While most politicians climb the greasy pole through decades of mind-numbing bureaucracy, Susan Holt apparently didn't get that memo. Instead, she decided to blaze through New Brunswick's political landscape like a caffeinated squirrel on roller skates, becoming the province's first female Premier in 2024 after barely warming her seat as Opposition Leader.
You've got to admire the audacity – here's someone who traded the cozy confines of corporate IT sales for the circus of provincial politics, armed with nothing but business acumen and a charitable heart. Oh, and let's not forget her stint as president of the New Brunswick Business Council, where she presumably learned that running a province isn't entirely unlike managing a particularly unwieldy Excel spreadsheet.
The traditionalists are clutching their pearls, of course. "But where's her decades of political experience?" they cry into their Earl Grey. Well, darlings, she was too busy actually doing things – like serving as chief growth officer for companies you've never heard of (PLATO Testing and PQA, anyone?) and volunteering for everything from lung health to homeless shelters. Her commitment to bilingualism and reconciliation stands as a cornerstone of her leadership philosophy.
Because apparently, helping people breathe and have roofs over their heads is somehow less valuable than mastering the art of parliamentary eye-rolling.
Her meteoric rise from Liberal Leader in 2022 to Premier in 2024 has left political pundits with whiplash and opposition researchers scrambling to find dirt in her suspiciously clean corporate past. The most damning thing they've found? She's actually competent at running things – the horror!
Sure, her only previous government experience was advising former Premier Brian Gallant on economic development, but isn't it invigorating to have someone who hasn't been marinated in political mediocrity for thirty years?
Besides, in an era where experience often translates to "mastery of maintaining the status quo," Holt's fresh perspective might be exactly what New Brunswick needs – even if it means watching the political establishment have a collective existential crisis.
