THE CANADIAN PRESS

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HALIFAX, N.S. - Nova Scotia's fledgling NDP government has wrapped up its first legislative session in power that was marked by the province's first deficit in eight years.

Premier Darrell Dexter says he fulfilled a promise to Nova Scotians to "put the legislature back to work" in holding a 35-day session, the longest since former premier John Hamm's Conservatives sat for 37 days in the spring of 2003.

Dexter, Atlantic Canada's first NDP premier, blamed the deficit on shoddy bookkeeping by the previous Conservative government.

Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil said the session was disappointing because the government passed a number of "housekeeping" bills that were left over from the Tories.

Interim Conservative Leader Karen Casey says the government showed a lack of leadership in pushing community college workers to the brink of a strike and in its handling of the rollout of the H1N1 vaccine program.

In all, 31 bills were passed.