Expect quite a bit of change when Premier Blaine Higgs unveils his new cabinet Tuesday, according to a New Brunswick political scientist.
J.P. Lewis said one of the key things to watch for will be how many women are appointed to cabinet.
After their 2018 election, the Higgs government gave all four female caucus members a cabinet post.
Lewis expects that number will grow this time around since the Tories elected a record nine women.
“Of course, on the heels of 2015 with Justin Trudeau’s federal gender parity cabinet, we might be looking for something like that in Fredericton and Higgs I think has said as much that he would consider it,” said Lewis.
It is expected there will be a mix of old and new faces in cabinet, although who will be around the table is not entirely clear.
But Lewis said he is confident rookie MLA Daniel Allain, who represents Moncton East, will be one of them at the end of the day.
“He has been described as the representatives of Acadians in Higgs’ cabinet, so obviously he will be in cabinet,” he said.
Lewis said he will also be watching to see if Higgs shuffles any of the major portfolios, such as health, education and finance. Those positions were held by Ted Flemming, Dominic Cardy and Ernie Steeves, respectively.
All of Higgs’ cabinet ministers who re-offered retained their seats in the election, but Lewis does not expect they will all be appointed this time around, especially if the premier looks to get more women into cabinet.
“There’s a good chance that MLAs who were cabinet ministers before the election may not be after,” said Lewis.
The political scientist also thinks this cabinet might be a bit smaller, adding the previous 17-member cabinet was “quite large” given there were only 22 members in the caucus.
“If he’s leaving people out who were in cabinet before, those are obviously the most difficult decisions he’s going to have,” said Lewis.
The swearing-in ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. Tuesday.
