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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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