Last Thursday, Danny Williams was sworn in as the eighth premier of Newfoundland and Labrador since Confederation with Canada in 1949. His swearing-in is significant: he and the Newfoundland Progressive Conservatives have put an end to a 14-year-old Liberal government.

The election of the multi-millionaire lawyer was a foregone conclusion. Opinion polls had shown that though many Newfoundlanders were satisfied with the Liberal government, they preferred Williams as premier. When former Premier Roger Grimes called the election in early October, the Liberals were destined to lose because the campaign did not revolve around issues such as auto insurance or rural development, or around social programs. It became a popularity contest between the uninspiring Grimes and Danny Williams.

The NDP, led by Jack Harris, took the high road and ran one of their best campaigns ever. The party ran a very focussed campaign emphasizing issues: public auto insurance, improving education at all levels, and having full public ownership of Newfoundland Power. On election night though, the NDP were only able to keep Harris’ seat in his downtown St. Johnâe(TM)s riding and Randy Collins’ seat in Labrador West, which is the heavily unionized industrial base in Labrador.

“When I was going door-to-door during the election campaign, people were very receptive to the NDP and to Jack Harris,” says Carol Cantwell, the NDP candidate for St. Johnâe(TM)s Centre. Though Cantwell lost to the Conservative candidate by a large margin she still managed to get 15 per cent of the popular vote in her urban riding. The problem the NDP has, according to Cantwell, is money. “The NDP just doesn’t have the financial resources that the Tories or Liberals have. We can’t afford television ads or paid campaign workers that are necessary to do the leg work in a campaign. Everyone that worked on my campaign was not paid a penny. It was all voluntary.”

Stephen Tomblin, a political scientist at Memorial University in St. John’s agrees with Cantwell. “I think in the election that has just passed, the NDP did a good job in pushing their issues and their leader was very effective in the debate, but obviously they have a lot of constraintsâe¦ part of it has to do with the split between urban and rural, where the NDP — much like in Nova Scotia — does well in urban areas.” Tomblin goes on to say that the NDP’s lack of success is due in part to the fact that the party was not created locally and the other major parties have been effective in undermining NDP support by borrowing many of their policies over the years.

The Liberals, who ran under the slogan, “Take a closer look,” ran a very lacklustre campaign under Grimes. The Liberals hugged the centre by promising improvements to public services, provincial tax relief to graduating students, and auto insurance reform. This may seem pretty progressive compared to other provinces, but over the last 13 years, the Liberals tried to privatize Newfoundland Hydro, legislated striking nurses back to work and cut back significantly on health and education throughout the 1990s when Grimes was minister of both of these portfolios.

But the Liberals under Grimes did reduce tuition fees by 25 per cent over the last three years to make them the lowest in the country outside Quebec. They brought in an independent Child and Youth Advocate who makes sure all children get access to all the programs of the provincial government, and a Citizen Representative who is responsible for handling any complaints that citizens might have in their dealings with the provincial government.

The Liberals were reduced from 32 to 12 seats which are mostly in rural Newfoundland. They were completely shut out in seats in and around metro St. John’s.

The Progressive Conservatives ran a campaign that excelled at saying something, yet saying nothing at all. The Conservatives played up Williams’ personal popularity by promising “Real Leadership” and every Tory candidate somewhere on their party material mentioned that they were part of “Danny Williams’ Team.” The Tories also stuck close to the political centre by promising tax cuts for lower income citizens, a better deal in oil royalties from Ottawa, and promising to eliminate the provincial deficit in four years.

This is as specific as they got and they left many in the progressive community taking a wait-and-see approach to the new government. Keith Dunne, the chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS), needs more time until he knows where the new government is going.

“There wasn’t a lot for post-secondary students to go onâe¦ the next couple of months are going to be integral for students in this province to figure out where this Progressive Conservative government is going.”

One indication of where the Tories might go could be inferred by Williams not showing up to a well-attended CFS sponsored leaders’ debate on post-secondary education in St. John’s. Many students who were in attendance were not impressed by the absence of the Tory leader who decided instead to shake hands with Tory supporters at Sir Grenfell College in Corner Brook, which is located on the west coast of the island.

Dunne wasn’t surprised by this move, “Quite honestly we expected it after he turned down a number of other debates. It’s very easy to go door-to-door and make individual commitments, but to make them in a public debate in front of a lot of people and the media would have been a lot better.”

The labour movement in Newfoundland is also taking a wait-and-see approach with the new government. During the campaign the Tories did not come out with any provocative policies having to do with labour. Williams, however, eliminated the minister responsible for labour and merged it into the Environment ministry.

Reg Anstey, the president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour is anxious to talk to Williams about issues like labour’s opposition to public-private partnerships in the province, trying to help in rural economic development, and to discuss the downsizing of the public service through attrition. Anstey, however, is not ready to take a confrontational attitude with the Williams’ government. “Our first aim will be to have a meeting with the premier and lay out our issues to the new government. The labour movement has never been afraid of confrontation, but we’re also good at co-operation. It just depends on the circumstances.”

One encouraging sign that came out of the election was the progress that women were making in politics. This is a continuation of an upward trend in Newfoundland politics where women like Joan-Marie Aylward and Yvonne Jones were breaking new ground by being the first women to be finance and fisheries ministers respectively. In the election itself, over 30 women of all political stripes ran for elected office and when Williams was sworn in as premier he announced that four women would be in his cabinet.

Joyce Hancock, executive director of the Provincial Status of Women Council thinks that there are still barriers to overcome so that women are fully included in the political system. “I think that party politics is still an old boys club and women who are raising children don’t have the time to go the Board of Trade luncheon or be on the golf course.” But Hancock is optimistic that this government will be receptive to the needs of women, “I would like to think that this Conservative government has a deeper commitment to social and economic inclusion,” says Hancock.

Hancock sums up the feelings of progressive organizations by saying, “Right now we are in a place of dialogue and we will see where Williams’ leadership moves the province, especially when it comes to women.”