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Margaret-Ann Blaney
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Last Wednesday, the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick proudly unveiled the theme for their upcoming leadership convention. The theme, A matter of trust, was announced with supporters, party members and a host of media in attendance at the party's new headquarters in our province's beautiful capital city. This theme will help set the stage for our convention this October and will also play an integral role in 2010 when New Brunswickers elect a new premier.

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Margaret-Ann Blaney, MLA for Rothesay and co-chair of the Progressive Conservative leadership convention, says the party is staking its future on trust – beginning with a transparent leadership selection process.

As a Progressive Conservative MLA, and as one of the co-chairs for the convention, I would like to explain why we chose the theme of trust for our convention.

Trust is something that all New Brunswickers, young or old, anglophone or francophone, rural or urban, can easily identify with. It is something that touches each of us in our daily lives, whether it's at work, at home, or in the community. It is something that takes a lifetime to build and only a second to lose. In short, trust is something that cannot be taken for granted.

As a party, we are committed to ensuring an open and transparent democratic process that will help guide us as we move towards the approaching leadership convention. Unlike the Liberals, who believe in a delegate system, we believe that a one-member-one-vote system is the most democratic process for selecting a leader, and the next premier of New Brunswick.

In late 2004, the province received the final report and recommendations from the New Brunswick Commission on Legislative Democracy. Throughout the report many recommendations were suggested for improving the manner in which the province's political parties function. The report also proposed various avenues to help encourage New Brunswickers to become more actively involved in the democratic process. This report laid the groundwork and helped build the foundation for the rules and guidelines that are being used for this leadership process.

Furthermore, these rules and guidelines represent our commitment to the values of fairness, equality and transparency. They will work to engage party members, new and old, and will help restore confidence in the political process, which has since been lost with Liberal Premier Shawn Graham. As part of our commitment to strengthening the political and democratic process, I can say with great confidence that every rule and every guideline will be followed until the last ballot is counted.

This is an approach New Brunswickers know they can trust, and know they can believe in.

The party has also established several mechanisms that will ensure the leadership selection process is crystal clear. Each leadership candidate is required to provide the names of all donors who have contributed more than $6,000 to the candidate's campaign. Every candidate must also disclose all of their expenses. In addition, our party has also embraced the $300,000 spending limit for leadership candidates.

In contrast to our party, the governing Liberals have publicly stated that such rules and regulations would be "impractical and irresponsible." This is a very reasonable measure, and is both practical and responsible. These rules represent a clear alternative to the governing Liberal Party's method of financing party politics-a method that is closed and not transparent.

In addition, last week's comments by Health Minister Michael Murphy attacking our process for selecting a new leader are a prime example of the Liberals' disconnection from New Brunswickers. New Brunswickers have grown weary and suspicious of their tactics of confrontation and intimidation. This approach represents disrespect for the people of this province and the democratic basis that our country was founded upon.

This is why New Brunswickers cannot trust the leadership of the Shawn Graham Liberals.

Standing alongside everyday New Brunswickers, we will continue to work for what we believe in: a fair and open process with nothing to hide.

This is why New Brunswickers can trust the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick.

Margaret-Ann Blaney is the MLA for Rothesay and a former minister in the Bernard Lord Progressive Conservative government. She is co-chair of the upcoming PC leadership convention that will be held Oct. 18 in Fredericton.