Jennifer McKenzie has resigned as leader of the New Brunswick NDP, a day after members voted to hold a leadership convention before the end of August.

In a statement Monday, McKenzie said she was resigning "effective immediately."

"The NDP has by a vote this week determined that there will be a leadership convention within the next six months," she said. "I have decided not to participate in such a leadership contest."

McKenzie has been leader since August 2017 and led the party in the provincial election last September, which resulted in no seats for the NDP.
In her statement, McKenzie said she was "thankful," for the opportunity to be leader. Despite the disappointing results of the Sept. 24 election, she said, she is glad that the party had a full slate of candidates and that more than 50 per cent of them were women.

McKenzie ran third in Saint John Harbour, the riding represented by the last NDP member of the legislature, Elizabeth Weir, who retired from politics in 2005.

In 2018, the NDP received more than 19,000 votes provincewide, a 60 per cent drop from 2014 and its worst result in a New Brunswick election in 44 years.

McKenzie campaigned on a return to the NDP's socialist roots, promising universal childcare, pay equity, home care, better nursing home ratios and pharmacare.

This was a shift from what former leader Dominic Cardy pushed for. He alienated some people by endorsing the Energy East pipeline and distancing himself from unions. He's now a minister in the Progressive Conservative government.

"The party has returned to its socialist roots and I am confident that the ideas we presented to New Brunswickers in the election will continue to form the basis of a progressive agenda for the party and the province," McKenzie said in her resignation statement.

In 2018, the NDP received five per cent of the popular vote, down from 11 per cent when Cardy was leader.

The NDP appears to have missed the wave that propelled the two other alternative parties (the Green Party and People's Alliance) to greater success. The Greens had 11 per cent and the Alliance had 12 per cent of the popular vote last election, and each won three ridings.

Since Weir resigned in 2005, the NDP has had four leaders, including McKenzie, who ran for the leadership unopposed.

A review vote

On Sunday at Moncton's Darts Club, 95 delegates took part in a vote on whether to hold a leadership review.

The vote was close, with 52 in favour and 43 against, said Danny Légère, who holds a labour seat on the NDP provincial council. He said the results of the 2018 provincial elections definitely contributed to this vote.

"Of course, at the end of the day there are some who feel that leadership may be a factor in that," he said.

No date has been set for the leadership convention, which has to be held in the next six months.

The vote was by secret ballot, Légère said, but some people did voice their disagreement with the results.

"They didn't understand why we were going to a leadership review," he said. "Some felt that we shouldn't be changing leaders as often as we do. It wasn't good for the party, that we needed consistency. Some felt otherwise."

There are about 600 card-carrying NDP members provincially.