Kathleen Mary Margaret "Kathy" Dunderdale (née Warren; born February 1952) is a politician and former MHA who served as the tenth premier of Newfoundland and Labrador from December 3, 2010, to January 24, 2014. Dunderdale was born and raised in Burin; before entering politics she worked in the fields of community development, communications, fisheries and social work. Her first foray into politics was as a member of the Burin town council, where she served as deputy mayor. She was also a Progressive Conservative Party (PC) candidate in the 1993 general election and served as President of the PC Party.
In the 2003 general election, Dunderdale was elected as Member of the House of Assembly (MHA) for Virginia Waters. She was re-elected as MHA in the 2007 and 2011 general elections and resigned her post on February 28, 2014. She served in the cabinets of Danny Williams—at various times holding the portfolios of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development, Natural Resources and Deputy Premier—where she developed a reputation as one of the most high-profile members of Williams' cabinets. Dunderdale became premier upon the resignation of Williams, and after becoming the PC leader, she led the party to victory in the October 2011 election. Dunderdale was the first female premier in the province's history and the sixth woman to serve as a premier in the history of Canada.
Background Kathleen Mary Margaret Warren was born and raised in Burin, Newfoundland and Labrador by her mother Alice and father Norman; she was one of 11 children. Dunderdale received a High School diploma in 1970. After attending Memorial University of Newfoundland for social work, she dropped out of university to get married. She met her late husband, Captain Peter Dunderdale, in 1972 while she was home from university for the summer. Captain Dunderdale was a British master mariner whose boat was in dry dock undergoing repairs. The couple had a son, Tom, and daughter, Sarah, together and Dunderdale was a stay-at-home mom during their formative years, while her husband sailed the world. When her children grew older, she worked away from home in many different volunteer roles.
In the early 1980s, Dunderdale was on an action committee that successfully lobbied Fishery Products International to reverse a decision to shut down its Burin fish plant. The committee was successful and the plant remains in operation. She worked as a social worker with the provincial Department of Social Services, and accepted an offer to be part of an appeals board for inshore fishers after the cod moratorium.
Dunderdale served on the Burin town council and worked with an array of organizations, including the local school board and the Status of Women. She was president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland and Labrador, and, after her husband retired from the sea and her children moved away for university, she became heavily involved in the consulting company her husband had started. She help found Women in Resource Development Corporation (WRDC) in 1997, an organization that works to get women involved in the trades and technology sector in Newfoundland and Labrador.
In 1995, she and her husband moved to St. John's, where Dunderdale currently lives within her district of Virginia Waters. Her husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer and died in 2006 at age 56.
Politics Dunderdale was elected to the Burin town council in 1985, and served as deputy mayor from 1989 to 1993. She got involved in the provincial Federation of Municipalities, she served as their first female president and is the organization's only honorary member, Dunderdale was also director of the Canadian Federation of Municipalities.
Dunderdale was the Progressive Conservative Candidate in the district of Fortune-Hermitage in the 1993 provincial election. Dunderdale ran against Liberal cabinet minister Oliver Langdon, and while she knew she would not win the election she felt she had to send premier Clyde Wells a message about the way he was treating municipalities. In the 1995 Progressive Conservative leadership election Dunderdale served as co-chair of Lynn Verge's successful campaign.
MHA and minister Dunderdale was elected to the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly in the 2003 general election defeating Liberal cabinet minister Walter Noel by 1,835 votes, taking 58 percent of the popular vote. Following the election she was brought into cabinet as Minister of Innovation, Trade and Rural Development, and Minister Responsible for the Rural Secretariat.
In a July 5, 2006 cabinet shuffle, Williams appointed Dunderdale as the Minister of Natural Resources and the Minister Responsible for the Forestry and Agrifoods Agency. She was re-elected in the 2007 general election taking 73% of the popular vote against three other candidates. Dunderdale remained as Natural Resources Minister following the 2007 election and on October 31, 2008, Williams appointed her to serve as Deputy Premier and Minister Responsible for the Status of Women, while continuing to serve in her previous portfolios.
From February 1, 2010 to March 15, 2010, Dunderdale assumed the duties as acting Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, while Williams took a leave of absence to undergo heart surgery in Florida.
Minister of Natural Resources During her time as the Minister of Natural Resources, she negotiated and signed several multibillion-dollar development deals.
On August 20, 2008, Dunderdale, Premier Williams and a consortium of oil companies led by Chevron Canada signed a deal to develop the Hebron oil field. The Hebron oil field is the second largest oil field off the coast of the province with an estimated 700 million barrels of oil reserves. The province expects to gain at least $20 billion in royalties and up to 3,500 jobs from the project. Less than a year later, on June 16, 2009, the government announced they had negotiated an agreement with oil companies to expand the Hibernia oil field. The province negotiated a 10 percent equity stake in the "Hibernia South" extension, and it is projected to add $13 billion to the province's coffers.
On November 18, 2010, Dunderdale and Premier Williams were joined by Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter in announcing a $6.2 billion agreement to develop the first phase of the Lower Churchill Project. Nalcor Energy, a Newfoundland and Labrador Crown corporation, signed a partnership agreement with Emera Inc. of Nova Scotia to develop the 824 megawatts Muskrat Falls. The hydro development would see power from the falls transferred from Labrador to the island of Newfoundland via an underwater transmission link through the Strait of Belle Isle. Another underwater transmission link across the Gulf of St. Lawrence would bring power to Nova Scotia. Newfoundland and Labrador will use 40 percent of the hydro power itself and will be able to shut down the oil-burning Holyrood Thermal Generating Station. Emera Inc. will get 20% of the power for $1.2 billion to sell to customers in Nova Scotia. The remaining 40 percent will be sold by Nalcor Energy to markets in Atlantic Canada and the Northeastern United States.
Premier On December 3, 2010, Dunderdale was sworn in as Newfoundland and Labrador's tenth Premier, taking over for Williams who retired from politics the same day. Dunderdale is the first female Premier in the province's history and only the sixth female in Canada to lead a province or territory. On December 6, 2010, Dunderdale held a minor cabinet shuffle to replace herself as the Minister of Natural Resources. Innovation, Trade and Rural Development Minister Shawn Skinner took over Dunderdale's duties as Minister of Natural Resources and he was replaced by Susan Sullivan.
Party leadership
After being sworn in as premier, Dunderdale announced that she would not be seeking the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party and therefore would only serve in the role of premier until a leadership election was held in the spring of 2011. However, on December 17, 2010, Dunderdale announced that she was reconsidering running for the leadership of the party and that she would make a final decision after Christmas.
On December 22, 2010, cabinet ministers Jerome Kennedy and Darin King, who were both seen as likely leadership candidates, announced they would not seek the leadership of the party. Both men said they were encouraging Dunderdale to run and that they would endorse her campaign if she entered the race. On December 23, 2010, Dunderdale garnered support from two other cabinet ministers when Finance Minister Tom Marshall and Municipal Affairs Minister Kevin O'Brien opted out of running for the leadership and threw their support behind her entering the race.
Dunderdale announced her candidacy for the PC Party leadership on December 30, 2010, and was endorsed by her entire caucus. While she originally stated she would step down as premier if she decided to run for the leadership after announcing her candidacy Dunderdale said she will only step down if someone challenges her for the leadership. On January 10, 2011, an hour before nominations were set to close in the leadership election Brad Cabana, a blogger and a former mayor in Saskatchewan, filed his nomination papers becoming Dunderdale's only challenger. The next day however the PC Party's credentials committee announced that Cabana was ineligible to enter the race because he was unable to collect the 50 signatures needed by PC party members to be nominated. Cabana appealed the party's decision but it was announced on January 27, 2011, that the rules committee upheld the previous ruling by the credentials committee. With Cabana being ineligible to run Dunderdale was officially named the leader-designate, she was sworn in as leader at the party's convention on April 2, 2011.
2011 general election
On September 19, 2011, Dunderdale met with Lieutenant Governor John Crosbie and requested a dissolution of the 46th General Assembly with an election to follow on October 11, 2011. With an overwhelming lead in public opinion polls, for both Dunderdale and her party, and with roughly $1,000,000 in the bank, pundits considered the election hers to lose. Dunderdale released her party's platform in Grand Falls-Windsor on September 22, 2011. While Dunderdale stressed the need for fiscal restraint, the platform included $135,000,000 in new spending a year. The platform included continuing the freeze on post-secondary tuition and eventually eliminating loans in favour of needs-based grants, phasing out the payroll tax over six years, investing a third of any surplus into unfunded public pension funds, reviewing the province's income tax rates to ensure they are progressive and competitive, continuing to make payments on the province's direct debt, creating a population growth strategy, moving forward with the Muskrat Falls hydro development, and improving health care wait times.
On election night the Progressive Conservatives won 37 of the province's 48 seats, six fewer seats then the party held before the election. The Liberal Party won six seats, while the NDP were elected in five. With this win Dunderdale became only the third female in Canadian history to lead a party to victory in a general election, after Catherine Callbeck in Prince Edward Island and Pat Duncan in the Yukon.