No leader, no money, no luck for NDP

The New Brunswick New Democrats are struggling to rebuild their party after the resignation of their leader, a lack of legislature seats and financial woes.

Allison Brewer quit the post on Monday, saying she couldn't afford to continue working as a full-time volunteer.

The former human rights activist was elected leader of the New Brunswick NDP in September 2005, and guided the party to its worst ever showing in the recent provincial election campaign.

At the time, the party failed to attract a full slate of candidates and Brewer came third in her own riding of Fredericton-Lincoln. She said money is a big problem for the NDP in New Brunswick, and the lack of it hurt candidates during the election.

Brewer said the party needs to develop a fundraising strategy to make sure it has the money it needs. "We haven't been able to attract the big bucks and the reality is, that politics is very expensive. And that's the part that as a party we really have to move on," she said.

But money isn't the only problem facing the NDP.

Party soon to have more competition from Greens

The partywill soon be facing competition for New Brunswick voters. The Green Partyis also getting set to organizein New Brunswick during the next year.That means a new option for left-leaning voters who are disillusioned with the NDP.

A long-time observer of New Brunswick's NDP said the organization is in a tough spot.

Janice Harvey said Brewer's resignation as NDP leader highlights the party's difficulty, and said it's hard to imagine star candidates lining up torun for Brewer's job. "They had a hard enough time trying to recruit interest in their last leadership campaign, and I think it's only going to be worse this time, coming out of a pretty disastrous election result."

Yvon Godin is New Brunswick's only NDP Member of Parliament.He said the provincial NDP needs a strong, bilingualleader to get the party back on track.

"You need a leader that's going to be able to speak both languages, and at the same time the leader will have to go across the province and organize it," he said. "And have a platform that people can say 'okay, we trust theNDP and we can go with their platform' and that's what needs to be done."

Godin said he's not interested in the job.

Party president Pat Hanratty has taken over as interim leader until the NDPholds aleadership conference next year.