Roger Grimes

Roger D. Grimes (born May 2, 1950) is a Canadian politician in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Grimes is a former leader of the Liberal Party in the province and was Premier of the province from 2001 until 2003.

Until 1989, he was an educator and former president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Association. Grimes was elected to the House of Assembly and entered the cabinet of Premier Clyde Wells in 1991 as Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, followed by service as the Minister of Tourism, Minister of Education, Minister of Mines and Energy and lastly Minister of Health.

Grimes won the 2001 leadership convention to become Liberal party leader, defeating John Efford by 14 votes in a fierce and divisive contest. Efford and fellow leadership contestant Paul Dicks subsequently left provincial politics saying they could not work with Grimes. Efford has since asserted that he rightfully won the contest, and that pocketfuls of money were exchanged on the convention floor, and a ballot box "misplaced" for several hours during the counting of the results. Many supporters of Grimes painted Efford as a sore loser and self-serving politician because Efford's behaviour contributed to the demise of the Liberal Party in the following provincial election.

Grimes was sworn in as the province's premier in 2001. During his administration the name of the province was officially changed to Newfoundland and Labrador.

In 2003, the federal government declared a moratorium on the last remaining cod fishery in Atlantic Canada in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. While Newfoundland and Labrador was again the most directly affected province by this decision, communities on Quebec's North Shore and in other parts of Atlantic Canada also faced difficulties.

Grimes, who was facing a pending election that fall, used the Gulf of St. Lawrence cod moratorium and perceived federal bias against the province as a catalyst to try to rally citizens around his administration.

Grimes called for a review of the Act of Union by which the province had become a part of Canada and on July 2, 2003, the findings of the Royal Commission on Renewing and Strengthening Our Place in Canada (which Grimes had created in 2002) were released. Critics called this inquiry the "Blame Canada Commission". It noted the following stressors in the relationship between the province and Canada:

*The huge impact on the province by the destruction of the cod stocks.
*Hydroelectricity resources in Labrador have primarily benefited Quebec.
*Chronically high unemployment; the highest in Canada.
*Lowest per-capita income in Canada.
*The highest tax rates in the country.
*The most out-migration of any province in Canada.

The report called for:

*more collaborative federalism;
*an action team to deal with the fishery in waters surrounding Newfoundland;
*collaboration between Canada, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador on the development of the Gull Island hydro site on the lower part of the Churchill River;
*revision of the Atlantic Accord, negotiated by the provincial and federal governments in the 1980s, to ensure that that offshore oil and gas royalties primarily benefit the province;
*immediate and realistic negotiations on joint management of the fishery.

Grimes often clashed with the federal Liberal government of Jean Chrétien and became increasingly critical of his predecessor, Brian Tobin. When Grimes accused the federal government of bias in the Gulf of St. Lawrence cod moratorium, many even in Newfoundland and Labrador saw him as stirring up unnecessary trouble for political gain. After the Royal Commission on Renewing and Strengthening Our Place in Canada, Grimes' popularity began to decline as his increasingly confrontational approach made it more difficult to win concessions from the federal government. Despite his attempts to strike an image as a fresh government, Grimes and his Liberals were defeated in the 2003 provincial election by the Progressive Conservatives under Danny Williams bringing an end to 14 years of Liberal rule in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Although his popularity rose briefly during the public sector strike in early 2004 in which he opposed the government's plan to legislate strikers back to work, many in the province and within the Liberal party felt that Grimes had performed rather poorly as Leader of the Opposition. Provincial polls in 2004 had only 14% of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians favoring him to be premier if an election were held. By contrast, Premier Williams had approval ratings of 55% as of June 2005, and it reached as high as 74% after the offshore oil agreement.

On May 30, 2005, Grimes stepped down as the leader of the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador. He is quoted as saying that the time was right for him to retire from provincial politics.

Gerry Reid became interim leader of the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador after Grimes announced his retirement.