New Brunswick Confederation of Regions Party

In the late 1980s, support for the Progressive Conservative Party of Premier Richard Hatfield had collapsed because of corruption scandals in the government.

In the 1988 federal election, the CoR Party had considerable success in New Brunswick, where it nominated candidates in seven of the ten electoral ridings and captured 4.3% of the vote within the province.

[1] Miramichi businessman Arch Pafford was elected its first leader, and former Hatfield cabinet minister Ed Allen became the party's most notable candidate.

Blaine Higgs, who would decades later become leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and Premier, also ran for the CoR leadership, placing second behind Pafford.

The party council then held a leadership race at the 1992 convention in Campbellton, where Taylor narrowly defeated Cameron and became leader.

Taylor and fellow CoR MLA Bev Brine were kicked out of the caucus in 1994 due to their ongoing opposition to Cameron.

[citation needed] Cameron eventually chose to resign the leadership to try to settle the internal divisions affecting the party.

[4] By 1999, Conservative voters were being wooed back by the charismatic leadership of Bernard Lord, who looked poised to return the party to power after ten years in the wilderness.

The Confederation of Region Party, now led by Jim Webb, slipped further in the 1999 provincial election to just 2,807 votes (0.7% of the total).