Dwight Ball

Dwight Ball (born December 21, 1957) is a Canadian politician who was the 13th premier of Newfoundland and Labrador from December 14, 2015, to August 19, 2020, and an MHA.

Ball was the Liberal candidate in the district of Humber Valley in the 2003 provincial election, but was defeated by Progressive Conservative candidate Kathy Goudie by less than 200 votes.

When Goudie resigned from the legislature, Ball ran in a by-election to succeed her on February 13, 2007.

At first, it was announced that Progressive Conservative candidate Darryl Kelly had won the by-election by a margin of twelve votes; however, Ball was later declared elected by a margin of 18 votes.

A judicial recount was conducted weeks later and resulted in a reduction of Ball's lead to seven votes.

In a rematch in the general election on October 9, 2007, Kelly defeated Ball by 254 votes.

Four years later Ball once again ran as the Liberal candidate in the 2011 election and this time narrowly defeated Kelly by 68 votes.

At a press conference on December 15, 2011, the Liberal Party announced that Ball would serve as interim leader of the party and as the Leader of the Official Opposition, effective January 3, 2012.

He succeeds Kevin Aylward, who failed to win a seat in the general election, as leader of the Liberal Party and Yvonne Jones as the Official Opposition Leader.

Ball announced on the same day that he planned to run for the permanent leadership of the party at the next leadership convention, and that he would step down as interim leader 90 days before the convention to even the playing field for other candidates.

On January 3, 2012, Ball began his duties as Leader of the Official Opposition and interim leader of the Liberal Party.

In May 2012, the party announced the leadership convention would take place from November 15–17, 2013.

He represented the electoral district of Humber Valley in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly, and was the leader of the Liberal Party from November 17, 2013 to August 3, 2020.

On July 5, 2013, Ball stepped down as interim leader of the Liberal Party to run for the position permanently in the 2013 leadership election, which he won.

On July 5, 2013, Ball stepped down as interim leader of the Liberal Party to run for the position permanently in the leadership election that November, which he won with 59% of the vote on the 3rd ballot.

He was sworn in on December 14, 2015.

On November 30, 2015, Ball won a 31-seat majority government in the 2015 election.

Ball served as leader for the party in the 2015 general election.

Ball was sworn in as Premier on December 14, 2015, after leading the Liberal Party to win 31 of 40 seats in the House of Assembly in the election in November.

Ball took over the post of Minister of Labrador and Aboriginal Affairs from PC Keith Russell after the election in 2015.

This decision was somewhat controversial as none of the Aboriginal MHAs from Labrador were appointed to Ball's cabinet and Ball was neither from Labrador or an Aboriginal, however, the move was supported by NunatuKavut president and former Labrador MP Todd Russell.

In December 2015, it was announced that public inquiries into the deaths of Don Dunphy (a man from Mitchells Brook who was shot dead by a police officer after posting content on Twitter that was deemed a "security threat".) and Burton Winters (a teenager from Makkovik who got lost by himself outside of his community and died of hypothermia while a search helicopter did not arrive until 52 hours later.) would take place.

The Dunphy inquiry took place during Ball's term; however the Winters inquiry did not.

In 2017, Premier Ball called a public inquiry into the Muskrat Falls project which took place between 2018 and 2020.

In the inquiry report Commissioner Richard LeBlanc concluded the government failed its duty to residents by predetermining that the megaproject would proceed no matter what.

In his report, LeBlanc concluded that the business case, which assumed the Muskrat Falls project was the lowest-cost power option, was “questionable.” LeBlanc stated that the project’s economics were not sufficiently tested and that Nalcor failed to consider all potentially viable power options.

LeBlanc stated that Nalcor concealed information that could have undermined the business case for the project from the public and government.

The Ball government was re-elected to a minority government in 2019.

Despite consistent Progressive Conservative leads in polling through the debate, including a 9-point lead in the final poll, released a day before the election, The Liberal Party led by Dwight Ball won re-election in the 2019 provincial election, but nonetheless fell one seat short of retaining their majority after an unexpected loss to the New Democrats in Labrador West by 5 votes.

On February 17, 2020, Ball announced his pending resignation.

Following a virtual convention on August 3 -- held in part due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic—Ball was succeeded by Andrew Furey, who assumed the premiership on August 19, 2020.

Dwight Ball was raised in Deer Lake, Newfoundland and Labrador, and graduated from Elwood Regional High School.

He attended Memorial University when he was 17 years old.

His younger brother is Deer Lake's former mayor Dean Ball.

Ball was the recipient of the Bowl of Hygeia Award for his work as a community pharmacist that began with his franchising of the Deer Lake Pharmacy.

Ball later bought a community pharmacy in Springdale.

Ball is also the owner of several senior care homes and is involved in real estate development and venture capital investments.

The towns of Deer Lake and Springdale have independently both named Ball as Employer of the Year for his contributions to supportive employment programs in the area.

On February 17, 2020, Premier Ball announced his resignation as Premier and Leader of the Liberal Party.

On August 3, 2020, Andrew Furey was chosen to succeed Ball after winning the provincial Liberal leadership race.