Newfoundland Finance Minister Tom Marshall speaks to reporters in St. John’s on Jan. 22, 2014. Marshall will be interim premier after the resignation of Kathy Dunderdale.GRAHAM KENNEDY/The Canadian Press
Newfoundland and Labrador Finance Minister Tom Marshall becomes the province's 11th premier after the resignation of Kathy Dunderdale.
He will be interim leader of the Progressive Conservative party and is not expected to seek the leadership.
A lawyer, Mr. Marshall was first elected in 2003 in the riding of Humber East. He is considered a good communicator and is well-liked in the province. He comes from a political family – his late father, Jack Marshall, was a Tory MP from Newfoundland and sat in the Senate from 1978 to 1994. Meanwhile, a date for a leadership convention has not been set.
The province has fixed election dates, with the next one coming in October, 2015. However, under provincial law a new premier, chosen in a convention, must hold an election within 12 months of being sworn-in.
If there is a leadership convention this spring, that would move an election date to the spring of 2015.