Dwight Ball and the Liberal Party are in a new reality with only the second minority government in the brief history of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Liberals won 20 of the 40 seats in the House of Assembly in St. John's. This was a far cry from the 31 seats the Liberals won in the 2015 election.
The Progressive Conservatives remain in opposition, moving up to 15 seats. The New Democratic Party had neither incumbent running (2 seats) and now have 3 seats. There are 2 independent MHAs. The new NL Alliance produced 0 seats.
The previous minority government came in 1971. That lasted less than 6 months. The dynamics are much different in the 2019 election.
The Canadian media, including the CBC, has pounded the point of incumbent governments losing, implying that will also happen federally in October. What they have missed is that this is the 3rd straight election in the Atlantic provinces that have gone to a minority government.
Progressive Conservative Party leader Ches Crosbie gave one of the most bizarre speeches in modern Canadian politics history. We criticized Jason Kenney for his angry speech in winning the Alberta election. Crosbie had a lot more anger in a far shorter speech.
"Constitutional conundrum." "I am not conceding victory to the Liberals." "They will have to struggle for the next months and years to hang on to power." He also vowed Ball would be out as premier and Liberal leader within a year. Crosbie also went after the integrity of Lieutenant Governor Judy Foote.
[In Canada, the lieutenant governor is the equivalent of the governor general, representative of Queen Elizabeth II. That person handles what happens during a minority government as far as which party will form government.]
John Crosbie, father of Ches, was the lieutenant governor of Newfoundland and Labrador from 2008-2013.
Crosbie implied that the PC party won the popular vote when that wasn't true.
Stunned is an understatement. You might hear that kind of speech if you run for class president in Grade 7. Even then, you would think that person should know better.
Alison Coffin had a much better night. The new NDP leader had 0 incumbents and only 14 candidates running. Coffin won her seat in St. John's East-Quidi Vidi. The party also won seats in St. John's Centre (Jim Dinn) and Labrador West, the latter where Jordan Brown won by 5 votes.
NL Alliance party leader Graydon Pelley barely got his party registered in time. The party wasn't a factor in any district.
The two independents have more potential power in a minority government. Eddie Joyce and Paul Lane were re-elected as independents. Joyce was a long-time Liberal who was kicked out of caucus over harassment allegations. He was later cleared of that charge. Lane used to be in the PC and Liberal parties.
Turnout was about 60%, an improvement over the 2015 election with a 55.2% turnout.
As we saw in the Prince Edward Island election, party leaders can be friends in real life. The Newfoundland and Labrador election said hold my beer.
The Dinn family featured Jim (left), the older brother, who won in St. John's Centre for the NDP in his first race. Paul (right), won re-election in the Topsail-Paradise district for the PCs. Mom (centre) couldn't vote for either son since she lives in the Waterford Valley district.
Speaking of the Waterford Valley district, Tom Osborne won re-election for the Liberals. Osborne has been in the House of Assembly since 1996 as a PC and later switched to the Liberal party. His older brother Bob Osborne ran in his first race in Windsor Lake for the Liberals but lost to Crosbie.
Their mother, Sheila Osborne, was a MHA from 1997-2011 representing St. John's West for the PC party.
Ches Crosbie won his seat but his sister Beth lost in her race in the Virginia Waters-Pleasantville district for the PC party. She also ran and lost for the same district in 2015. Turns out she lives in her brother's district.
The number of women in the House of Assembly dropped from 10 to 9. The PCs doubled their total from 1 to 2. The Liberals fell from 7 to 6.
The NDP had 2 female incumbents but both were not running in 2019: Lorraine Michael (St. John's East-Quidi Vidi) and Gerry Rogers (St. John's Centre). Coffin won in Michael's former district. The party won Rogers' old district, but that was where Jim Dinn won.
They were like "watching two bowls of vanilla ice cream melt in the sun."
This is how veteran political reporter and Newfoundland native David Cochrane described the debate between Ball and Crosbie. Front Burner with Jayme Poisson had Cochrane and Newfoundland native Tom Power of Q for a discussion about the election.
We learned a bit about Muskrat Falls, a huge power plant that was designed to lower electricity costs but instead has become a financial boondoggle. We also learned that the demographics make things difficult to get enough money to reduce the crippling debt.
The PC party and the NDP spent time complaining about the election being moved from fall to spring. Even I knew the election was getting moved up. There was a concern about having the provincial election so close to the federal election. The 2015 Newfoundland and Labrador election was after the federal election. Heads up to those in the province: the 2023 election, unless an election is called earlier, will be in the spring.
The first Liberal budget after the 2015 election featured a 10% provincial tax on book sales with only a few exceptions. That lasted until January 1, 2018. When we wrote about this in 2016, Newfoundland and Labrador had the lowest literacy rate in the country.
That budget proposed that over 50% of the libraries in the province be closed within 2 years. After a long struggle, that proposal was taken off the table.
In a consensus government, the Liberals won't be able to make such dramatic moves.
CBNT, Channel 8 in St. John's, stayed with election coverage through the first 2 periods of the Boston NHL playoff game. Hockey fans could have followed on Rogers Sportsnet, another CBC station through cable or satellite, or streaming at cbcsports.ca. Newfoundland and Labrador has only 2 stations, both in St. John's.
photos credit: CBC News Network
