Andrew Furey has resigned as the Prime Minister of Newfoundland and Labrador, at a surprise press conference called Tuesday afternoon at St. John’s.
“It has been a wild and unexpected trip, from the beginning to take us here until today,” he said. “Until the end. It is with a heart full of pride and confidence won in the future of Newfoundland and Labrador, which I must now move on.”
Furey, a surgeon with family connections for a long time with the provincial and federal liberals, became Prime Minister of Newfoundland and Labrador in August 2020, after winning the liberal leadership after the resignation of former Prime Minister Dwight Ball.
He said at that time that he had no intention of being a career politician, something he called during his speech on Tuesday.
“I had a list of what I wanted to achieve, of objectives that, as proud and farmer, I know I shared with all of you.”
The province owed an election in October. Furey said that after talking to his family, he could not commit to another full term, so he chose to make an early side to allow the party to select a new leader.
“Now the time has come to return to my family and the work that I loved in the operating room, where I will continue to serve the people of this province in a different way,” Furey said.
He rose to the role in the midst of Covid-19 pandemic, becoming a basic element in people’s homes during daily informative sessions.
Furey won the old Ball seat in October of that year, sailing to victory in a partial choice for the Humber-Gros Morne district.
He led the liberals to victory in an election of rock pandemic in early 2021, with the vote delayed by an increase in Covid-19 cases a week before the voters went to the polls. When the ballots were counted, Furey’s liberals had won the majority, taking 22 of the 40 seats of the legislature.
He is leaving the position after achieving one of its main objectives: negotiating a new agreement with Quebec on hydroelectricity that flows from Churchill Falls. The memorandum of understanding would see the controversial contract of 1969 torn and replaced 16 years before. Furey and Quebec, Prime Minister François Legault say that the new agreement would provide a value of $ 200 billion to each province during their life.
Furey referred to the achievement on Tuesday as “history made and past rewritten errors”, and called it a “solid base for our province in the future.”
He also referred to the “blind sides”, such as the adversity of the pandemic, the financial problems of the Muskrat Falls project and the possible commercial war with the United States
In recent months, Furey has been on the first line of that fight, making several trips to the south of the border with other Canadian prime ministers. After the meetings earlier this month, Furey told reporters that President Donald Trump’s officials informed them that the president was “very serious” about his 51st state comments.
“I would like to be able to tell you that this is a short -term concern,” Furey said on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, it is the reality not only of the next four weeks or four months, but four years. But we have survived much worse.”
Furey said that the natural resources of the province put it in an optimal position for economic uncertainty and a commercial war with the closest ally in Canada.
He said he leaves with a heavy heart, but is proud of the work that his government did on the road.
“Every decision was made for you, and you alone. Every terranova and Labradorian. For the collective of who we are and the possibility of who we could be.”
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