Many communities were isolated before federal funds helped build roads. And Ms. Gale rarely went beyond her own small community of Millville, in the Codroy Valley area of the southwest coast of Newfoundland.
As a teenager, she would sometimes walk several miles to a dance, where a single musician on a single instrument would play tunes for waltzes and square dancing. That instrument was the accordion—or “accordeen” as it’s pronounced in the area.
She was 15 when Newfoundland joined Confederation, and she is among those who saw it as a good move.
“We really thought it was a good thing, because at least we were able to get some help,” Ms. Gale told The Epoch Times.
Between the Old World and the New
Newfoundland and Labrador’s relatively isolated location, especially before modern commercial air travel, made it a land frozen in time.
It’s a place where you could walk into your neighbour’s kitchen unannounced and stay for a tale or a tune, with fiddles or accordions on the go. The kitchen party remains a common affair there to this day.
It’s the only place you'll have a hunk of fried baloney for breakfast, jokingly called “Newfoundland steak.” And it’s the home of the “jigs dinner,” a combination of the province’s most common vegetables—potato, turnip, carrot, and cabbage—boiled with “salt beef,” known elsewhere as corned beef.
It’s also the only place you'll find lime-flavoured Crush, along with many other N.L.-only products (though you may also find them in Newfoundland specialty shops across Canada).
Some of its traditions are well-known, such as mummering—the practice of dressing up in disguise for a boisterous visit to friends and neighbours, who must then guess the mummers’ identities.
Lesser-known traditions are probably as varied as the dialects and communities, which were originally settled by English, French, Irish, Scottish, and indigenous peoples. For example, a broom dance has the dancer use a broom as a prop, sweeping it back and forth while doing a rhythmic shuffle.
You may also see a fish bone used like a magic 8 ball—ask a question and toss the bone up to see which side it lands on; one side means “yes,” the other “no.”
Newfoundlanders have maintained something of a “national” identity despite joining Canada. It’s common to see the N.L. flag proudly flown wherever the province’s diaspora has landed, and it’s known for its distinct culture.
Joining Confederation
While Newfoundlanders were able to eke out a living, the rugged land was inhospitable in many ways.Officials involved in the politics of the time spoke of Newfoundland’s extreme poverty, says David MacKenzie, a history professor at the Toronto Metropolitan University. In the 1980s, he interviewed many of the people who were major players in bringing Newfoundland into Confederation.
Confederation advocates said Newfoundland needed Canada’s help. Ms. Gale remembers that many looked forward to the help from the federal government.
Though she didn’t have electricity, running water, or many modern comforts in those days, she still feels people were happier then.
“The life we had when we were growing up was better than the one we got now,” she said. “Now, things are a little bit too fast. People today, they go too far; they’re too extravagant. Everybody seems to want something better than the other person.”
Newfoundland was a British colony before joining Confederation. It was called Newfoundland at the time, and added Labrador to its official name in 2001. It was once an independent country, or Dominion, within the British Empire, similar to Canada and Australia.
But in 1934, after the Great Depression brought on economic hardships, its government made the unusual move of giving up its self-governance and democracy by asking Great Britain to take over again. Britain gave financial help and also appointed a governor and commissioners to rule.
The province’s unusual history is connected, in part, to its geographical proximity to Europe.
American Bases Spur Worries of ‘Another Alaska’
Jutting out into the Atlantic as it does, Newfoundland and Labrador is closer to Britain geographically than the rest of Canada. Newfoundland was late dropping its status as a British colony, and a collection of small islands off its southeast coast is also a colonial relic. St. Pierre and Miquelon remains a part of France to this day. It uses the Euro, follows French law, and is largely similar to France in culture.Some 20,000 U.S. soldiers manned American bases in Newfoundland, along with some 10,000 Canadian soldiers, Mr. MacKenzie said in his March 1 talk. The population of Newfoundland at the time was between 200,000 to 300,000, he said, which is roughly half of what it is today.
Referendum, Conspiracy?
The military presence gave Newfoundland an economic boost at the time. Its arrangement with Great Britain was always meant to be temporary—Newfoundland would take back control when it got back on its feet. That’s where a post-war referendum came in.
A common conspiracy theory persists to this day that Canadian and British officials fudged the referendum results to push Newfoundland into Confederation.
Great Britain had the motive to push Newfoundland toward Confederation. Despite the military boom, Britain’s assumption was that “Newfoundland’s existing prosperity was transitory and that the post-war period would be difficult,” Mr. Neary wrote. The war took a toll on Great Britain’s finances, and it didn’t want to be responsible for helping Newfoundland out of trouble again.
Newfoundlanders elected a national convention to study the country’s options. Most of the convention members were against Confederation. Notably, Mr. Smallwood was among them but he was vocally pro-Confederation.
The convention decided to put two options to Newfoundlanders via referendum: Either return to self-governance, as in the early 1930s, or maintain the status quo of British rule and aid. Britain, however, put the third option on the ballot: Join Canada.
The British feared that even if Newfoundlanders chose self-governance, they would still flounder and return to the empire for financial aid, Mr. Neary said. Canada, meanwhile, didn’t want “another Alaska” and saw the strategic advantage of absorbing Newfoundland, especially given the airport infrastructure set up in the region during the war.
In the referendum, a small minority of Newfoundlanders voted in favour of continued British rule, and there was no clear majority on the other two options. So a second referendum was held, and that’s when Confederation won by a slim margin.
Despite Britain’s hopes that Newfoundland would choose Confederation, little evidence exists that the British used underhanded means to achieve that end, Mr. Neary said. But some files from the time are missing or have gaps, fuelling the theory that “Newfoundland was the victim of an Anglo-Canadian plot,” he said.
The conspiracy theory’s enduring popularity is evidenced in the 1992 movie about it, “Secret Nation.” It starred some of Newfoundland’s most famous—Rick Mercer, Kathy Jones, and Mary Walsh. The three are known for their comedy, most famously in “This Hour Has 22 Minutes,” and Mr. MacKenzie described the movie as a “dramedy.”
Confederation was contentious, and that remains so to some extent, though not so much as in the past. Mr. MacKenzie sees it as one of the most important events in North America’s history.
“Does it get any bigger in international relations [than] when one country absorbs another country?”
One of the major initiatives following Confederation was a resettlement program funded by the federal government. Many communities relocated, floating their homes on barges, to join bigger communities.
That left ghost towns across the province, which is what many people interested in Mr. Osmond’s website contact him about, he said.
They are one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s many attractions, he said.
The province also has its geological peculiarities, such as the Tablelands—one of few places on earth that the planet’s mantle is exposed. It’s home to icebergs, rolling mountains, and unusual vegetation, such as bakeapple berries often used for jam.
As for its isolation, that feature is just another part of Newfoundland’s charm, Mr. Osmond said.
