Premier-designate John Hogan left no hints as to when he intends to call a provincial election.
Hogan was named the leader of the Liberal Party and successor to Andrew Furey during the Liberal Leadership Convention on Saturday.
Hogan did, however, hint that his volunteers will be working “over the summer,” to prepare Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to go to the polls.
He says that right now, he’s focused on assembling a cabinet and passing the budget.
“This is step one. Step two is, seeing what next week looks like with the transition team and what a cabinet looks like. We’re starting to pass a budget. You never know, the budget could decide an election as well,” he told reporters.
“We’ll get into the House in a couple of weeks to continue to debate that. And then we’ll look at, you know, the timing of an election, where we are as a party, and where we are as a caucus and make that decision.”
PC Leader Tony Wakeham
The question, now that the provincial Liberals have chosen their leader, is when the election call will come, but Opposition PC Leader Tony Wakeham says his party is ready.
Wakeham is buoyed by the gains made by the federal Conservatives in Monday’s election and says the PCs are ready for when the writ is dropped.
“We’ve been getting ready for a while now,” says Wakeham. “It has to be called by November, we know that’s for certain.” If it’s called sooner than that, we’ll be ready to go.”
