing so it's still an improvement

Fuck Higgs

Eat shit my guy

jisusushi: right, I heard about that from Steve Boots. the Sask party just seems uh. miserable

They've got issues all right. I can't believe Harrison is still in office with how many scandals he's been in this year.

people seem really hard to change.

/looks at Doug Ford

uuuugh

At least I don't reside in Ontario anymore ugh