Mackenzie Thomason (born July 29, 1997) is a Canadian politician and former leader of the

New Brunswick New Democratic Party The New Brunswick New Democratic Party (french: link=no, Nouveau Parti démocratique du Nouveau-Brunswick) is a social-democratic provincial political party in New Brunswick, Canada linked with the federal New Democratic Party (NDP). History Or ...

Early life and family

Thomason grew up in

Tracy, New Brunswick Tracy (2016 pop. 608) is a Canadian village in Sunbury County, New Brunswick at Route 101 and the eastern terminus of Route 645. The village is situated on the North Oromocto River, approximately 40 km south of Fredericton. History De ...

until the age of 11 when his family moved to

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. He returned to New Brunswick upon acceptance to the

University of New Brunswick The University of New Brunswick (UNB) is a public university with two primary campuses in Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. It is the oldest English-language university in Canada, and among the oldest public universities in North Americ ...

. Before becoming interim leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party, he worked for

UPS UPS or ups may refer to: Companies and organizations * United Parcel Service, an American shipping company ** The UPS Store, UPS subsidiary ** UPS Airlines, UPS subsidiary * Underground Press Syndicate, later ''Alternative Press Syndicate'' or ...

and as a newspaper carrier in

Fredericton Fredericton (; ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The city is situated in the west-central portion of the province along the Saint John River, which flows west to east as it bisects the city. The river is the do ...

. He is currently a bus driver in

Political career

Thomason first became involved with politics during the

2015 Alberta general election The 2015 Alberta general election was held on May 5, 2015, following a request of Premier Jim Prentice to the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Donald Ethell to dissolve the Legislative Assembly on April 7, 2015. This election elected members to th ...

where

Rachel Notley Rachel Anne Notley (born April 17, 1964) is a Canadian politician who served as the 17th premier of Alberta from 2015 to 2019, and has been the leader of the Opposition since 2019. She sits as the member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for E ...

Alberta New Democratic Party The Alberta New Democratic Party (french: Nouveau Parti démocratique de l'Alberta), commonly shortened to Alberta's NDP, is a social-democratic political party in Alberta, Canada. It is the provincial Alberta affiliate of the federal New Democr ...

won a majority government. He later volunteered with the federal

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

during the

2015 Canadian federal election The 2015 Canadian federal election held on October 19, 2015, saw the Liberal Party, led by Justin Trudeau, win 184 seats, allowing it to form a majority government with Trudeau becoming the next prime minister. The election was held to elect m ...

in the Fredericton area. During the

2018 New Brunswick general election The 2018 New Brunswick general election was held on September 24, 2018, to elect the 49 members of the 59th New Brunswick Legislature, the governing house of the province of New Brunswick, Canada. Two smaller parties — the People's Alliance a ...

, Thomason ran in New Maryland—Sunbury. He was named interim leader of the New Brunswick New Democratic Party in March 2019. In 2019 federal election, he ran as the NDP candidate in Fredericton. Thomason led the New Brunswick NDP into the 2020 provincial election, he unsuccessfully ran in

Fredericton North Fredericton North (french: Fredericton-Nord) is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick, Canada from 1973 to 2006, and was contested again in the 2014 New Brunswick general election. It was split between ...

and the NDP did not win any seats in the legislature. Thomason had intended to only lead the party until a new leader was found. A leadership election that had been scheduled for August 2019 was postponed until June 2020 due to a lack of candidates and then was postponed again until April 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. However, when

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

Blaine Higgs Blaine Myron Higgs (born March 1, 1954) is a Canadian politician who is the 34th and current premier of New Brunswick since 2018 and leader of the New Brunswick Progressive Conservative Party (PC Party) since 2016. Higgs graduated from the U ...

called a

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Generally, a snap election in a parliamentary system (the dissolution of parliament) is called to capitalize on an unusual electoral opportunity or to ...

for September 14, 2020, he led the party through the election campaign, saying beforehand that he was in "a little bit of panic" at the prospects of leading the party in an election campaign, saying, "It wasn't something I ever thought of when I first signed up for the job." Thomason positioned the party further to the left than in previous campaigns, in order to distinguish the party from the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

and the Liberals. He told CBC News: "I think it's really about making sure that we cement our values... A lot of this back and forth between centre and centre left, it's not working. It's not working for the party. It's not working for electoral chances. It's definitely not working for New Brunswickers." He participated in the televised leaders' debate on September 3, 2020, saying that the province may have to continue to run deficits in order to ensure people had access “to the services they pay for.” Thomason's campaign focussed on bringing in a $15/hour

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...

, senior care, making prescription medicine affordable, as well as reducing and eventually eliminating

tuition Tuition payments, usually known as tuition in American English and as tuition fees in Commonwealth English, are fees charged by education institutions for instruction or other services. Besides public spending (by governments and other public bo ...

for

post-secondary education Tertiary education, also referred to as third-level, third-stage or post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of secondary education. The World Bank, for example, defines tertiary education as including univers ...

. In the

2020 New Brunswick general election The 2020 New Brunswick general election was held on September 14, 2020, to elect members of the 60th New Brunswick Legislature. The Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick, led by Blaine Higgs, won a majority government. The writs of el ...

, the NDP failed to win a seat, and received only 1.7% of the vote province-wide. Thomason resigned as interim leader on November 15, 2020. Thomason reassumed the NDP leadership on September 14, 2021 when he was acclaimed as permanent leader. He resigned eight months later, due to internal turmoil.

Electoral record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomason, Mackenzie New Brunswick New Democratic Party leaders Living people People from Sunbury County, New Brunswick University of New Brunswick alumni 1997 births