Kathy Dunderdale: 'history will serve us well'

In her first speech since she resigned in January as premier, Kathy Dunderdale told Progressive Conservatives that the party will be remembered well for its performance since sweeping to power in 2003. 

"History will serve all of us well," Dunderdale told delegates to a PC leadership convention on Saturday, hours before delegates started a vote on choosing the party's next leader and Newfoundland and Labrador's 12th premier. 

"It was a time that took great courage and great fortitude, and we were able to do great things because we stood together," said Dunderdale, who had served as natural resources minister under Danny Williams before succeeding him in late 2010.

Dunderdale credited the support of the party faithful for bolstering the leadership through tough moments. 

"No matter what was happening in the difficult days of hard decisions that the future of our province rested, the one thing that I never had to second-guess was the support of the grass roots of this party," she said. 

Dunderdale spoke for just over two minutes, but has otherwise said almost nothing publicly since she resigned in the wake of a caucus defection and harsh criticism for how she handled the government's response to outages that knocked out power for tens of thousands of people. 

Dunderdale, as she has done before, declined to speak with reporters. 

She told delegates that she is comfortable outside the political limelight. 

"I have to tell you very honestly that in the last eight months, I haven't missed one minute of political life, but I've missed you," she said. 

Dunderdale sat with supporters of candidate John Ottenheimer on the convention floor.