An activist and Christian TV host has been acclaimed as the candidate for New Brunswick’s governing Progressive Conservatives in the riding next to the premier’s.
Premier Blaine Higgs attended the standing-room only nomination meeting for Faytene Grassesch in Nauwigewauk, N.B., on Tuesday.
Grasseschi, who has positioned herself as a champion of parents’ rights, told the crowd she was motivated to run after Higgs “stuck his neck out” with changes to the province’s policy on gender identity in schools.
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One of the main thrusts of Policy 713 is that students under 16 who identify as trans and nonbinary won’t be able to officially change the names or pronouns they use in school without parental consent.
Grasseschi, who will run in the riding of Hampton-Fundy-St. Martins currently held by a Tory who is stepping aside, said she has Higgs’s back and is on his “team.”
Party member Dwight Bond praised her professional talents and her values, as well as her belief “in the basic fundamentals of God and nature.”
The next provincial election is scheduled to be held on Oct. 21, 2024.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 20, 2023.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
