The Honourable Dwight Ball
Premier Dwight Ball in November 2016
13thPremier of Newfoundland and Labrador
In office 14 December 2015 – 19 August 2020
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Lieutenant Governor	Frank Fagan Judy Foote
Preceded by	Paul Davis
Succeeded by	Andrew Furey
Minister of Intergovernmental and Indigenous Affairs
In office 8 November 2018[1] – 19 August 2020[2]
Preceded by	position established
Succeeded by	position abolished
Minister Responsible for Labrador Affairs
In office 8 November 2018[1] – 19 August 2020[2]
Preceded by	position established
Succeeded by	Lisa Dempster
Minister of Labrador and Aboriginal Affairs
In office 14 December 2015 – 8 November 2018[1]
Preceded by	Keith Russell
Succeeded by	position abolished
Leader of the Opposition
In office 17 November 2013 – 14 December 2015
Preceded by	Eddie Joyce(Interim)
Succeeded by	Paul Davis
In office 3 January 2012 – 18 July 2013 Interim
Preceded by	Yvonne Jones
Succeeded by	Eddie Joyce(Interim)
Leader of the Liberal Party
In office 17 November 2013 – 3 August 2020[3]
Preceded by	Eddie Joyce(Interim)
Succeeded by	Andrew Furey
Member of theNewfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly forHumber-Gros Morne Humber Valley (2007, 2011-2015)
In office 30 November 2015 – 7 September 2020
Preceded by	district established
Succeeded by	Andrew Furey[4]
In office 11 October 2011 – 30 November 2015
Preceded by	Darryl Kelly
Succeeded by	district abolished
In office 13 February 2007 – 9 October 2007
Preceded by	Kathy Goudie
Succeeded by	Darryl Kelly
Personal details
Born	(1957-12-21)21 December 1957 (age 67) Deer Lake,Newfoundland, Canada
Political party	Liberal
Profession	Pharmacist

Dwight Ball (born 21 December 1957)^[5] is aCanadian politician who was the 13thpremier of Newfoundland and Labrador from 14 December 2015, to 19 August 2020, and anMHA. He represented theelectoral district ofHumber Valley in theNewfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly, and was the leader of the Liberal Party from 17 November 2013 to 3 August 2020.

On 3 January 2012, Ball began his duties asLeader of the Official Opposition andinterim leader of the Liberal Party. On 5 July 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. He was sworn in on 14 December 2015.

On 30 November 2015, Ball won a 31-seat majority government in the2015 election. The Ball government was re-elected to a minority government in2019.

On 17 February 2020, Ball announced his pending resignation. Following avirtual convention on 3 August -- held in part due to the ongoingCOVID-19 pandemic—Ball was succeeded byAndrew Furey, who assumed the premiership on 19 August 2020.

Dwight Ball was raised inDeer Lake, Newfoundland and Labrador, and graduated from Elwood Regional High School.^[6] He attendedMemorial University when he was 17 years old.^[6] His younger brother is Deer Lake's former mayor Dean Ball.^[7]

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.^[6] Ball later bought a community pharmacy inSpringdale.^[6] Ball is also the owner of several senior care homes and is involved in real estate development and venture capital investments.^[6] 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.^[6]

Ball was the Liberal candidate in the district of Humber Valley in the2003 provincial election, but was defeated byProgressive Conservative candidateKathy Goudie by less than 200 votes. When Goudie resigned from the legislature, Ball ran in a by-election to succeed her on 13 February 2007. At first, it was announced that Progressive Conservative candidateDarryl 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.^[8][9] In a rematch in thegeneral election on 9 October 2007, Kelly defeated Ball by 254 votes. Four years later Ball once again ran as the Liberal candidate in the2011 election and this time narrowly defeated Kelly by 68 votes.^[10]

At a press conference on 15 December 2011, the Liberal Party announced that Ball would serve as interim leader of the party and as the Leader of the Official Opposition, effective 3 January 2012.^[11] He succeedsKevin Aylward, who failed to win a seat in the general election, as leader of the Liberal Party andYvonne 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 thenext leadership convention, and that he would step down as interim leader 90 days before the convention to even the playing field for other candidates.^[12] In May 2012, the party announced the leadership convention would take place from 15–17 November 2013.^[13] On 5 July 2013, Ball stepped down as interim leader of the Liberal Party to run for the position permanently in theleadership election that November, which he won with 59% of the vote on the 3rd ballot.^[14][15] Ball served as leader for the party in the2015 general election.^[6]

Ball was sworn in as Premier on 14 December 2015, after leading the Liberal Party to win 31 of 40 seats in the House of Assembly in the election in November.^[16][17][18]

Despite consistentProgressive Conservative leads in polling through the debate, including a 9-point lead in the final poll, released a day before the election,^[19] TheLiberal 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 theNew Democrats inLabrador West by 5 votes.^{[20][21][22][23][24][25][26]}

On 17 February 2020, Premier Ball announced his resignation as Premier and Leader of the Liberal Party. On 3 August 2020,Andrew Furey was chosen to succeed Ball after winning the provincial Liberal leadership race.

Ball took over the post ofMinister of Labrador and Aboriginal Affairs from PCKeith 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 anAboriginal,^[16] however, the move was supported byNunatuKavut president and formerLabrador MPTodd Russell.^[27]

In December 2015, it was announced that public inquiries into the deaths of Don Dunphy (a man fromMitchells 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 fromMakkovik 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.^[28] The Dunphy inquiry took place during Ball's term; however the Winters inquiry did not.

In 2017, Premier Ball called a public inquiry into theMuskrat Falls project^[29] which took place between 2018 and 2020.^[30] 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 thatNalcor failed to consider all potentially viable power options. LeBlanc stated thatNalcor concealed information that could have undermined the business case for the project from the public and government.^[31]

The provincial government unveiled its budget in April 2016 which implemented austerity measures. Ball and Minister of FinanceCathy Bennett do not expect the province to see another surplus until 2022.

Anti-austerity protests took place across the province in areas like St. John's, Corner Brook, Grand Falls-Windsor and Happy Valley-Goose Bay.^[32][33][34]

This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(June 2016)

In early 2016,Nalcor Energy CEO Ed Martin left the company. Ball and Martin each claim that Martin left under conflicting circumstances.^[35][36]

This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(June 2016)

The cost of theLower Churchill Project has doubled since it started development nearly a decade before Ball took office. The province's financial situation was different when the project started development, theprice of oil was high (Newfoundland and Labrador is an oil-producing province), however, the price of oil and the value of theCanadian dollar has gone down since. Ball has blamed the governments ofDanny Williams andKathy Dunderdale for the number of problems that the project has caused.^[37]

In 2016, researchers fromHarvard University found thatmethylmercury levels in fish would rise as a result of the project.^[38][39] After protests led by Indigenous groups in Central Labrador in 2016, an Agreement was reached by Labrador’s three Indigenous groups (Nunatsiavut Government,Innu Nation and theNunatuKavut Community Council) and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador outlining the establishment of an independent committee to make recommendations on mitigating potential impacts of methylmercury on human health from the Lower Churchill Project at Muskrat Falls, Labrador.^[40] In 2018, the committee recommended — among other things — wetland capping to stem the release ofmethylmercury.^[41][42][43]

During the Muskrat Falls inquiry in 2019, it was revealed the provincial government wouldn’t be completingwetlandcapping at the Muskrat Falls reservoir as previously planned.^[44][45] The $30 million designated for the capping was split up and offered to all three Indigenous governments with theInnu Nation andNunatuKavut accepting.^[46][47][48] Nalcor had applied for a permit in July 2018 to carry out the approximately 13 hectares of wetland capping — essentially pouring sand and stone over a small area of wetland near the reservoir — but the permit was never approved by the Department of Municipal Affairs and Environment.^[49] Ball later said wetland capping would have only decreased methylmercury levels by two per cent.^[50][51]

During the 2015 election campaign Ball's Liberals usually saw public approval ratings well over 50%. His party earned 57.2% of the votes in the election. In February 2016, a poll showed that 60% of respondents approved of Ball's work as premier.^[52]

The 2016-17 budget had a huge impact on Ball's public approval. A poll from MQO Research in April 2016 showed a near tie in support for all 3 parties,^[53] a huge difference from a few months earlier when Ball's liberals had far more support than the other 2 parties. Combined with the scandal involving Ed Martin, Ball's public support has dropped at a fast rate since the election. A poll in May 2016 showed that Ball was the least popular head of government in the country with a 17% approval rating. The second lowest score was Ontario'sKathleen Wynne with 24%.^[54]

An online petition calling for Ball's resignation went viral in June 2016,^[55] but Ball has stated that he will not resign and he also stated that the province would not go bankrupt.^[56]

On 16 June 2018,delegates at the Liberal Party Annual General Meeting vote to endorse the leadership of Ball with 79% voting against the party holding a leadership convention.^[57]

On 17 February 2020, Ball announced his pending resignation as leader of the Liberal Party and Premier amidst accusations of cronyism. The decision came afterCBC News linked Ball to awarding the sole-source contract for the Crown corporationNalcor Energy to Gordon McIntosh, former Deputy ofNatural Resources MinisterSiobhan Coady and the designer of Newfoundland and Labrador's off-shore energy plan.^[58][59]

The Liberal Party initially planned to elect a new leader in May 2020; however, the election was delayed by theCOVID-19 pandemic. In the2020 Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador leadership election, surgeonAndrew Furey was chosen as Ball's successor. Furey was sworn in on 19 August 2020.^[2] On 7 September 2020 Ball resigned as MHA for Humber-Gros Morne.^[4]

^[60]

• Dwight BallArchived 25 September 2017 at theWayback Machine

• 1957 births
• Canadian pharmacists
• Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador MHAs
• Living people
• Premiers of Newfoundland and Labrador
• Members of the Executive Council of Newfoundland and Labrador
• People from Deer Lake, Newfoundland and Labrador
• 21st-century members of the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly

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