Winner of the 2025 New Brunswick Scholarly Book Award

The Editorial Board of the Journal of New Brunswick Studies/Revue d’études sur le Nouveau-Brunswick, is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2025 New Brunswick Scholarly Book Award is The Higgs Years: Leading and Dividing New Brunswick (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2025), edited by Dr. Gabriel Arsenault, associate professor of political science at the Université de Moncton and associate researcher at the Donald J. Savoie Institute.

The Higgs Years provides a timely analysis of Blaine Higgs’ tenure as Progressive Conservative premier of New Brunswick from 2018-2024. As such it advances our knowledge and understanding of the politics, culture, and society of the province, which, in a scholarly sense, is one of the most under-studied regions in Canada. The scope of the book is impressive, containing fifteen essays on issues ranging from the erosion of the Official Languages Compromise during the Higgs years, to Indigenous reconciliation, and the politicization of chocolate milk in school food policies. The Higgs Years also takes a critical perspective by examining the efficacy of electoral pledges through an analytical tool called ‘polimeters.’ Moreover, despite the book’s exceptional scholarship, this work is accessible, and will be appreciated not only by academics, but by the general public, especially those who have lived through these years. The anthology’s accessibility will also make it a useful resource for the university and secondary school classroom.