page_title: New Brunswick Liberal Association
section_title: Early years and Andrew Blair
hierarchical_section_title: New Brunswick Liberal Association / History / Early years and Andrew Blair
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of Andrew George Blair. Français&#160;: Portrait de Andrew George Blair.
context_page_description: The New Brunswick Liberal Association, more popularly known as the New Brunswick Liberal Party or Liberal Party of New Brunswick, is one of the two major provincial political parties in New Brunswick, Canada. The party descended from both the Confederation Party and the Anti-Confederation Party whose members split into left-wing and right-wing groups following the creation of Canada as a nation in 1867.
  The current political organization emerged in the 1880s to serve as an organization housing the supporters of Premier Andrew G. Blair and, later, federal Liberal Party of Canada leader Wilfrid Laurier.
  Today, the New Brunswick Liberal Party follows the centre-left tradition. They compete with the Progressive Conservative Party of New Brunswick to form the government. The People's Alliance Party and the Green Party are the only other major parties that have seats in the legislature. The NDP is not currently represented in the legislature.
context_section_description: Prior to Canadian confederation, advocates of responsible government ran under the labels "Reform" or "Liberal", while opponents of responsible government were known as "Conservatives". With the debates over confederation in the 1860s, the party lines which had emerged blurred as Reformers split along pro and anti-Confederation lines, resulting in Confederation and Anti-Confederation Parties.
  Following 1867, supporters of Confederation generally became known as Liberal-Conservatives, or just Conservatives. Those who had been against confederation regrouped loosely as "Liberals", but did not become a coherent party until Andrew Blair, a supporter of Confederation, became Premier of New Brunswick and forged members of his parliamentary government and their supporters into the New Brunswick Liberal Association in 1883.
  Blair led a very successful government and served as the Premier of New Brunswick for 13 years. He was New Brunswick's longest serving premier until his tenure was surpassed by Richard Hatfield nearly a century later.
  Though Blair had not been a candidate in the 1896 federal election, he joined the federal cabinet of Sir Wilfrid Laurier shortly thereafter when Laurier approached a number of Liberal premiers to join his government and address its lack of experience. This move was not expected by the party and, although it remained in government for 12 more years, it went through a rapid succession of leaders.
caption: A. G. Blair
exif: {}