The Canadian province of New Brunswick was a British crown colony before it joined Canada in 1867. It had a system of responsible government beginning in 1854, and has kept its own legislature to deal with provincial matters. New Brunswick has a unicameral Westminster-style parliamentary government, in which the Premier is the leader of the party that controls the most seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Premier is New Brunswick's head of government, and the Queen of Canada is its head of state and is represented by the Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick. The Premier picks a cabinet from the elected members to form the Executive Council of New Brunswick, and presides over that body.
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Members are first elected to the legislature during general elections. General elections must be conducted every five years from the date of the last election, but the Premier may ask for early dissolution of the Legislative Assembly. An election may also take place if the governing party loses the confidence of the legislature by the defeat of a supply bill or tabling of a confidence motion.
New Brunswick has had 36 individuals serve as government leaders. The province had five individuals as leaders while a colony, and 31 individuals after Canadian Confederation, of which two were from the Confederation Party, 11 from the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick, 15 from the New Brunswick Liberal Association, one from the Anti-Confederation Party, and seven with unofficial party affiliations.
Premiers of New Brunswick
Confederation Party Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick New Brunswick Liberal Association Anti-Confederation Party Unofficial affiliation
* The New Brunswick practice is to count George E. King as the 2nd and 4th Premier, making Brian Gallant the 33rd Premier.
Living former premiers
As of October 2014, six former premiers are alive, the oldest being Ray Frenette (1997–1998, born 1935). The most recent former premier to die was Louis Robichaud (1960–1970), on January 6, 2005. The most recently serving premier to die was Richard Hatfield (1970–1987), on April 26, 1991.