The Green Party of New Brunswick may be the smallest party in the Legislature, but it has an outsized influence on political discourse in the province. It’s a small party of only three MLAs, all coming to the table with different backgrounds and life experiences. This article takes a look at who they are, why they got into politics in the first place, and what is keeping them there.
Beyond environmental advocacy: David Coon
Before David Coon was elected in 2014, he had already had a long and successful career as an environmentalist. But something changed in the early 2000s. Suddenly environmental advocacy work was no longer enough.
Coon, who represents the Fredericton South riding, pins the change on rise of neoliberalism, an ideology characterized by its promotion of perpetual economic growth and minimal state intervention. The resulting cultural shift in New Brunswick fed into “increased individualism in society, a loss of a sense of collective, of agency or of collective power to change anything,” he says.
It got to the point where “the idea that government can be a positive agent for change in response to or in partnership with civil society became a foreign idea,” Coon says.
“The other thing was, given the increasing complexity of the environmental crisis with climate breakdown and the coming great extinction, it was clear that conventional environmental management measures were not up to the task,” he adds.
As governments became less receptive, environmental advocacy work became less effective, and Coon began searching for an alternative.
He knew that the environmental movement desperately needed voices inside the legislature to complement those on the outside, so he decided to give it a go.
“By going into politics, I felt that it would be easier to talk about the big changes that need to happen to address systemic problems, to bring about some change”
-Green Party Leader David Coon
And after a decade in office, he can point to several positive changes he’s made, changes that he doesn’t think would have been possible to achieve from the outside.
For instance, Coon got a code of conduct implemented for members of the legislative assembly, or MLAs, got a bill passed that now ensures that all students in New Brunswick learn about settler-Indigenous history and relationships in the province, and was instrumental in developing New Brunswick’s Climate Action Plan.
He hopes that one day, he will become Premier of New Brunswick and be able to bring more positive and progressive changes to the province.
Paving the way for more diverse MLAs: Megan Mitton
When she was elected in 2018 to represent the riding of Memramcook-Tantramar, Megan Mitton became the first woman to ever be elected to the provincial Green party. She says being a woman in politics is not easy, and she’s had to face some barriers and obstacles that her colleagues do not.
Mitton decided run for election because she couldn’t wait any longer for politicians to act on urgent issues such as climate change.
“Let’s try this,” she explains. “Let’s try within the system, within government, to make changes.”
From there, the Green Party was an easy fit. “I came to the realization that the greens are not just about the environment, [they] are about social justice as well, about equity, about participatory democracy, about sustainability,” Mitton says.
By being in the Legislature, Mitton says, she and the other two Greens have influenced New Brunswick politics for the better.
“I feel like I’ve been able to help people in my riding, […] I’ve been able to speak about things that no one was speaking about in the Legislature, like trans rights, abortion, or the climate crisis.”
-MLA Megan Mitton
Even when she can’t see tangible outcomes, she knows she’s helping to chip away at systems that need to change. For her, she believes that’s worth it.
Authenticity and rejecting the status quo: Kevin Arseneau
“A mix of indignation and a refusal to accept injustices have made me the politician that I am”
-Kevin Arseneau, MLA for Kent North
MLA Kevin Arseneau is an Acadian farmer, a former teacher and activist. He describes himself first and foremost as a leftist, “un gars de gauche”, who decided the Green Party was the best option for advancing these ideas in New-Brunswick.
It was an urgent need to defend small-scale agriculture that pushed Arseneau to run for office in 2018.
“For the past 40, 50 years, we’ve had the same vision in agriculture, where we give, give, give to big corporations. Small-scale agriculture, ecologically minded agriculture, is not at all encouraged,” he says.
Arseneau, who represents the riding of Kent North, describes his brand of politics as arising from a mix of indignation and refusal to accept the status quo.
“That indignation also came from the inability of our political leaders to see that a different world is possible. I found that sad.”
-MLA Kevin Arseneau
From the very beginning of his political career, Arseneau remained committed to his authenticity, which he says isn’t very common in the New Brunswick legislature because it’s “such a sanitized place.”
He says that most of the time, MLAs receive talking points from party leadership and don’t deviate much from the approved messages.
But things are done differently in the Green caucus, Arseneau says. It’s one of the things he values most about his colleagues.
“Having such a well-balanced team, that is able to have discussions and be honest with each other, and have open minds, that’s very, very important,” he says, especially in a work environment like the legislature.
“It’s not an environment that encourages change, it’s a conservative environment in the pure sense of the word. It encourages the status quo, encourages things to stay the same, and discourages constructive conversations,” he says. The Greens run counter-current to that, says Arseneau.
He hopes that the province will one day see a Green government.
“It would mean that we would have a legislature that better represents New Brunswickers, through a proportional representation system; a legislature that defends the interests of its citizens before that of large corporations, and a government that has an economic vision appropriate to the 21st century that doesn’t accept injustices.”
