Place:Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

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NameNewfoundland and Labrador
Alt namesNLsource: Wikipedia (postal abbreviation)
Nfld.source: Wikipedia (former abbreviation-Newfoundland only)
NFsource: Wikipedia (abbreviation-Newfoundland only)
LBsource: Wikipedia (abbreviation-Labrador only)
Neufundlandsource: Rand McNally Atlas (1994) I-120
Newfoundlandsource: Getty Vocabulary Program
Province de Terre-Neuvesource: NIMA, GEOnet Names Server (1996-1998)
Talamh an Éisc agus Labradóirsource: Wikipedia
Terra Novasource: Canadian Encyclopedia (1985) II, 1244
Terranovasource: Rand McNally Atlas (1994) I-174
Terre-Neuvesource: Rand McNally Atlas (1994) I-174
Terre-Neuve-et-Labradorsource: Wikipedia
Vinlandsource: Times Atlas of World History (1993) p 359
TypeProvince
Coordinates52°N 56°W
Located inCanada     (1949 - )
Contained Places
Census division
No. 1
No. 8
Former administrative division
Labrador
General region
Labrador
Inhabited place
Abraham's Cove
Adeyton
Admiral's Beach
Admiral's Cove
Angel's Cove
Appleton
Aquaforte
Argentia
Aspen Cove
Badger
Baie Verte
Bartletts Harbour
Battle Harbour
Bay Bulls
Bay L'Argent
Bay Roberts
Bay de Verde
Beaumont
Belleoram
Birchy Bay
Bishop's Falls
Bonavista ( 1450 - )
Bonne Bay
Botwood
Boxey
Boyds Cove
Branch
Brig Bay
Brigus
Bristol's Hope
Brownsdale
Buchans
Burgeo
Burin
Burlington
Burnt Island
Burnt Point
Campbellton
Cape Broyle
Cape La Hune
Caplin Cove
Carbonear
Carmanville
Catalina
Change Islands
Channel-Port aux Basques
Chapel Arm
Clarenville
Clarke's Head
Codroy Pond
Codroy
Colinet
Conception Bay South
Conche
Cooks Harbour
Corner Brook
Cow Head
Coxs Cove
Creston
Cuper's Cove
Daniels Harbour
Davis Cove
Deer Lake
Dildo
Doting Cove
Doyles
Dunville
Durrell
Eastport
Eddies Cove East
Elliston
Englee
English Harbour West
Ferryland
Flat Bay
Flat Island ( - 1920 )
Fleur de Lys
Flowers Cove
Fogo Island
Fogo
Fortune Harbour
Fortune
Fox Harbour
François
Gambo
Gander Bay
Gander
Garnish
Gaultois
Glenwood
Glovertown
Grand Bank
Grand Bruit
Grand Falls
Grand Falls-Windsor
Grates Cove
Great Harbour
Greenspond
Grey River
Gull Island
Hampden
Hant's Harbour
Happy Adventure
Happy Valley-Goose Bay
Harbour Breton
Harbour Buffett
Harbour Deep
Harbour Grace
Hare Bay
Head Bay d'Espoir
Heart's Content
Hebron
Hermitage
Hickmans Harbour
Hooping Harbour
Howley
Isle aux Morts
Jacksons Arm
Job's Cove
Joe Batts Arm
Keels
Kings Point
Kippens
L'Anse Amour
L'Anse aux Meadows ( 750 - )
La Poile
La Scie
Labrador City
Labrador West
Lamaline
Lark Harbour
Lawn
Lead Cove
Lethbridge
Lewisporte
Little Bay Islands
Little Bay
Little Catalina
Little Harbour Deep
Long Harbour
Lourdes
Low Point
Lower Island Cove
Lumsden
Marystown
McCallum
Merasheen
Middle Brook
Millertown Junction
Millertown
Mount Carmel
Musgravetown
Nain
Newtown
Nippers Harbour
Norris Arm
Norris Point
Northern Arm
Northern Bay
Old Perlican
Pacquet
Parsons Pond
Pasadena
Pass Island
Perry's Cove
Petit Forte
Petty Harbour
Piccadilly
Pilleys Island
Placentia
Point Leamington
Pools Cove
Port Anson
Port Blandford
Port Hope Simpson
Port Kirwan
Port Rexton
Port Saunders
Port Union
Port-au-Port
Portugal Cove South
Portugal Cove-St. Philip's
Pouch Cove
Princeton
Pushthrough
Raleigh
Ramea
Rattling Brook
Red Head Cove
Rencontre East
Renews
Richards Harbour
Rigolet
River of Ponds
Robert's Arm
Robinsons
Rocky Harbour
Roddickton
Rose Blanche
Round Harbour
Saint Albans
Saint Barbe
Saint Brendans
Saint Brides
Saint Davids
Saint Georges
Saint Lawrence
Saint Mary's
Saint Shotts
Saint Vincents
Salvage
Sandy Point
Seal Cove
Ship Cove
Shoal Harbour
Shoe Cove
Sibley's Cove
South Branch
South Falkland
Spaniards Bay
Springdale
Spruce Brook
St. Anthony
St. John's ( 1600 - )
St. Lawrence
Stag Harbour
Stephenville Crossing
Stephenville
Summerford
Terrenceville
Tompkins
Torbay
Tors Cove
Traytown
Trepassey
Trinity
Trout River
Twillingate
Valleyfield
Victoria
Wabana
Wabush
Wesleyville
Westport
Williamsport
Windsor
Winterton
Witless Bay
Settlement
Main Gut ( 1780 - 1900 )
Unknown
Bell Island
Canning's Cove
Cupids
Freshwater
Open Hall
Pool's Island
Port de Grave
Portugal Cove
Red Cliff
Saint Philips ( 1905 - )
Salmonier
St. Bernard's
St. Jacques
Tickle Cove
Topsail
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Newfoundland and Labrador (; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. It is made up of the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of 405,212 square kilometers (156,500 sq mi). The province's population is expected to be 521,758 in 2021. The island of Newfoundland (and its neighboring smaller islands) is home to around 94 percent of the province's population, with more than half residing in the Avalon Peninsula.

In the 2016 census, 97.0 percent of people reported English (Newfoundland English) as their mother tongue, making it Canada's most linguistically homogeneous province.

Newfoundland was once home to the distinct varieties of Newfoundland French and Newfoundland Irish, as well as the now-extinct Beothuk language. The indigenous languages, Innu-aimun and Inuktitut, are also spoken in Labrador.

St. John's, the capital and largest city of Newfoundland and Labrador, is Canada's 20th-largest census metropolitan area and home to about 40% of the province's population. St. John's is the seat of government, housing the House of Assembly of Newfoundland and Labrador as well as the jurisdiction's highest court, the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal.

Formerly known as Newfoundland Colony and subsequently the Dominion of Newfoundland, Newfoundland surrendered its independence to the British Empire in 1933, following substantial economic suffering caused by the Great Depression and the aftermath of Newfoundland's participation in World War I. On March 31, 1949, it became the tenth and last province to join the Canadian Confederation as "Newfoundland." On December 6, 2001, the Constitution of Canada was amended to change the province's name to Newfoundland and Labrador.

Contents

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Early history and the Beothuks

Dorset culture

Human habitation in Newfoundland and Labrador can be traced back about 9,000 years. The Maritime Archaic peoples were sea-mammal hunters in the subarctic.[1] They prospered along the Atlantic Coast of North America from about 7000 BC to 1500 BC. Their settlements included longhouses and boat-topped temporary or seasonal houses.[1] They engaged in long-distance trade, using as currency white chert, a rock quarried from northern Labrador to Maine. The southern branch of these people was established on the north peninsula of Newfoundland by 5,000 years ago.[2] The Maritime Archaic period is best known from a mortuary site in Newfoundland at Port au Choix.

The Maritime Archaic peoples were gradually displaced by people of the Dorset culture (Late Paleo-Eskimo) who also occupied Port au Choix. The number of their sites discovered on Newfoundland indicates they may have been the most numerous Aboriginal people to live there. They thrived from about 2000 BC to 800 AD. Many of their sites were on exposed headlands and outer islands. They were more oriented to the sea than earlier peoples, and had developed sleds and boats similar to kayaks. They burned seal blubber in soapstone lamps.

Many of these sites, such as Port au Choix, recently excavated by Memorial archaeologist, Priscilla Renouf, are quite large and show evidence of a long-term commitment to place. Renouf has excavated huge amounts of harp seal bones at Port au Choix, indicating that this place was a prime location for the hunting of these animals.[2]

The people of the Dorset culture (800 BC – 1500 AD) were highly adapted to a cold climate, and much of their food came from hunting sea mammals through holes in the ice. The massive decline in sea ice during the Medieval Warm Period would have had a devastating impact upon their way of life.[3]

Beothuk settlement

The appearance of the Beothuk culture is believed to be the most recent cultural manifestation of peoples who first migrated from Labrador to Newfoundland around 1 AD. The Inuit, found mostly in Labrador, are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule people, who emerged from western Alaska around 1000 AD and spread eastwards across the High Arctic tundra reaching Labrador around 1300–1500. Researchers believe the Dorset culture lacked the dogs, larger weapons and other technologies that gave the expanding Inuit an advantage.

The inhabitants eventually organized themselves into small bands of a few families, grouped into larger tribes and chieftainships. The Innu are the inhabitants of an area they refer to as Nitassinan, i.e. most of what is now referred to as northeastern Quebec and Labrador. Their subsistence activities were historically centred on hunting and trapping caribou, deer and small game. Coastal clans also practised agriculture, fished and managed maple sugar bush.[4] The Innu engaged in tribal warfare along the coast of Labrador with Inuit groups that had large populations.

The Miꞌkmaq of southern Newfoundland spent most of their time on the shores harvesting seafood; during the winter they would move inland to the woods to hunt. Over time, the Miꞌkmaq and Innu divided their lands into traditional "districts". Each district was independently governed and had a district chief and a council. The council members were band chiefs, elders and other worthy community leaders. In addition to the district councils, the Miꞌkmaq tribes also developed a Grand Council or Santé Mawiómi, which according to oral tradition was formed before 1600.

European contact

By the time European contact with Newfoundland began in the early 16th century, the Beothuk were the only indigenous group living permanently on the island.[5] Unlike other groups in the Northeastern area of the Americas, the Beothuk never established sustained trading relations with European settlers. Their interactions were sporadic, and they largely attempted to avoid contact. The establishment of English fishing operations on the outer coastline of the island, and their later expansion into bays and inlets, cut off access for the Beothuk to their traditional sources of food.

In the 18th century, as the Beothuk were driven further inland by these encroachments, violence between Beothuk and settlers escalated, with each retaliating against the other in their competition for resources. By the early 19th century, violence, starvation, and exposure to tuberculosis had decimated the Beothuk population, and they were extinct by 1829.[5]

The oldest confirmed accounts of European contact date from a thousand years ago as described in the Viking (Norse) Icelandic Sagas. Around the year 1001, the sagas refer to Leif Ericson landing in three places to the west, the first two being Helluland (possibly Baffin Island) and Markland (possibly Labrador). Leif's third landing was at a place he called Vinland (possibly Newfoundland). Archaeological evidence of a Norse settlement was found in L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1978.

There are several other unconfirmed accounts of European discovery and exploration, one tale of men from the Channel Islands being blown off course in the late 15th century into a strange land full of fish, and another from Portuguese maps that depict the Terra do Bacalhau, or land of codfish, west of the Azores. The earliest, though, is the Voyage of Saint Brendan, the fantastical account of an Irish monk who made a sea voyage in the early 6th century. While the story became a part of myth and legend, some historians believe it is based on fact.

In 1496, John Cabot obtained a charter from English king Henry VII to "sail to all parts, countries and seas of the East, the West and of the North, under our banner and ensign and to set up our banner on any new-found-land" and on June 24, 1497, landed in Cape Bonavista. Historians disagree on whether Cabot landed in Nova Scotia in 1497 or in Newfoundland, or possibly Maine, if he landed at all, but the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom recognise Bonavista as being Cabot's "official" landing place. In 1499 and 1500, Portuguese mariners João Fernandes Lavrador and Pêro de Barcelos explored and mapped the coast, the former's name appearing as "Labrador" on topographical maps of the period.

Based on the Treaty of Tordesillas, the Portuguese Crown claimed it had territorial rights in the area John Cabot visited in 1497 and 1498. Subsequently, in 1501 and 1502 the Corte-Real brothers, Miguel and Gaspar, explored Newfoundland and Labrador, claiming them as part of the Portuguese Empire. In 1506, king Manuel I of Portugal created taxes for the cod fisheries in Newfoundland waters. João Álvares Fagundes and Pêro de Barcelos established seasonal fishing outposts in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia around 1521, and older Portuguese settlements may have existed. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, provided with letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I, landed in St. John's in August 1583, and formally took possession of the island.


European settlement and conflict

Sometime before 1563 Basque fishermen, who had been fishing cod shoals off Newfoundland's coasts since the beginning of the sixteenth century, founded Plaisance (today Placentia), a seasonal haven which French fishermen later used. In the Newfoundland will of the Basque seaman Domingo de Luca, dated 1563 and now in an archive in Spain, he asks "that my body be buried in this port of Plazençia in the place where those who die here are usually buried". This will is the oldest-known civil document written in Canada.

Twenty years later, in 1583, Newfoundland became England's first possession in North America and one of the earliest permanent English colonies in the New World when Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed it for Elizabeth I. European fishing boats had visited Newfoundland continuously since Cabot's second voyage in 1498 and seasonal fishing camps had existed for a century prior. Fishing boats originated from Basque country, England, France, and Portugal.

In 1585, during the initial stages of Anglo-Spanish War, Bernard Drake led a devastating raid on the Spanish and Portuguese fisheries. This provided an opportunity to secure the island and led to the appointment of Proprietary Governors to establish colonial settlements on the island from 1610 to 1728. John Guy became governor of the first settlement at Cuper's Cove. Other settlements included Bristol's Hope, Renews, New Cambriol, South Falkland and Avalon (which became a province in 1623). The first governor given jurisdiction over all of Newfoundland was Sir David Kirke in 1638.

Explorers quickly realized the waters around Newfoundland had the best fishing in the North Atlantic. By 1620, 300 fishing boats worked the Grand Banks, employing some 10,000 sailors; many continuing to come from the Basque Country, Normandy, or Brittany. They dried and salted 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 his other colony in Maryland. After Calvert left, small-scale entrepreneurs such as Sir David Kirke made good use of the facilities. Kirke became the first governor of Newfoundland in 1638. A triangular trade with New England, the West Indies, and Europe gave Newfoundland an important economic role. By the 1670s, there were 1,700 permanent residents and another 4,500 in the summer months.


In 1655, France appointed a governor in Plaisance (Placentia), the former Basque fishing settlement, thus starting a formal French colonization period in Newfoundland as well as a period of periodic war and unrest between England and France in the region. The Miꞌkmaq, as allies of the French, were amenable to limited French settlement in their midst and fought alongside them against the English. English attacks on Placentia provoked retaliation by New France explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville who during King William's War in the 1690s destroyed nearly every English settlement on the island. The entire population of the English colony was either killed, captured for ransom, or sentenced to expulsion to England, with the exception of those who withstood the attack at Carbonear Island and those in the then remote Bonavista.

After France lost political control of the area after the Siege of Port Royal in 1710, the Miꞌkmaq engaged in warfare with the British throughout Dummer's War (1722–1725), King George's War (1744–1748), Father Le Loutre's War (1749–1755) and the French and Indian War (1754–1763). The French colonization period lasted until the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, which ended the War of the Spanish Succession: France ceded to the British its claims to Newfoundland (including its claims to the shores of Hudson Bay) and to the French possessions in Acadia. Afterward, under the supervision of the last French governor, the French population of Plaisance moved to Île Royale (now Cape Breton Island), part of Acadia which remained then under French control.

In the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), France had acknowledged British ownership of the island. However, in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), control of Newfoundland once again became a major source of conflict between Britain, France and Spain, who all pressed for a share in the valuable fishery there. Britain's victories around the globe led William Pitt to insist nobody other than Britain should have access to Newfoundland. The Battle of Signal Hill was fought on September 15, 1762, and was the last battle of the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War. A British force under Lieutenant Colonel William Amherst recaptured St. John's, which the French had seized three months earlier in a surprise attack.


From 1763 to 1767 James Cook made a detailed survey of the coasts of Newfoundland and southern Labrador while commander of . (The following year, 1768, Cook began his first circumnavigation of the world.) In 1796 a Franco-Spanish expedition again succeeded in raiding the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador, destroying many of the settlements.

By the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), French fishermen gained the right to land and cure fish on the "French Shore" on the western coast. (They had a permanent base on the nearby St. Pierre and Miquelon islands; the French gave up their French Shore 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.

British colony

The United Irish Conspiracy and Catholic Emancipation

The founding proprietor of the Province of Avalon, George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore, intended that it should serve as a refuge for his persecuted Roman Catholic co-religionists. But like his other colony in the Province of Maryland on the American mainland, it soon passed out of the Calvert family's control. The majority Catholic population that developed, thanks to Irish immigration, in St. John's and the Avalon Peninsula, was subjected to same disabilities that applied elsewhere under the British Crown. On visiting St. John's in 1786, Prince William Henry (the future King William IV) noted that "there are ten Roman Catholics to one Protestant", and he counselled against any measure of Catholic relief.

Following news of rebellion in Ireland, in June 1798 Governor Vice-Admiral Waldegrave cautioned London that the English constituted but a "small proportion" of the locally raised Regiment of Foot. In an echo of an earlier Irish conspiracy during the French occupation of St. John's in 1762, in April 1800 the authorities had reports that upwards of 400 men had taken an oath as United Irishmen, and that eighty soldiers were committed to killing their officers and seizing their Anglican governors at Sunday service.

The abortive mutiny (for which eight were hanged) may have been less a United Irish plot, than an act of desperation in the face of brutal living conditions and officer tyranny. Many of the Irish reserve soldiers were forced to remain on duty, unable to return to the fisheries that supported their families.[6] Yet the Newfoundland Irish would have been aware of the agitation in the homeland for civil equality and political rights. There were reports of communication with United men in Ireland from before '98 rebellion;[7] of Thomas Paine's pamphlets circulating in St. John's; and, despite the war with France, of hundreds of young Waterford men still making a seasonal migration to the island for the fisheries, among them defeated rebels, said to have "added fuel to the fire" of local grievance.

When news reached Newfoundland in May 1829 that the UK Parliament had finally conceded Catholic emancipation, the locals assumed that Catholics would now pass unhindered into the ranks of public office and enjoy equality with Protestants. There was a celebratory parade and mass in St. John's, and a gun salute from vessels in the harbour. But the attorney general and supreme court justices determined that as Newfoundland was a colony, and not a province of the United Kingdom, the Roman Catholic Relief Act did not apply. The discrimination was a matter of local ordinance.

It was not until May 1832 that the British Secretary of State for the Colonies formally stated that a new commission would be issued to Governor Cochrane to remove any and all Roman Catholic disabilities in Newfoundland. By then Catholic emancipation was bound up (as in Ireland) with the call for home rule.

Achievement of home rule

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, France and other nations re-entered the fish trade and an abundance of cod glutted international markets. Prices dropped, competition increased, and the colony's profits evaporated. A string of harsh winters between 1815 and 1817 made living conditions even more difficult, while fires at St. John's in 1817 left thousands homeless. At the same time a new wave of immigration from Ireland increased the Catholic population. In these circumstances much of the English and Protestant proprietor class tended to shelter behind the appointed, and Anglican, "naval government".

A broad home-rule coalition of Irish community leaders and (Scottish and Welsh) Methodists formed in 1828. Expressing, initially, the concerns of a new middle class over taxation, it was led by William Carson, a Scottish physician, and Patrick Morris, an Irish merchant. In 1825 the British government granted Newfoundland and Labrador official colonial status and appointed Sir Thomas Cochrane as its first civil governor. Partly carried by the wave of reform in Britain, a colonial legislature in St. John's, together with the promise of Catholic emancipation, followed in 1832. Carson made his goal for Newfoundland clear: "We shall rise into a national existence, having a national character, a nation's feelings, assuming that rank among our neighbours which the political situation and the extent of our island demand".[8]

Standing as Liberals, the reformers sought to break the Anglican monopoly on government patronage and to tax the fisheries to fund the judiciary, road-building projects, and other expenses. They were opposed by the Conservatives (the "Tories"), who largely represented the Anglican establishment and mercantile interests. While Tories dominated the governor's appointed Executive Council, Liberals generally held the majority of seats in the elected House of Assembly.

Economic conditions remained harsh. As in Ireland, the potato which made possible a steady growth in population failed as a result of the Phytophthora infestans blight. The number of deaths from the 1846–1848 Newfoundland potato famine remains unknown, but there was pervasive hunger. Along with other half-hearted measures to relieve the distress, Governor John Gaspard Le Marchant declared a "Day of Public Fasting and Humiliation" in hopes the Almighty may pardon their sins and "withdraw his afflicting hand." The wave of post-famine emigration from Ireland notably passed over Newfoundland.

Era of Responsible Government

Fisheries revived, and the devolution of responsibilities from London continued. In 1854 the British government established Newfoundland's first responsible government, an executive accountable to the colonial legislature. In 1855, with an Assembly majority, the Liberals under Philip Francis Little (the first Roman Catholic to practise law in St. John's) formed Newfoundland's first parliamentary government (1855–1858). Newfoundland rejected confederation with Canada in the 1869 general election. The Islanders were preoccupied with land issues—the Escheat movement with its call to suppress absentee landlordism in favour of the tenant farmer. Canada offered little in the way of solutions.

From the 1880s, as cod fishery fell into severe decline, there was large-scale emigration. While some people, working abroad, left their homes on a seasonal or temporary basis more began to leave permanently. Most emigrants (largely Catholic and of Irish descent) moved to Canada, many to find work in the steel plants and coal mines of Nova Scotia. There was also a considerable outflow to the United States and, in particular, to New England.

In 1892 St. John's burned. The Great Fire left 12,000 homeless. In 1894, the two commercial banks in Newfoundland collapsed. These bankruptcies left a vacuum that was subsequently filled by Canadian chartered banks, a change that subordinated Newfoundland to Canadian monetary policies.[9]

Newfoundland lay outside the direct route of world traffic. St. John's, 2000 miles from Liverpool and about the same distance from the east-coast American cities, was not a port of call for Atlantic liners. But with the co-ordination and extension of the railway system, new prospects for development opened in the interior. Paper and pulp mills were established by the Anglo-Newfoundland Development Co. at Grand Falls for the supply of the publishing empires in the UK of Lord Northcliffe and Lord Rothermere. Iron ore mines were established at Bell Island.

British Dominion

Reform and the Fisherman's Union

In 1907, Newfoundland acquired Dominion status as a self-governing state within the association of states referred to as the British Empire or British Commonwealth. The British monarch remained the "sovereign" but the crown's authority was exercised through the Newfoundland cabinet accountable solely to the legislature in St. John's.[10]

A new reform-minded government was formed under Edward Morris, a senior Catholic politician who had split from the Liberals to form the People's Party. It extended education provision, introduced old-age pensions, initiated agriculture and trade schemes and, with a trade union act, provided a legal framework for collective bargaining.[11]

There had been unions seeking to negotiate wage rates in the shipbuilding trades since the 1850s. Those working the fishing boats were not wage earners but commodity producers, like farmers, reliant on merchant credit. Working in small, competitive, often family, units, scattered in isolated communities, they also had little occasion to gather in large numbers to discuss common concerns. These obstacles to organization were overcome from 1908 by a new co-operative movement, the Fisherman’s Protective Union (FPU). Mobilising more than 21,000 members in 206 councils across the island; more than half of Newfoundland's fishermen, the FPU challenged the economic control of the island's merchantocracy. Despite opposition from the Catholic Church which objected to the FPU's oath taking and alleged socialism,[12] led by William Coaker the candidates for the FPU won 8 of 36 seats in the House of Assembly in the 1913 general election.

At the beginning of 1914 economic conditions seemed favourable to reform. In a little over a decade exports, imports and state revenue had more than doubled. Schemes were afoot for the exploitation of coal and mineral resources, and for the utilisation of peat beds for fuel. Benefiting from the settlement of disputes over fishing rights with France in 1904, and with the New England states in 1910, the fishing industry was looking to develop new markets.[13]

World War I and its aftermath

In August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany. Out of a total population of about 250,000, Newfoundland offered up some 12,000 men for Imperial service (including 3,000 who joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force).[13] About a third of these were to serve in 1st Newfoundland Regiment, which after service in the Gallipoli Campaign, was nearly wiped out at Beaumont-Hamel on the first day on the Somme, July 1, 1916. The regiment, which the Dominion government had chosen to raise, equip, and train at its own expense, was resupplied and went on to serve with distinction in several subsequent battles, earning the prefix "Royal". The overall fatality and casualty rate for the regiment was high: 1,281 dead, 2,284 wounded.

The FPU members joined Edward Patrick Morris' wartime National Government of 1917, but their reputation suffered when they failed to abide by their promise not to support military conscription without a referendum. In 1919, the FPU joined with the Liberals to form the Liberal Reform Party whose success in the 1919 general election allowed Coaker to continue as Fisheries Minister. But there was little he could do to sustain the credibility of the FPU in the face of the post-war slump in fish prices, and the subsequent high unemployment and emigration. At the same time the Dominion's war debt due to the regiment and the cost of the trans-island railway, limited the government's ability to provide relief.

In the spring of 1918, in midst of disquiet over wartime inflation and profiteering, there had been protest. The Newfoundland Industrial Workers' Association (NIWA) struck both the rail and steamship operations of the Reid Newfoundland Company, effectively isolating the capital and threatening the annual seal hunt. Central to the eventual settlement were not only wage increases, but "the great principle that employees are entitled to be heard in all matters connected with their welfare".

When in January 1919, Sinn Féin formed the Dáil Éireann in Dublin, the Irish question and local sectarian tensions resurfaced in Newfoundland. In the course of 1920 many Catholics of Irish descent in St. John's joined the local branch of the Self-Determination for Ireland League (SDIL). Although tempered by expressions of loyalty to the Empire, the League's vocal support for Irish self-government was opposed by the local Orange Order. Claiming to represent 20,000 "loyal citizens", the Order was comprised almost exclusively of Anglicans or Methodists of English descent. Tensions ran sufficiently high that Catholic Archbishop Edward Roche felt constrained to caution League organisers against the hazards of "a sectarian war."[14]

Since the early 1800s, Newfoundland and Quebec (or Lower Canada) had been in a border dispute over the Labrador region. In 1927, the British government ruled that the area known as modern-day Labrador was to be considered part of the Dominion of Newfoundland.[10]

Commission government

The Great Depression and the return of colonial rule

Following the stock market crash in 1929, the international market for much of Newfoundland and Labrador's goods—saltfish, pulp paper and minerals—decreased dramatically. In 1930, the country earned $40 million from its exports; that number dropped to $23.3 million in 1933. The fishery suffered particularly heavy losses as salted cod that sold for $8.90 a quintal in 1929 fetched only half that amount by 1932.[15] With this precipitous loss of export income, the level of debt Newfoundland carried from the Great War and from construction of the Newfoundland Railway proved unsustainable. In 1931, the Dominion defaulted.[15] Newfoundland survived with assistance from the United Kingdom and Canada but, in the summer of 1933, faced with unprecedented economic problems at home, Canada decided against any further support.

Following retrenchment in all the Dominion's major industries, the government laid off close to one third of its civil servants and cut the wages of those it retained. For the first time since the 1880s malnutrition was facilitating the spread of beriberi, tuberculosis and other diseases.

The British had a stark choice: accept financial collapse in Newfoundland or pay the full cost of keeping the country solvent. The solution, accepted by the legislature in 1933, was to accept a de facto return to direct colonial rule. In exchange for loan guarantees by the Crown and a promise that self-government would in time be re-established, the legislature in St. John's voted itself out of existence.[16] On February 16, 1934, the Commission of Government was sworn in, ending 79 years of responsible government.[17] The Commission consisted of seven persons appointed by the British government. For 15 years, no elections took place, and no legislature was convened.

Between 1934 and 1939, the Commission of Government managed the situation but the underlying problem, world-wide depression, resisted solution. The dispirited state of the country is said to have been evident in “the lack of cheering and of visible enthusiasm” in the crowds that came out to see King George VI and Queen Elizabeth during their brief visit in June 1939.

World War II

The situation changed dramatically, after Newfoundland and Labrador, with no responsible government of its own, was automatically committed to war as a result of Britain's ultimatum to Germany in September 1939. Unlike in 1914–1918, when the Dominion government volunteered and financed a full expeditionary regiment, there would be no separate presence overseas and, by implication, no compulsory enlistment. Volunteers filled the ranks of Newfoundland units in both the Royal Artillery and the Royal Air Force, and of the largest single contingent of Newfoundlanders to go overseas, the Newfoundland Forestry Unit. As a result, and taking into account service in the Newfoundland Militia, and in the merchant marine, as in the First World War[13] about 12,000 Newfoundlanders were at one time or another directly or indirectly involved in the war effort.[18]

In June 1940, following the defeat of France and the German occupation of most of Western Europe, the Commission of Government, with British approval, authorized Canadian forces to help defend Newfoundland’s air bases for the duration of the war. Canada’s military commitment greatly increased in 1941 when German submarines began to attack the large numbers of merchant ships in the north-west Atlantic. In addition to reinforcing the bomber squadron at Gander, the Royal Canadian Air Force provided a further squadron of bombers that flew from a new airport Canada built at Torbay (the present St. John’s airport). From November 1940, a new airbase at Gander became one of the so called “sally-ports of freedom” with U.S. manufactured aircraft flying in swarms to Britain.[18]

Already in March 1941, United Kingdom conceded the United States, then still officially neutral, what were effectively U.S. sovereign base rights. The Americans chose properties at St. John’s, where they established an army base (Fort Pepperrell) and a dock facility; at Argentia/Marquise, where they built a naval air base and an army base (Fort McAndrew); and at Stephenville, where they built a large airfield (Ernest Harmon Airbase). As allies after December 1941, the Americans were also accommodated at Torbay, Goose Bay and Gander.[18]

This garrisoning of Newfoundland had profound economic, political and social consequences. Enlistment for service abroad and the base building boom at home eliminated the chronic unemployment of the previous decades. By 1942, the country not only enjoyed full employment and could spend more on health, education and housing, it was making interest-free loans of Canadian dollars to the by-then hard-pressed British. At the same time, the presence of so many Canadians and Americans, complete with entertainment and consumer goods, promoted a taste for the more affluent consumerism that had been developing throughout North America.

The National Convention

When prosperity returned with World War II, agitation began to end the Commission and reinstate responsible government. Instead, the British government created the National Convention in 1946. Chaired by Judge Cyril J. Fox, the Convention consisted of 45 elected members from across the dominion and was formally tasked with advising on the future of Newfoundland.

Several motions were made by Joey Smallwood (a convention member who later served as the first provincial premier of Newfoundland) to examine joining Canada by sending a delegation to Ottawa.[19] The first motion was defeated, although the Convention later decided to send delegations to both London and Ottawa to explore alternatives. In January 1948, the National Convention voted against adding the issue of Confederation to the referendum 29 to 16, but the British, who controlled the National Convention and the subsequent referendum, overruled this move. Those who supported Confederation were extremely disappointed with the recommendations of the National Convention and organized a petition, signed by more than 50,000 Newfoundlanders, demanding that Confederation with Canada be placed before the people in the upcoming referendum. As most historians agree, the British government keenly wanted Confederation on the ballot and ensured its inclusion.

Canadian province

The referenda on confederation

Three main factions actively campaigned during the lead-up to the referenda on confederation with Canada:

  • The Confederate Association (CA), led by Smallwood, advocated entry into the Canadian Confederation. They campaigned through a newspaper known as The Confederate.
  • The Responsible Government League (RGL), led by Peter Cashin, advocated an independent Newfoundland with a return to responsible government. Their newspaper was The Independent.
  • The smaller Economic Union Party (EUP), led by Chesley Crosbie, advocated closer economic ties with the United States. A 1947 Gallop poll found 80% of Newfoundland residents wanting to become Americans, but the United States had no interest in the proposal, and preferred Newfoundland join Canada. The EUP failed to gain much support and after the first referendum merged with the RGL.

The first referendum took place on June 3, 1948; 44.6% of people voted for responsible government, 41.1% voted for confederation with Canada, while 14.3% voted for the Commission of Government. Since none of the choices had gained more than 50%, a second referendum with only the two more popular choices was held on July 22, 1948. The official outcome of that referendum was 52.3% for confederation with Canada and 47.7% for responsible (independent) government. After the referendum, the British governor named a seven-man delegation to negotiate Canada's offer on behalf of Newfoundland. After six of the delegation signed, the British government passed the British North America Act, 1949 through the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Newfoundland officially joined Canada at midnight on March 31, 1949.[20]

As documents in British and Canadian archives became available in the 1980s, it became evident that both Canada and the United Kingdom had wanted Newfoundland to join Canada. Some have charged it was a conspiracy to manoeuvre Newfoundland into Confederation in exchange for forgiveness of Britain's war debt and for other considerations.[16] Yet, most historians who have examined the relevant documents have concluded that, while Britain engineered the inclusion of a Confederation option in the referendum, Newfoundlanders made the final decision themselves, if by a narrow margin.

Following the referendum, there was a rumour that the referendum had been narrowly won by the "responsible government" side, but that the result had been fixed by the British governor.[16] Shortly after the referendum, several boxes of ballots from St. John's were burned by order of Herman William Quinton, one of only two commissioners who supported confederation.[16] Some have argued that independent oversight of the vote tallying was lacking, though the process was supervised by respected Corner Brook Magistrate Nehemiah Short, who had also overseen elections to the National Convention.[16]

1959 Woodworkers' strike

In 1959, a strike led by the International Woodworkers of America (IWA) that resulted the “most bitter labour dispute in Newfoundland’s history.” Smallwood, although he had himself been an organizer in the lumber industry, feared that the strike would shut down what had become the province’s largest employer. His government introduced emergency legislation that immediately decertified the IWA, prohibited secondary picketing, and made unions liable for illegal acts committed on their behalf.[21]

The International Labour Organization, Canadian Labour Congress, and the Newfoundland Federation of Labour condemned the legislation, and Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker refused to provide the province with additional police to enforce the legislation. But running out of food and money, the loggers eventually abandoned the strike, joined Smallwood’s newly created Newfoundland Brotherhood of Wood Workers, and negotiated a settlement with the logging companies, ending the strike and effectively undermining the IWA.

Resettlement programs

From the early 1950s the provincial government pursued a policy of population transfer by centralizing the rural population. A resettlement of the many isolated communities scattered along Newfoundland's coasts was seen as a way to save rural Newfoundland by moving people to what were referred to as "growth centres". It was believed this would allow the government to provide more and better public services such as education, health care, roads and electricity. The resettlement policy was also expected to create more employment opportunities outside of the fishery, or in spinoff industries, which meant a stronger and more modern fishing industry for those remaining in it.

Three attempts of resettlement were initiated by the Government between 1954 and 1975 which resulted in the abandonment of 300 communities and nearly 30,000 people moved. Denounced as poorly resourced and as an historic injustice,[22] resettlement has been viewed as possibly the most controversial government policy of the post-Confederation Newfoundland and Labrador.[23]

Many of the remaining small rural outports were hit by the 1992 cod moratorium. Loss of an important source of income caused widespread out-migration. In the 21st century, the Community Relocation Policy allows for voluntary relocation of isolated settlements. Eight communities have moved since 2002. At the end of 2019, the decommissioning of ferry and hydroelectricity services ended settlement on the Little Bay Islands.

21st century

Climate change

In the new century, the provincial government is anticipating the challenges of global warming. Locally average annual temperatures are variously estimated to be already between 0.8 °C and 1.5 °C above historical norms and the frequency of hurricanes and tropical storms have doubled in comparison to the last century. As a result, the province is experiencing increased permafrost melt, flooding, and infrastructure damage, reduced sea ice, and greater risk from new invasive species and infectious diseases.[24]

The government believes that in just fifty years (2000–2050), temperatures in Newfoundland will have risen by two and a half to three degrees in summer, three and a half to five degrees in winter, and that in Labrador warming will be even more severe. Under those conditions the winter season could shorten by as much as four to five weeks in some locations and that extreme storm events could result in an increase of precipitation by over 20 per cent or more, enhancing the likelihood and magnitude of flooding. Meanwhile, sea levels are anticipated to rise by a half meter, putting coastal infrastructure at risk. Against these hazards, the government sets the province's "vast renewable [wind, sea and hydro] energy resources" with their potential to reduce carbon emissions in the province and elsewhere.[24]

A major hydro-generation project at Muskrat Falls, following delays, is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2022. Theoretically it could replace all the province's existing hydro-carbon sources of electricity. On the other hand, critics note that, in the decade to 2030, the government plans to double offshore oil production, significantly adding to emissions.

On January 17, 2020, the province experienced a large blizzard, nicknamed 'Snowmageddon', with winds up to . The communities of St. John's, Mount Pearl, Paradise, and Torbay declared a state of emergency. On January 18, 2020, Premier Dwight Ball said his request for aid from the Canadian Armed Forces was approved, and troops from the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, CFB Halifax, and CFB Gagetown would arrive in the province to assist with snow-clearing and emergency services. An avalanche hit a house in The Battery section of St. John's. St. John's mayor Danny Breen said the storm cost the city $7 million.

The COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic in Newfoundland and Labrador is ongoing. The province announced its first presumptive case on March 14, 2020, and declared a public health emergency on March 18. Health orders, including the closure of non-essential businesses, and mandatory self-isolation for all travellers entering the province (including from within Canada) were enacted over the days that followed.

, there have been 18,464 recorded cases of persons testing positive for the virus, including forty-six deaths. Restricted entry into the province lifted on July 1, 2021. Fully vaccinated travellers can now enter the province without having to isolate for 14 days. Those who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated will have to isolate for 14 days, and are able to receive a COVID test on Days 7 through 9 of their isolation if they wish. However, on December 21, 2021, the travel requirements were changed once again due to the rise in Omicron cases within Newfoundland and Labrador, and across Canada. Dr. Janice Fitzgerald, the province's Chief Medical Officer of Health, announced that effective December 23, 2021, at 3:00 p.m., all travellers entering the province, including those who are fully vaccinated, will have to isolate. Fully-vaccinated travellers will have to isolate for five days and take a rapid test each day. They may leave isolation after five days (or 120 hours) have passed, and if each rapid test returned a negative result. Partially-vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers had no change to their isolation requirements. The province's travel requirements can be found on their website.

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