one, and the political consequences too great for its merits to be politically debated. It is the risky nature of the subject that results in neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives knowing how to approach the subject or deal with the issue. Groups such as the New Brunswick Association of English-Speaking Canadians and le Parti Acadien capitalize on this consensus and lack of linguistic policy initiative by opening up a new forum for debate." This same disjunction between a large segment of popular opinion and the positions of the political parties is a likely explanation for the collapse of Richard Hatfield’s Progressive Conservatives in the 1987 provincial election and the subsequent rise of the Confederation of Regions Party to Official Opposition status following the 1991 provincial election. The Association was disbanded in 1986, after the Advisory Committee had conducted hearings across the province to determine the public reaction to the Poirier-Bastarache Report. Notes Organizations based in New Brunswick