The day before Valentine’s Day, voters in Newfoundland and Labrador will show their love for the candidates who they felt did the best job of wooing them into ticking their election ballots.
“I hope you give me the nod and the mandate we need to secure a stable future,” Premier Andrew Furey said as he announced the rare Saturday election Friday evening at the Confederation Building to journalists spread out in the lobby, as well as the audience at home watching live TV.
The whir of cameras was the only other sound as the footsteps of Furey and his family echoed while they descended the marble stairs from the gallery above the lobby for what was anything but a surprise election call, especially with a barrage of government funding announcements in recent days.
Referring to the province being in its darkest economic hour, Furey nevertheless said those goodies were budgeted for and vowed the province’s future trajectory can be changed for the better.
Asked by The Telegram what he would say to voters about why he chose not to allow them to see the eventual report of the Dame Moya Greene-led economic recovery team before he called an election, Furey promised plenty of opportunities for the public to provide feedback.
“The recommendations that Moya Greene and her task force are going to put forward are just those — recommendations. They will receive thorough consultation here. Everyone will have the chance to have a say and we will table that final report in the House of Assembly,” Furey said.
“There will always be a reason to not have an election. I think now is the best time.”
New Democratic Party Leader Alison Coffin, in a phone interview, said it was poor timing to call an election, but not surprising.
“We still don’t have the Moya Greene report, so we don’t know what this party stands for, we don’t know what’s about to come and he’s asking for a strong mandate to do whatever might be in that report, so that’s a bit disconcerting,” she said.
Coffin takes issue with Furey saying it’s the safest time for an election, considering the COVID-19 vaccine isn’t expected to roll out for the general population until the spring.
“But if the premier wants to call an election, we are certainly ready,” she said.
Newfoundland and Labrador Alliance Leader Graydon Pelley said in an interview this isn't the right time for an election, and for the people of Humber-Gros Morne it will be the third in as many years.
Pelley will go up against Furey in the west coast district.
In a speech in St. John’s Friday evening, Progressive Conservative Leader Ches Crosbie took dual approaches after the premier’s election call, attacking Furey’s party while broadly outlining how the PCs would govern if elected.
He accused the Liberals of having a secret plan to slash jobs and make significant cuts to public services.
“A plan so shocking that Andrew Furey won’t let people see it,” Crosbie said with a hint of anger in his voice. “Andrew Furey’s secret plan will mean fewer jobs, and not just fewer jobs in the public service — fewer jobs everywhere.”
Furey, an orthopedic surgeon and founder of Team Broken Earth, became premier in August 2020, after Dwight Ball stepped down from the leadership of the Liberal party.
During his speech Friday, Furey was anything but subtle when speaking of the province's success with handling the pandemic, and with its party line ties to Ottawa.
“Who do you want to lead the province through the pandemic? Who do you want to lead the province through the economic challenge? Who do you want to sit at the federal table with the Liberal government to strike a good deal?” Furey said.
He said he will deliver his red book of promises in plenty of time for voters and media to scrutinize the Liberal platform, but didn’t pinpoint when exactly that will happen.
Planks of his platform will be rolled out over the next few weeks, he said.
Furey pointed to forging closer ties with Indigenous communities, and listening to people such as parents, seniors and business owners of every size, as ways he has gathered input to form a new plan for the province.
He said the evolving oil and gas and fisheries industries, as well as technology sector successes, are proof Newfoundland and Labrador can rise above its economic hardship.
“Friends, at no other time in our history has any generation of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians faced such a challenge,” Furey said.
He said he is proud of his first five months and vowed he could do a lot of great things in five years.
“Make no mistake, this is an opportunity to transform Newfoundland and Labrador. The only question is, given all we have been through in the last year given the grim financial outlook we have heard again and again, are we up for the challenge? Well yes, yes we are. I am up for the challenge,” Furey said.
Crosbie said the Liberals will send the province on a downward spiral that’s been ongoing since Ball was first elected premier five years ago. He said the Liberal government ignored warning signs and should have done more for the economy over those five years, but simply hasn’t. He said the Liberals did plenty for friends of the party, but not for the province as a whole.
“Our province is facing a financial emergency, and nothing but a jobs-and-growth strategy to turn our economy around will do,” Crosbie said. “An urgent change in government is needed before it’s too late.”
To help matters, Crosbie proposed the PCs' plan will focus on job creation, red tape reduction, targeted tax cuts and a requirement for more local hiring on infrastructure projects.
“We will help local companies get a bigger piece of the action here and in markets abroad,” he said.
Crosbie also accused the Liberals of giving up on the offshore sector, and said the PCs would make a national case for “strong and fair investments to drive job growth in the energy sector.”
Drawing upon his background as a lawyer, Crosbie said he has a history of fighting for others and a track record of success. Crosbie said he wants to apply those skills to leading a PC government, one that would be creative and get the province out of a crisis by expanding the economy.
“Do we need to go line by line and find efficiencies to make our government better, smarter, more efficient? Of course, we do,” he said. “But Liberal cuts, with no plan for jobs and growth, is a recipe for disaster. When our young people see jobs and opportunities here, they will stop leaving. Growth is the solution to our crisis.”
The son of the late Newfoundland and Labrador political icon John Crosbie also brought up his family background, mentioning both his father and mother, Jane Furneaux Crosbie.
“I have been blessed with my father’s fighting spirit and his strong ethics and my mother’s heart,” he said. “While my father was fighting in Parliament to get federal support for our offshore, I was fighting in the courtroom to get justice for breast-cancer survivors, for victims of moose-vehicle collisions, for victims of gambling, for survivors of residential schools.
“Those experiences have prepared me for this moment and have equipped me with the tools needed to stand up to Ottawa and negotiate a new deal to secure a bright future for our province.”
As for the NDP’s economic recovery plan, Coffin said her party believes the province needs to invest in jobs and the public service, and create a strong government and a province where people want to live, work, start businesses and raise families.
“We cannot build a better Newfoundland and Labrador by cutting,” she said. “If we want to build a better Newfoundland and Labrador we need to invest in our public services, we need to invest in our people.”
Coffin said there will have to be different decisions made regarding how the province spends money.
“When you do that, there’s always a cost,” she said. “But I want to do that with the people who are involved.”
The Liberals will have a “socially distanced” bus touring the province, but Furey said it would be more of a mobile office. The Tories and NDP will not have buses.
Furey said three other provinces have safely held elections, and called on all other candidates, workers and volunteers to adhere to public health guidelines.
He said he chose a Saturday election to allow voters more time to vote and spread out at polling stations.
In the COVID-19 briefing Friday, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald said all parties are well versed and aware of what the COVID-19 guidance is.
“So I have every confidence that they will abide by those guidelines and reduce their risk and risk to the communities as much as possible,” she said.
“There’s no guidelines for elections per se as much as it is taking the guidelines that are already there that apply to the different parts and the different aspects of election campaigns and applying that appropriately.”
Pelley has been saying for a few weeks that until more people are vaccinated, more people are getting help and there is more information from the government about a financial plan for the province, there shouldn’t be an election.
Not only that, he said there has been no report from the task force on health or from the all-party committee on democratic reform.
“All of these together, we see that a premier is asking us to support them blindly, without giving us any solid platform and information about their plan for the future of Newfoundland and Labrador,” he said.
Pelley said the Newfoundland and Labrador Alliance was formed on the foundation of openness, transparency and honesty, and that is not coming from the government.
He said the last few days have seen numerous funding announcements.
“But on the other side we’re talking about Newfoundland and Labrador on the brink of bankruptcy,” Pelley said.
He said the talk for the future is of belt-tightening and changes in spending.
”But yet when it comes time for an election, it seems like there’s a special slush fund just for the governing party during (an) election,” he said.
Pelley said his party sees that it’s time for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador to stand up and say enough is enough.
“We want honesty and openness. And they have not gotten it from the governments over the years and we certainly have not seen it since this new premier has taken office to lead Newfoundland and Labrador,” Pelley said.
The Newfoundland and Labrador Alliance has about six candidates confirmed, with more to be announced over the next few days. Pelley said the party will have as many as it possibly can.
Meanwhile, Unifor called on all parties to show workers a “clear path” to good jobs and a fair future.
“A midwinter pandemic election presents challenges of its own, but workers are still engaged and keenly looking for parties and candidates that echo our priorities today and for years to come,” Unifor Atlantic area director Linda MacNeil said in a news release.
“You only need to look at the working conditions in our retail sector, or the lack of reliable regulations in energy or the fisheries, to see where this province can do better for workers and for NL communities,” she said.
