Outgoing Premier John Hogan has made his first public comments since his party’s defeat on October 14th.

Just like the leaves on the trees outside Confederation Building, the landscape of provincial politics has changed and Hogan, who was flanked by all but one member of his caucus, says he looks forward to leading the official opposition.

When asked if he had considered stepping down, Hogan replied “you get to choose whether you put your name on a ballot, you don’t get to choose how the whole province gets to vote. I’m very proud to be re-elected in Windsor Lake. I love this job, serving Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and I will continue to do that job.”

Hogan says they will hold government to account, noting that the PCs made a lot of promises that they don’t think they can live up to.

Hogan says Tony Wakeham needs to be clear about his stance on the MOU and say whether he will continue to negotiate the current deal and bring it to a referendum, or whether he will do a new deal, or not do a deal at all.

And Hogan says, Wakeham also has a lot of work to do on projects like Bay du Nord.

“Trades NL…who supported him in his bid to be Premier, have said that they want all the topsides done here…I think that he will have a difficult time negotiating that deal with Equinor, so what happens then if the next big, maybe last oil project in Newfoundland and Labrador doesn’t proceed?”