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Kathy Dunderdale was sworn in as the tenth Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador on December 3, 2010, following the resignation of Williams. She became the first woman in the province to hold the post and only the sixth woman in Canada to become premier. Although she had originally stated she would not seek the leadership of the party Dunderdale announced on December 30, 2010, that she was entering the leadership race with the backing of her entire caucus. She was the only eligible candidate to seek the leadership and was sworn in as party leader on April 2, 2011. Later that year Dunderdale lead the Progressive Conservatives to their third consecutive victory in the provincial election. Despite a drop in support from the previous election the PC Party elected 37 MHAs and won 56 per cent of the popular vote. The development of the Muskrat Falls project, along with other natural resource developments, and the reining in of public spending dominated her time as premier. As well Dunderdale faced many questions about her leadership and communication skills as public support for her and her government declined significantly during her three years in office.

In the lead up to the 2012 budget Dunderdale and her ministers began to warn the public of looming spending cuts to rein in projected multi-year deficits. Dunderdale said her government had a goal of finding $100 million in savings. When the budget was released in April it contained few cuts and government spending increased by 1.7 per cent. Finance Minister Tom Marshall said that instead of making large cuts all at once that the government would embark on a "core mandate analysis" to restrain spending growth for the next ten years. The government forecasted that they would run a deficit of $$$ for the 2012-2013 fiscal year. In June 2012, Dunderdale's government brought forth controversial legislation, known as Bill 29, that reformed the province's Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The legislation received widespread criticism from opposition parties, the public and experts in the field of access to information laws. Bill 29 was passed in the House of Assembly after a four day filibuster by opposition parties. Three months after the bill was passed longtime MHA and former cabinet minister Tom Osborne announced he was leaving the PC caucus due to dissatisfaction with Dunderdale's leadership and his opposition to Bill 29, which he had voted for. On December 17, 2012, Dunderdale along with Emera Energy announced they had both officially sanctioned the Muskrat Falls project, two years after the project was first announced.

While the Dunderdale government and the PC Party faired well in opinion polling conducted throughout 2012 their support trended downwards. In December 2012, a CRA poll showed support for the Progressive Conservatives was at 46 per cent, a drop of 14 percentage points in a year. The same poll showed satisfaction with government stood at 58 per cent, down from 75 per cent in a December 2011 poll. Dunderdale's personal numbers took the biggest hit. Only 36 per cent of people thought Dunderdale was the best choice for premier, down from 59 per cent in a year.

In January 2013, Dunderdale shuffled Jerome Kennedy into the finance portfolio as her government once again warned of large spending cuts. When Kennedy delivered his budget on March 26, 2013, he announced the government would run a $563.8 million deficit for the 2013 fiscal year. The budget included $300 million in spending cuts and saw 1,200 public sector jobs eliminated. Dissatisfaction with Dunderdale and her government increased significantly after the release of the 2013 budget. In the first public opinion poll released after the budget, 65 per cent of respondents said they were dissatisfied with the government's performance. Only 21 per cent felt Dunderdale was the best choice for premier, behind the other two party leaders, and the Progressive Conservative Party fell to third place.

Despite a number of big wins for her government throughout the last half of 2013, Dunderdale struggle to regain the ground she had lost in public opinion following that year's budget. In September her government announced a tentative deal had been reached with NAPE, the province's largest public sector union. Earlier in the year Carol Furlong, the president of NAPE, warned that the union had a war chest built up if a strike was necessary. Her government reached agreements with several other unions throughout the remainder of the year. In October she joined officials with Husky Energy to announce that the company would build a new offshore oil platform for the West White Rose Extension in Placentia. Only weeks later her government announced the benefits they had negotiated as part of Canada's free trade agreement with the European Union, particularly with regards to the fishery. The provincial government agreed to eliminate minimum process requirement for the European Union in exchange for the elimination of high tariffs on seafood. Days later Dunderdale and her ministers were joined with fishing industry officials to announce that as part of the free trade agreement the provincial and federal governments would invest $400 million into the fishery over three years. In December she announced all financing for the Muskrat Falls was in place, with the province borrowing $5-billion, with a 40-year term at 3.8 per cent interest.

While her government's satisfaction increased throughout the last quarter of 2013, there was little change in Dunderdale's personal numbers or support for the Progressive Conservative Party. A CRA poll released in December showed the party had move back into second place, due to a collapse in NDP support, but the gap between them and the first place Liberals increased significantly. The Progressive Conservatives polled at 29 per cent compared to 52 per cent for the Liberals and 19 per cent for the NDP. Dunderdale faced many questions about her leadership but stated numerous times she was not resigning before the next election.

In early January 2014, the province experienced wide spread power outages that effected 190,000 customers. The outages were a result of cold temperatures coupled with problems at generating facilities. The outages lasted for several days which caused businesses to close and delayed the opening of schools and post-secondary institutes following their Christmas break. Dunderdale originally faced criticism for not addressing the public until several days after rolling blackouts began. When she did address the public Dunderdale was accused of downplaying the significance of the blackouts. Former cabinet minister Shawn Skinner said Dunderdale lacked empathy and compassion when stating that there was no crisis. After weeks of outrage over her handling of the power issue, which saw a PC MHA cross the floor to the Liberals, it was reported that Dunderdale was returning early from vacation to announce her resignation.

On January 22, 2014, Dunderdale announced her resignation as premier in the lobby of the Confederation Building, stating "just as you know when it's time to step up, you also know when it is time to step back, and that time for me is now." Dunderdale said that Finance Minister Tom Marshall would succeed her as premier and become interim leader of the Progressive Conservatives while the party held a leadership convention to find a permanent successor.

Tom Marshall (2014)
Marshall was sworn in as the 11th Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador on January 24, 2014. During Marshall's eight months as premier he reversed several controversial decisions made under Dunderdale. On the day he was sworn in in Marshall announced that he would strike a committee to review the province's access to information laws due to the backlash the government had received since passing Bill 29. He later announced an "Open Government Initiative" to share more data and information online. In March 2014, Marshall announced his government would also establish an oversight committee for the Muskrat Falls project. The committee would be made up of senior bureaucrats and would release quarterly updates on the project to the public. His government also reversed a previous decision on providing cancer care at a yet to be built hospital in Corner Brook. During the Spring sitting of the House of Assembly the Marshall government passed whistleblower legislation to protect public service employees. The legislation had originally been promised by Williams during the 2007 provincial election campaign but had not been brought forward.

On September 2, 2014, Marshall and Finance Minister Charlene Johnson held a news conference with multiple union leaders to announce that they had negotiated a deal to reform pension plans for the majority of public sector employees. As of March 31, 2014, pension liabilities and other post-retirement benefits made up 74 per cent of Newfoundland and Labrador’s $9.8 billion net debt. Overall the pension plans were only 60 per cent funded. The new agreement would see an increase in contributions by both public sector employees and government starting on January 1, 2015. Over five years the retirement age would increase from 55 to 58 and employees will need 10 years of emplyement to qualify for a pension instead of five years. The unions and government will jointly manage the pension plan with the creation of a new corporation. With the new reforms in place the pension plan is expected to be fully funded within 30 years.

While polling showed a significant increase in government satisfaction and high approval ratings for Marshall, the party was unable to regain the support it had lost under Dunderdale. A CRA poll released in September 2014, showed that 62 per cent of those polled were satisfied with the governments performance, a number that had been consistent in two other other CRA polls conducted since Marshall became premier.

The increased satisfaction with government was not enough for the PC Party to hold onto two by-elections under Marshall's leadership. In April the party was unable to hold onto Dunderdale's former seat of Virginia Waters, losing it to the Liberals by 40 votes. An August by-election in former cabinet minister Joan Shea's distrcit saw the Liberals win nearly 60 per cent of the popular vote with the Tories finishing a distant second.