Newfoundland and Labrador

The Province of Newfoundland and Labrador is one of the ten provinces of Canada. A British colony from the time of Elizabeth the First, Newfoundland joined the confederation in 1949. Before 2001 the official name was "Newfoundland," and most people still call it that, for Labrador has only 28,000 people or 6% of the total population. In 2006 the province had a population of 505,469, and is declining steadily.. Newfoundland and Labrador cover 405,720 square kilometres in total.

Economy

When Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949, it relinquished jurisdiction over its fisheries to Ottawa; the Supreme Court ruled in 1983 that the federal government also has jurisdiction over offshore oil drilling.

After 1945, the fishing economy was transformed from a predominately labor-intensive inshore, household-based, saltfish-producing enterprise into an industrialized economy dominated by vertically integrated frozen fish companies. These efficient companies needed fewer workers, so about 300 fishing villages, or outports, were abandoned by their residents between 1954 and 1975 as part of a Canadian government-sponsored program known as the Resettlement. Some areas lost 20% of their population, and enrollment in schools dropped even more.

In the 1960s some 2 billion pounds of cod were harvested annually from the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, the world's largest source of fish. Then disaster hit. The northern cod practically vanished--they were reduced to 1% of their historic spawning biomass. In 1992, the northern cod fishery was shut down and cod fishing as a way of life had come to an end after a 500 year history as a main industry.

The fishing industry crisis of the 1990s saw the already precarious economic base of the many towns further eroded. The situation was made worse by both federal and provincial pursuit of programs of economic liberalization that sought to limit the role of the state in economic and social affairs. As the effects of the crisis were felt, and established state supports were weakened, tourism was embraced by a growing body of local development and heritage organizations as a way of restoring the shattered economic base of many communities. Limited, short-term funding for some tourism-related projects was provided mostly from government programs, largely as a means of politically managing the structural adjustment that was being pursued.

Whale hunting became an important industry around 1900. At first slow whales were caught by men hurling harpoons from small open boats. Mechanization copied from Norway brought in cannon-fired harpoons, strong cables, and steam winches mounted on maneuverable, steam-powered catcher boats. They made possible the targeting of large and fast-swimming whale species that were taken to shore-based stations for processing. The industry was highly cyclical, with well-defined catch peaks in 1903–05, 1925–30, 1945–51, and 1966–72, after which world-wide bans shut it down.

History

Exploration

The first definite evidence of European contact with North America was that of the medieval Norse sailing from Greenland. For several years after 1000 AD they operated a small village on the tip the Great Northern Peninsula, known as L'Anse aux Meadows. Most historians believe explorer John Cabot (1450-1499), commissioned by King Henry VII of England, landed in Nova Scotia in 1497, but some historians have hypothesized he landed in Newfoundland.

17th-18th centuries

Explorers soon realized that the waters around Newfoundland provided the best fishing in the North Atlantic. By 1620, 300 fishing vessels a year worked the banks, employing some 10,000 sailors. They dried and salted the cod on the coast and sold it to Spain and Portugal. Heavy investment by Sir George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, in the 1620s in wharves, warehouses, and fishing stations failed to pay off. French raids hurt the business, and the weather was terrible, so he redirected his attention to Maryland colony. After Calvert left small-scale entrepreneurs such as Sir David Kirke made good use of the facilities. Kirke became the first governor in 1639. A triangular trade with New England, the West Indies, and Europe gave Newfoundland an important economic role. By the 1670s there were 1700 permanent residents and another 4500 in the summer months.

The "admiral" system, by which the first captain arriving in a particular bay was in charge of allocating suitable shoreline sites for curing fish, was slowly replaced after 1700. Fishing-boat captains tried to arrive early from Europe each season in an attempt to become the admiral; soon merchant companies left crewmen behind at the prime shoreline locations to lay claim to the sites. This was a precursor to the establishment of private property and led to "bye-boat" fishing, wherein local, small-boat crews fished certain spots for the summer, claimed a strip of land as their own, and sold their catches to the migratory fishers. Bye-boat fishing then led to increased residency on the island, which in turn led to the elimination of migratory fishing enterprises as resident fishing became more profitable in the 18th century.

The fishing admirals ruled until 1729, when the Royal Navy sent in its officers to govern during the fishing season.

By the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), France acknowledged that Newfoundland belonged to the British Empire, but French fishermen were given the right to land and cure fish on the "French Shore" on the western coast. They had a permanent base on nearby St. Pierre and Miquelon islands; the French gave up their rights in 1904. In 1783, the British signed the Treaty of Paris with the United States that gave American fishermen similar rights along the coast. These rights were reaffirmed by treaties in 1818, 1854 and 1871 and confirmed by arbitration in 1910.

19th century

Cod fishing remained dominant but sealing also became important after 1820, as specially designed ships sailed each spring to intercept the great herds of seals on their annual southern migrations. The northern outports grew in importance ("outport" is used for all fishing ports except St. John's). By the 1850s new formed local banks became a source of credit, replacing the haphazard system of credit from local merchants. Prosperity brought immigration, especially Catholics from Ireland who soon comprised 40% of the residents.

Newfoundland was now a permanent settlement requiring a more established government. No elections were allowed but courts of law were set up in 1791 and the first civilian governor was appointed in 1817. In 1832 representative government was established followed in 1855 by self-government with a responsible cabinet. With a prosperous population of 120,000, Newfoundlanders decided to pass in 1869 on joining the new confederation of Canada.

Small scale seasonal farming became widespread, and mines began to exploit abundant reserves of lead, copper, zinc, iron, and coal. Railways were opened in the 1880s, with the link from St. John's to Port aux Basques open in 1898. In 1895 Newfoundland again rejected the possibility of joining Canada.

20th century

Sir Robert Bond (1857–1927) was a Newfoundland nationalist who insited upon the colony's equality of status with Canada, and opposed joining the confederation. Bond promoted the completion of a railway across the island (started in 1881) because it would open access to valuable minerals and timber and reduce the almost total dependence on the cod fisheries. He advocated closer economic ties with the United States, and distrusted London for ignoring the island's viewpoint on the controversial issue of allowing French fisherman to process lobsters on the French Coast, and for blocking as trade deal with the U.S. Bond became Liberal Party leader in 1899 and premier in 1900. In 1904 he helped negotiate the end of French fishing rights on the French Coast, and was reelected in a landslide. His efforts to restrict the rights of American fishermen failed. His party was badly defeated in 1909 and Bond proved an ineffective opposition leader, losing ground to the new Fishermen's Union Party, led by Sir William Ford Coaker. Bond was succeeded as premier by Edward Patrick Morris (1859–1935), a prominent Catholic and founder of the new People's Party. Morris began a grandiose program of building branch railways, and adeptly handled the arbitration at the Hague tribunal on American fishing rights. He introduced old-age pensions, and increased investment in education and rural infrastructure. In a prosperous year he was reelected in 1913.

The First World War was supported with near unanimity in Newfoundland. Recruiting was brisk, with 6,240 men joining the Newfoundland Regiment for overseas duty, 1,966 joining the Royal Navy, 491 joined the Forestry Corps (which did lumberjack work at home), plus another 3,300 men joined Canadian units, and 40 women became war nurses. Without convening the legislature, Premier Morris and the royal governor, Sir Walter Davidson created the Newfoundland Patriotic Association, a politically neutral body involving both citizens and politicians, to supervise the war effort until 1917. With inflation soaring and corruption rampant, and fears of conscription apparent, the Association gave way to an all-party National Government. Morris was given a peerage as first Baron Morris, the only Newfoundlander ever so honored, and removed to London.

During the great Battle of the Somme in 1916, the British assaulted the German trenches near Beaumont Hamel, in France. The eight-hundred-man Royal Newfoundland Regiment attacked as part of a British brigade. Most of the Newfoundlanders were killed or wounded without anyone in the regiment having fired a shot. The state, church, and press romanticized the sacrifice Newfoundlanders had made in the war effort through ceremonies, war literature, and memorials, the most important of which was the Beaumont Hamel Memorial Park, which opened in France in 1925. The story of the heroic sacrifice of the regiment in 1916 served as a cultural inspiration.

The 1920 Education Act called for the establishment of a Department of Education, to oversee all state schools, including the processes of teacher training and certification. The act provided for four grades of certificated teachers. There was also a category of other "ungraded" teachers, who were unqualified and employed on a temporary basis.

International capital was increasingly attracted to the island's natural resources. A Canadian firm opened iron mines in 1895 on Bell Island in Conception Bay. Paper mills were built at Grand Falls by the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company, a British company, in 1909. British entrepreneurs set up a paper mill at Corner Brook in 1925 while the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Company opened a lead-zinc mine on the Buchans River in 1927.

In 1927, Britain awarded the vast, almost uninhabited hinterland of Labrador to Newfoundland rather than to Canada, adding potentially valuable new forest, hydroelectric, and mineral resources.

Politically the years from 1916 to 1925 were turbulent, as six successive governments failed, widespread corruption was uncovered, and the the postwar boom ended in economic stagnation. Labour unions were active, as Joseph Smallwood founded the Newfoundland Federation of Labour in the early 1920s.

Commission on Government 1934

Newfoundland's economic crash in the Great Depression, coupled with a profound distrust of politicians, led to the abandonment of self-government. The government had borrowed very heavily and had a weak tax base; 1933 interest payments on the public debt amounted to 63% of government revenue. There was no more credit; a short-lived plan proposed to sell Labrador to Canada; Canada offered no help. In return for British financial assistance, the newly elected government of Frederick Alderdice agreed to the appointment by London of a three-member royal commission, including British, Canadian, and Newfoundland nominees, "to examine into the future of Newfoundland and in particular to report on the financial situation and prospects therein." The Newfoundland Royal Commission was chaired by Lord Amulree, recommended that Britain "assume general responsibility" for Newfoundland's finances. Newfoundland would give up self-government in favour of administration by an appointed governor and a six-member appointed Commission of Government, having both executive and legislative authority. The solution was designed to provide "a rest from politics" and a government free of corruption. The legislature accepted the deal, formalized when the British Parliament passed the Newfoundland Act, 1933. The commission began operations in 1934, and disbanded in 1949.

Newfoundland remains the only nation that ever voluntarily relinquished democracy.

World War II

In 1940 Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed to an exchange of American destroyers for access to British naval bases in the Atlantic, including Newfoundland. The result was sudden prosperity as American money flooded the island, where 25% had been on relief. Some 20,000 men were employed in building military bases, but the government kept wages low so as to not destroy the labor force for fishing. Even more influential was the sudden impact of a large modern American population on a traditional society. American ideas regarding food, hygiene (and indoor plumbing), entertainment, clothing, living standards and pay scales swept the island. Fears of a permanent American presence in Newfoundland prompted the Canadian government to push the island to join the Canadian Confederation.

Joining Canada

As soon as prosperity returned (in 1942), agitation began to end the Commission. Newfoundland, with a population of 313,000 (plus 5,200 in Labrador), seemed too small to be independent. Joseph "Joey" Smallwood (1900–91) was a well-known radio personality, writer and organizer; he was a nationalist who long had criticized British rule. In 1945 London announced that a National Convention would be elected in Newfoundland to advise on what constitutional choices should to be voted on by referendum. Union with the United States was a possibility, but London rejected the option and offered instead two options, return to dominion status or continuation of the unpopular Commission. Canada issued an invitation to join it on generous financial terms. Smallwood was elected to the convention where he became the leading proponent of confederation with Canada, insisting, "Today we are more disposed to feel that our very manhood, our very creation by God, entitles us to standards of life no lower than our brothers on the mainland." Displaying a mastery of propaganda technique, courage and ruthlessness, he succeeded in having the Canada option on the ballot. His main opponents were Peter J. Cashin and Chesley A. Crosbie. Cashin, a former finance minister, led the Responsible Government League, warning against cheap Canadian imports and the high Canadian income tax. Crosbie, a leader of the fishing industry, led the Economic Unionists, seeking responsible government first, to be followed by closer ties with the United States, which could be a major source of capital. Smallwood carried his cause in a hard-fought referendum and a runoff in June-July 1948 as the decision to join Canada (rather than become an independent dominion) carried 77,869, as against 71,464, or 52.3%. A strong rural vote in favor of Canada overwhelmed the pro-independence vote in the capital of St. John's. The Irish Catholics in the city desired independence in order to protect their parochial schools, leading to a Protestant backlash in rural areas. The promise of cash family allowances from Canada proved decisive.

According to the terms, Newfoundland would again have its own legislature and full local self-government, as well as seven members of the Canadian House of Commons. Canada assumed the Newfoundland debt of $63 million and and in return Canada would keep the income, corporation, and customs revenue. Newfoundlanders would immediately get Canadian welfare benefits and the province would be paid about $3 million annually, plus a transitional grant, starting at $6.5 million then phasing out over 12 years. "We are all Canadians now," exculted one minister; "Now it can truly be said that Canada stretches from sea to sea."

Smallwood era

Smallwood was elected the Liberal party premier of Newfoundland (1949 to 1972), as the demoralized anti-confederates became the provincial wing of the Progressive Conservative Party. Smallwood's style was autocratic and highly personalized, as he totally controlled his party. He vigorously promoted promoted economic development through the Economic Development Plan of 1951, championed the welfare state (paid for by Ottawa), and attracted favorable attention across Canada. He emphasized modernization of education and transportation in order to attract outsiders, such as German industrialists, because the local economic elite would not invest in industrial development. Smallwood dropped his youthful socialism and collaborated with bankers, and became hostile to the militant unions that sponsored numerous strikes. His efforts to promote industrialization were a mixed bag, with great success primarily in hydroelectricity, iron mining and paper mills. He upgraded the small Memorial University College in St John's, to Memorial University in 1949, with free tuition and a cash salary for students.

He was narrowly defeated in the 1971 elections, and failed in several comeback attempts. He left politics in 1977 to create an outstanding multivolume Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador with over 200 authors.

Neary (1980) identifies three postwar political eras, each marked by a dramatic opening event. A first period began with confederation, and Joseph R. Smallwood's accession to power. A second period of politics started with the Progressive Conservative victory in the federal general election of 1957. A third period began with the sweeping Conservative victory in Newfoundland in the federal election of 1968. Running through these periods is a common theme: the continuing erosion of the traditional, stable, subsistence, outport economy of Newfoundland by the forces of urbanism and industrialism.

National identity

Nationalist sentiment in the 21st century is a powerful force in Newfoundland politics and culture. But that was a development of the late 20th century, for in the 1940s it was not strong enough to stop confederation with Canada. A Newfoundland identity was first articulated in the 1840s, embodied in a distinction between English-born and native-born Newfoundland residents.The relative absence of a strong sense of belonging to an independent country was the underlying reason for Joseph Smallwood's referendum victory. Most islanders were descendants of immigrants from either Ireland or the English West Country. It took centuries for them to view themselves as Newfoundlanders first and foremost. Gregory (2004) tried to date the transition from old (European) to new (Newfoundland) in the outport communities using vernacular song texts. Use of three collections of Newfoundland songs demonstrates how by 1930 or so a Newfoundland song culture had replaced earlier cultural traditions. These songs suggest that the island was still a cultural mosaic; some outports were completely Irish, others were English, and in a few ethnically mixed communities, including St. John's, there was an emergent, home-grown, patriotic song culture. Cultural nationalism was still a minority tradition in the Newfoundland of 1930. After joining Canada in 1949, Newfoundland culture underwent a significant transformation, notably in the cultural revival of the 1970s, which extolled the virtues of of the people before they were hit with efficiency, centralization, and modernity. The "Ode to Newfoundland" is sung with as much enthusiasm in the taverns of Toronto and Calgary as on the island itself. Traditional Newfoundland heritage enjoyed a renaissance in the arts and crafts. Celebrations of outport life have been combined with a long-standing sense of victimization, offering a parade of historical scapegoats ­ from the fishing admirals to powerful merchants ­used to explain relative backwardness and failure. Atlantic Canadians increasingly share an angle of vision derived in large part from the unpleasant fact that, compared to the mainland, the Atlantic region is both economically poor and politically weak, and growing more so. Nevertheless Atlantic Canadians have so far rejected political union.

Wayne Johnston's prize-winning novel The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (1999) develops insights into the unique identity of the islanders and challenges prevailing misconceptions about the area among both residents and outsiders. The protagonist of the book is premier Joey Smallwood, with focus on his advocacy of confederation with Canada. Chafe (2003) sees the novel in terms of postcolonial literature with its attendant themes of displacement, identity, and history. Chafe explores Johnston's use of the phrase "scuttlework of empire" and its many interpretations of the often troubled relationship between the British Empire and Newfoundland settlers.

Further reading

for a more detailed guide see the Bibliography subpage

• Harris, Leslie. Newfoundland and Labrador: A Brief History (1968),
• Hempstead, Andrew. Frommer's Newfoundland and Labrador (2008) excerpt and text search 2006 edition
• Jackson, Lawrence. Newfoundland & Labrador (1998)
• Rowe, Frederick. History of Newfoundland and Labrador (1980).
• Smallwood, Joseph, et al. eds. The Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador (5 vol 1981-94) 3900 pages; available on cd-rom portions online
• Walls, Martha, and John MacIntyre. Newfoundland and Labrador Book of Everything (2006)