Sense of resignation grips Newfoundland as Dunderdale, Tories expected to win

Globe & Mail ^ | 19 Sep 2011 | Oliver Moore

[docbnj]

But as Newfoundland and Labrador gear up for an election race that kicked off Monday, the usual political chatter was muted by a belief the governing Progressive Conservatives will romp to an easy win in the Oct. 11 vote.

“There isn’t a sense here that people have much of a choice,” said Stephen Tomblin, political science professor at Memorial University in St. John’s. “I think everyone knows what the result will be no matter what anyone does.”

[docbnj]

A fine example of media bias. Things are not going their way, so the reporter portray a despondence — at least among university folk. Apparently when the public is more or less united, it is a bad thing — unless , of course, it is going your way.

Note the projection: the dismay of the reporter is attributed to the selected people he interviews. Aye, it's a sad day when the Tories are polling over 50%! “A sense of resignation grips Newfoundland”!

[Buckeye McFrog]

Wow, is that ever revealing! Obituaries in the Globe and Mail are no doubt written in a more cheerful tone than this article.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Trivia fact about Labrador and Newfoundland for my fellow Americans. They were an independent country up until 1949.

At that point they were forced to voluntarily give up sovereignty and seek admission into Canada. The reason is that they had spent themselves into bankruptcy.

To this point they are the only nation to voluntarily surrender their sovereignty for this reason (though I suspect many more are about to follow)

[Former Proud Canadian]

You are correct.

[Sky Slug]

And, at the time, there was a small, but decent percentage of Newfoundlanders (I was going to use a slight pejorative there) who wanted to become part of the US and not Canada.

[grumpygresh]

Atlantic Canada has been an economic basket case for more than 80 years. Their economy is based on what? Fishing, tourism that’s it. With the advent of the railroad, and industrialization the Atlantic provinces were left to whither on the vine. Halifax used to have a thriving shipbuilding industry, that is, when they built ships of wood. There were even mining interests throughout the provinces.
Maybe NFL should have remained autonomus in the 1949 referendum on whether to join the confederation of Canada. They could have considered becoming a tax haven as have other off shore states. But it is difficult to attract people and capital when you are located in remote and cold land.

[Little Ray]

It doesn’t help that Newfoundland cod banks have been almost entirely fished out...

[Buckeye McFrog]

Yes, from what I understand Newfoundland was presented with several choices.

1) Confederation with Canada
2) Return to British rule
3) Try and stumble along with severe austerity as a poor and broke sovereign country
4) Become part of the U.S.

Supposedly the latter option alarmed Newfoundland’s WASPish Protestant elites. They feared that becoming part of the States would empower the Catholic majority (probably looking down the coast at the emergence of the Kennedy machine in Massachusetts and thinking “we don’t need that here”) So through a combination of threats and skullduggery Option 4 was pulled from the table (Canada being seen as a nice, safe WASPish ruler at the time)

An interesting bit of history that most Americans know nothing about.

[docbnj]

NewfoundlandIt was Dominion beginning in 1907. But it lost its government in 1933 because of a debt crisis, caused by debts incurred in (guess what!) building a railroad. was pressured, but they held a referendum, and confederation with Canada squeaked by by about a 52.3% vote.

Then there is the case of Prince Edward Island, one a colony. For many years, they had social strife between absentee landlords and the settlers there. Then they embarked on a railroad project (“investing in infrastructure”?) which was a big loser. Overloaded with impossible debt, they accepted an offer to be taken over by Canada, who would assume their railroad debt, and in return the big landowners would break up their estates.

Nova Scotia joined Canada, but the move was so unpopular, that in the following elections over 80% of the vote went to a party dedicated to leaving Canada. However, England announced that it would not accept Nova Scotia back as a colony, so they were stuck. Nova Scotians feared that the Tory majority in the united Canada would carry out their protectionist platform, much to the detriment of Nova Scotia, which prospered with Halifax as a key port. The prediction was correct, and Nova Scotia was depressed for many decades, until finally the fashion for protectionism wained.