Woah, and the Newfie grits were starting from behind after their landslide victory. I assume some oil induced austerity?
Correct. Oil royalties went from 30% of revenue to 7% and they had some pretty nasty structural issues in their economy as well. Despite drastic austerity, they still have the worst deficit as a % of GDP in the country. Glad I don't live on the Rock right now.
It also doesn't really help that the Nfld Liberals ran on an absurd "we'll make the economy boom again while still rolling back the HST increase and simplifying taxes" platform in 2015, and then proceeded to maintain that HST hike, raise taxes and slash spending in their 2016 budget.