Executive
Council
December 6, 2010
The following statement was given today in the House of Assembly
by the Honourable Kathy Dunderdale, Premier of Newfoundland and
Labrador:
Inaugural
Address to the House of Assembly
On November 25,
the Honourable Danny Williams announced that he would be
stepping down as Premier, as leader of the Progressive
Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador, and as the
Member for Humber West District on the 3rd of
December � Friday past.
This is our
first opportunity, here in this Chamber, to pay tribute to our
former colleague, who served as our province�s ninth Premier
from the 6th of November 2003 until the 3rd
of December 2010 � and was a member of the House of Assembly
since August 2, 2001.
Please join me
in thanking Danny Williams, on behalf of all Newfoundlanders and
Labradorians, for his enormous contribution and his unwavering
dedication to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.
In announcing
his retirement from these posts, he also announced that I had
agreed to serve as Premier and PC Party leader during the
interim period until our Party elects a new leader in the spring
of 2011.
On Friday
morning, December 3, I had the honour and the privilege of
taking the oath of office to become the 10th Premier of
Newfoundland and Labrador � and the first woman to hold this
post in the history of the province.
My predecessor
never failed to state how important it was to have a good team
of Caucus Members around him.
And I, as
Premier, am blessed to have inherited � and to have surrounding
and supporting me now � one of the most dedicated and talented
Caucus teams in the history of our province.
You are a
credit to your province.
We as a team
are blessed to have surrounding and supporting us many thousands
of people in communities throughout the province who share our
commitment to a brighter future for Newfoundland and Labrador,
and are willing to work with us cooperatively to advance us
toward our goals, region by region, initiative by initiative;
and this is the approach that underpins the unparalleled success
we have achieved to date.
The initiatives
our government has taken and the achievements we have made for
the people of the province since the 6th of November
2003 are absolutely phenomenal, and they have already
transformed Newfoundland and Labrador into a province that is
stronger and more confident going forward than it has ever been
before.
As we stand on
this rock-solid foundation of accomplishments, we look forward
to raising Newfoundland and Labrador to the next level of
opportunity and growth.
We have barely
even scratched the surface of our potential.
As far as we
have come since 2003, the best is still before us.
Challenges
remain.
As the
Opposition does its job, we are sure to hear about some of them
in the House this afternoon.
Rather than run
and hide from them, we are determined to acknowledge and address
them so we can move beyond them to something better.
Whatever issues
we face, we are up to the challenge of meeting them head on
together, as a team and as a province.
We are
stronger, we are better positioned, we are better prepared right
now to achieve the full measure of our potential than we have
ever been before in our history.
We are more
determined to succeed.
And we are more
confident than ever before that we can achieve our goals.
What I pledge,
as Premier, and what we pledge as a government is to follow
through on what we�ve started � to meet the challenges
vigorously and to leave no stone unturned in pursuing
opportunities that will open, even wider, the doors to jobs and
growth, prosperity and self-reliance for our youth, for our
families, for our communities, for our regions and for all of us
as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.
I am truly
humbled by all the expressions of support and cooperation I have
received from people around the province in recent days, and I
also sincerely appreciate the congratulations I have received
from across the aisle.
A great deal of
attention is being paid across the country to the fact that
Newfoundland and Labrador is the first jurisdiction in Canadian
history in which the leaders of all political parties in the
Legislature are women.
At the same
time, all of us are also cognizant of the fact that the Leader
of the Official Opposition, the Member for Cartwright-L�Anse au
Clair, is unable to be here today because she is battling
courageously to gain the victory over a significant health care
challenge � and I am confident that she will. I speak for all
Members of our Caucus and also for hundreds of thousands of
people throughout our province in saying we wish her well and
sincerely hope to have her back here in this House, healthy and
re-energized, very soon.
Finally, I pay
tribute to my colleague and friend Dianne Whalen, who passed
away on the 3rd of October following a courageous
battle with cancer.
She served her
constituents in Conception Bay East - Bell Island with
tremendous passion and heartfelt compassion for others.
And she
served all of us, first as Minister of Government Services and
Lands, and Minister Responsible for the Strategic Social Plan;
then, as Minister of Transportation and Works; and finally, as
Minister of Municipal Affairs, Minister Responsible for
Emergency Preparedness, and Registrar General of Newfoundland
and Labrador.
Dianne was an
extraordinary individual whose genuine love for Newfoundland and
Labrador will never be surpassed and never be forgotten.
2010 12
06 1:55
p.m.
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