New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt celebrated her first 100 days in office on February 10th, 2025. Premier Holt sat down once again to speak with the Baron on February 18th, 2025, at a local Saint John restaurant, Casa Latina. 

Bailey Young/Submitted

“It’s been a privilege and an honour. The reaction people have had to me and us I was not expecting within these first 100 days. The amount of people who expressed a sense of relief, a sense of hope of feeling like they could breathe again, and not just the civil servants in Fredericton. We were hearing this all over the place and there's a real emotional reaction that people have reflected back to our team that I was not expecting. It has felt like a tidal wave of local organizations want to be part of this change and it's been really encouraging to see how many people want change, and that includes the university.” Says Holt 

Premier Holt discussed differing strategy’s New Brunswick could use to combat the 25% tariffs put on by President Donald Trump of the United States, as well as how she and her team achieved all the legislation put into place already, and the strategy that went into succeeding. 

Premier Holt touched on the healthcare crisis, stating over the winter months New Brunswick has already seen improvement, “I credit that in part to the fact that we demonstrated to nurses that we value that we wanted to keep them. They're going to get their contract negotiated and for that reason we avoided some of the worst possible outcomes in the health system, because we took quick action to demonstrate that value for healthcare workers.” Says Holt. 

The strength of teamwork was crucial to succeeding in various places according to Holt, “We had a lot done in the first 100 days based on the strength of the team and with transparency. Getting out of the office definitely makes a real difference.” Says Holt.

Premier Holt states that it is great to know many people want to join in on changing New Brunswick for the better, “If we want to change the health care system, the education system, and the housing system, and how people deal with affordability we need everyone on board. So, it's great to know that we've got so many folks ready to join in.” Says Holt. 

Although, the difficulties encountered during Premier Holt's first 100 days in office are still being resolved, primarily focusing on the tariffs put on by President Donald Trump.

“I’m not sure if we have overcome the challenges we are facing yet, within a matter of days of the swearing in we had the election of a president in the U.S who said that he was going to put 25% tariffs across the board and as soon as he said that economic activity in the province stalled. We've seen business investment freeze up, hiring freeze up, and it's impacting us this fiscal year and it is wreaking havoc on our projections for next year. The growth multiple economists forecasted and that we forecasted isn't there and that means deficits, which is not what we promised New Brunswickers. I think that challenges the fiscal reality of how quickly the winds have shifted and now how we have to figure out how to get more creative how to transform more aggressively and how to do it quickly. That's a challenge that we're still working out.” Says Holt.

New Brunswick’s approach to the tariffs is personal according to Premier Holt, “What we've been doing since day one is connecting with our major exporters, so all of the businesses and business leaders that are exposed to these tariffs to really understand what's going to be the local impact.” Says Holt.

Measures to aid business owners in New Brunswick will be put into place as the tariffs are implemented, along with helping local consumers buy N.B- made products. Premier Holt addresses these ideas as being necessary for economic function in New Brunswick.

Some measures have already been put into place, such as placing “Canada/ N.B- made” on products at various grocery stores. 

“We cannot afford to lose 5000 or 6000 jobs in our economy. We want to be able to protect and preserve jobs where we can, and we are doing that in partnership with the federal government. We are going to see major price increases which will decrease the volume of business, so we have to look at how we can help them in different ways. We are really trying to tailor supports to differing companies to meet the actual pain that’s being caused by the tariffs as opposed to just a blanket subsidy or funding program.” Says Holt. 

Premier Holt and a few members of her team flew down to Washington, D.C. to defend N.B’s economic partnership with the U.S, and to protect N.B businesses. Premier Holt addressed and met with U.S. senators, congress people, and senior officials of the White House advocating for New Brunswickers and New Brunswick businesses.

“A lot of learning and relationship building came out of our trip to Washington. Congress people don't want prices to increase for residents of their state, and they don't want to be responsible for inflation. They don't want to see job losses either. They want a lot of what we're selling but they also want to keep selling to us, and they want to continue to have good positive trade relationships with Canada and what buttons we could push on to make that clear. Learning is valuable and those relationships are valuable, so if we go down another time, we need to know who's leading the red swing states where we know that they have a Direct Line to the White House to try to influence and keep pushing on it.” Says Holt.

Premier Holt began to discuss how these tariffs will impact university students, expressing concerns for fewer jobs and rising prices, “Those casual or temporary positions will disappear, and we will see a rise in prices at the grocery store because we have a plan to put retaliatory tariffs in place which will make things in Canada more expensive, so that will push up costs for students. Less jobs and life getting more expensive are not great outcomes for people who rely on those jobs to provide income to support themselves all year.” Says Holt. 

Moving into this year of Premier Holts leadership, she wants to leave a message for university students in New Brunswick.

“First of all, I am grateful that you are here and that you chose to stay or come to New Brunswick to study and we want you to to stay here, and want to help create the kind of economy and society that has both affordable places to live, and great jobs, and lots of things to do in-between that makes it a great place to build a life. So, we're going to continue to work on things like how to make sure the schools affordable, how to make sure that housing is affordable, and that life is affordable so that folks can really get a good start. Saint John for one has phenomenal restaurants, social activities and cultural activities and it's a great place to live, if you have a roof over your head and a decent job. We need to look at how can we be doing the things that help make it an affordable place to live by supporting an economy that produces a diversity of jobs that pay well enough to make a good life here.” Says Holt. 

The Baron would like to thank Premier Holt for speaking with our team once again.