From blackouts to oil plunge, a bleak year for Newfoundland and Labrador Tories

The year 2014 in Newfoundland and Labrador politics started with electricity blackouts that sealed one premier’s demise, and ended with a fiscal meltdown that threatens another.

In between, the governing Progressive Conservatives lost a string of byelections to the Opposition Liberals, bringing their total defeats in the last 18 months to seven.

The Tories also lurched through two leadership races, the first ending with the expulsion of one candidate and the withdrawal of two others.

The second contest finally crowned Paul Davis as premier in September, allowing Tom Marshall to retire after taking over for Kathy Dunderdale. She stepped down in January amid questions about her leadership and after downplaying provincewide power failures as a non-crisis.