N.B. Liberal leader on defensive, says Bathurst residents are 'differently educated'

FREDERICTON — New Brunswick's Liberal leader is on the defensive for comments she made on a podcast months ago that her opponents charge make northern residents in the Bathurst area seem uneducated. In January, Susan Holt told the True North Eager Beaver Podcast that the province is diverse and her party can't have one-size-fits-all policies. However, she said, there are certain issues on which her caucus must stay united "regardless of the price they might pay in their communities.

" She was referring to a controversial change the Blaine Higgs government made to Policy 713 — rules around how transgender children can be referred to at school. In 2023 the Progressive Conservatives required teachers to get parental consent before they can use the preferred first names and pronouns of children under 16 — a policy that was criticized around the country but one that remains popular in the province, according to polling. "I'm in urban Fredericton.

It's a, you know, really progressive people here, highly educated ...

and my riding of Bathurst East-Nepisiguit-Saint-Isidore has (a) totally different makeup." But when it comes to Policy 713, she said, "it was clear for everyone, regardless of the price they might pay in their communities, that the right thing to do is to defend vulnerable kids and to support children's rights." The Progressive Conservatives seized on those comments, saying in a new campaign ad that the Liberal leader is accusing Bathurst residents of not being sma.