By Dover1958 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

After one year in the premier's office, Dwight Ball is not having a ball. The premier sat down with Debbie Cooper of CBC's Here and Now, and talked about the  struggles of his first year in office. 

An excerpt from Marliyn Boone's story on CBC Newfoundland and Labrador: 

"It took us quite some time to get to the point of understanding the types of decisions we had to make, getting the people to understand, but we're doing it for the right reasons, and that's to protect our future."

There were lots of surprises in the beginning, Ball said, the biggest being the province's dire financial situation.

"It really put me in a very difficult position, realizing that I knew publicly that I had made commitments that were difficult to keep, given the environment."

When the Ball Liberals were elected, the province was facing an estimated $2.7-billion deficit for the 2016-2017 fiscal year, double what the Liberals expected when they promised to hold the line on the HST and no layoffs.

"As we look back on it, people would say, 'Well, you should have known,' but no one challenged it at the time during the election," Ball said.

Read the full story on CBC here and watch the full interview on Here and Now at 6pm on Wednesday.