Newfoundland and Labrador officially joined Canada, becoming the country’s youngest province—but not without fierce debate and resistance. In this episode of Canadian Time Machine, we explore the unique journey of Newfoundland and Labrador to Confederation, including the two heated referendums that divided the province. We’ll hear from Mark Manning, lead singer of the Juno-nominated band Rum Ragged, who shares how Newfoundland’s rich culture, storytelling traditions, and music capture the spirit of the island’s identity before and after Confederation. Mark discusses the band’s commemorative song 1949, written by Amelia Curran, which pays tribute to this pivotal moment in history. Then, historian Dr. Jeff Webb of Memorial University walks us through Newfoundland’s complex road to Confederation, examining the political and economic factors—and the controversies—that still linger today. This podcast receives funding from The Government of Canada and is produced by The Walrus Lab.
Listen to the episode:
CLIP:
“Where great airships roared across the runways at Gander Field, gateway to the western world.
Where the products of the sea are packed in the busy factories of Saint John’s, and where the gentle, courageous dogs who bear the island’s name are bred.
All these are part of Newfoundland.”
Angela Misri – Today we’re heading to Newfoundland and Labrador, a place with culture that runs as deep and as strong as its rocky coastline. For centuries, Newfoundlanders have lived by the sea, carving out a unique identity for themselves long before they became part of Canada just 75 years ago. And boy, did they initially resist joining.
Welcome to Season Three of Canadian Time Machine, a podcast that unpacks key milestones in our country’s history. This podcast receives funding from the Government of Canada and is created by the Walrus Lab. I’m Angela Misri.
This episode is in honour of the 75th anniversary of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Confederation with Canada.
Our newest province joined the country 44 years after Alberta and Saskatchewan’s Confederation with Canada in 1905. As we’ve mentioned in previous episodes, the creation of Canada as we know it today wasn’t a single-event occurrence. It took place over a series of conferences, meetings, and agreements.
In 1864, the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences were held to persuade the then British North American colonies to unite as the Dominion of Canada. And most of the colonies did, eventually, join Canada and become provinces, although some were happier about it than others, and some took years and years to complete the process of Confederation.
Although none took as long as Newfoundland and Labrador. But ask any Newfoundlanders today and they’ll tell you their history reaches far past their Canadian-ness.
CLIP:
Hooray for our own native eye, Newfoundland.
Not a stranger shall hold one inch of its strand.
Her face turns to Britain, her back to the Gulf.
Come near at your peril, Canadian wolf.
Ye brave Newfoundlanders who plow the salt sea
With hearts like the eagle. So bold and so free.
The time is at hand. When you’re all I’ll have to say.
If Confederation will carry the day.
Angela Misri – This is “The Anti-Confederation Song,” sung here by the late Canadian folk singer, Alan Mills. It’s a great example of Newfoundland’s tradition of storytelling and tradition-keeping through music. With its to-the-point title, the song dates back to 1869, a few years after the concept of Confederation was first introduced to Newfoundlanders. It has the Celtic and Irish influence of traditional Maritimes music, and it echoes a concern that many Newfoundlanders felt strongly about: that joining Canada was a bad idea.
CLIP:
Would you barter the right that your fathers have won
your freedom, transmitted from father to son
for a few thousand dollars of Canadian gold?
Don’t let it be said that your birthright was sold.
Mark Manning – The thing that makes Newfoundland so vibrant and noticeably unique is the fact that we were a melting pot of very many different cultures over the years. English, Irish, Scottish, French, Portuguese influence on the province of islanders, backgrounds of Newfoundland’s history that predate even our founding in 1497.
Angela Misri – Meet Mark Manning.
Mark Manning – There’s maps that can be found from fisherpeople who fished off the island’s coast that call this place home too, or had a place first in their stories and their songs.
Angela Misri – Mark’s lived in Newfoundland his whole life. He remembers talk of the Confederation amongst his elders in Saint Bride’s, a small fishing town where he grew up, just 90 minutes outside of Saint John’s.
Mark Manning – Fishing would be a big part of my community’s economy and what people do for an occupation. The large majority of people will be fisherpeople, or tied up in the fishery in some way, shape or form. I was born into Newfoundland and Labrador at a time of the moratorium. We saw a large exodus of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, but those communities still hung around, and the culture in those communities still hung around.
Angela Misri – Mark grew up in the 90s, as Newfoundland and Labrador was dealing with the initial fallout of the cod fishing moratorium placed on the province by the Government of Canada in 1992—which was only lifted in July of 2024, by the way!
The moratorium put a halt to what had been one of Newfoundland’s largest work sectors and put over 30,000 Newfoundlanders out of work in what is still considered to be the single largest mass layoff in Canada’s history. And it might have contributed to the dislike of Confederation that is still alive on the island today.
Mark Manning – The isolation that we were lucky to have, in a lot of ways allowed us to grow up in a time where we got to spend time with older people in our communities and got to learn from them the things that were handed down to us, whether they be songs, stories, or just ways of life.
Angela Misri – Singing songs and handing down stories is something that Mark has taken upon himself as well. Mark is the singer of the Juno-nominated folk band, Rum Ragged. Give their music a listen, and it’s easy to hear the influence that Newfoundland tradition has had on Mark and his co-founder, Aaron Collis.
Mark Manning – Myself and Aaron met in Saint John’s and realized that we’d come from places in Newfoundland and Labrador with traditional music from that growing up, that was pretty unique in the area of Newfoundland that it was coming from. So we wanted to try to start and get that recorded, and that’s where it all came from. We met downtown on George Street, and playing in different pubs, realized that we had that common interest.
Angela Misri – As the band developed, Mark and Aaron joined forces with bandmates Colin Grant and Zach Nash, who brought instruments like the fiddle, the banjo, button accordion and bouzouki to the roster.
Mark Manning – Because of the growing up that we had, understanding, almost not meaning to, but, being instilled with this knowledge of importance, of storytelling. Of knowing what you came from, it’s not about some kind of a great feat to try to save history or anything like that. It’s something that we truly actually enjoy. And it’s a fun thing, to bring a message from so far back in time that’s still very relevant today.
Angela Misri – This year, as part of an initiative to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Newfoundland joining the Confederation, Rum Ragged released a song written by Saint John’s Singer and producer, Amelia Curran that she aptly named “1949,” after the year that Newfoundland and Labrador officially joined the Confederation.
CLIP:
1949,
Winds of changes turn the tide
A brand new nation we resign.
Sing the Valley of Kilbride.
All the changes, all the time.
We remember ‘49.
Mark Manning – We wanted to take it on as a band because it was a song that spoke to us in a way of using our songs. If you notice through all the verses, it speaks of songs, traditional songs from Newfoundland and Labrador. It uses a couple of originally written numbers by Ron Hines, with “Atlantic Blue,” and “Empty Nets” from Jim Payne. They’re mentioned lyrics within the song. So it’s using our songs to tell our history, and I think that Amelia has done an absolutely fantastic job to do it. But letting people be able to observe that time, not in a book or at a lecture, but in a piece of music.
Angela Misri – Using songs to tell Newfoundland’s history and share it with Canada and the rest of the world is something Rum Ragged has done since their formation. And with “1949”, their goal is the very same. Especially since, given its location on the very eastern tip of the country, Newfoundland and Labrador doesn’t always get the tourist numbers it deserves.
Mark Manning – There’s tons of people who have travelled our country to every end of it, and just that extra ferry ride or plane ride to s ee Newfoundland and Labrador is sometimes the extra bit that a lot of people don’t get the opportunity to do. And, you know, we love getting to go places and talk about Newfoundland. People are very proud of being from here, and that identity thing of, you know, are you Canadian or are you Newfoundland and Labradorian?
Angela Misri – And if you ask Mark, that’s still a hotly debated question across the islands of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Mark Manning – I personally love Canada. I love getting to see the mountains of Alberta and swim in the lakes of Ontario in the summers, and getting to the Red Sands in P.E.I., and music in Cape Breton, and just right across. I love all of it. But, yeah, there’s definitely a questionable history about what exactly happened around that close vote.
Clip: All the changes, all the time. We remember 49.
Angela Misri – So what really happened with that close vote in the referendum of 1948? Why did it take that long for Newfoundland and Labrador to officially become part of Canada? And why do some Newfoundlanders still wish it had never happened in the first place?
Next, I’ll chat with historian and author, Dr. Jeff Webb, who leads the history department at Memorial University in Newfoundland. He’ll take us through the province’s complicated journey to Confederation and give us his take on the controversial theory, still popular today, that suggests there were some hidden motives behind Newfoundland and Labrador becoming part of Canada. Hi, Jeff.
So Newfoundland and Labrador’s journey to Confederation involved two referendums, making the process years longer than it had taken for any other province. Could you walk us through what happened during those votes, and why the issue was so divisive among Newfoundlanders?
Dr. Jeff Webb – Well, in the 1860s, Newfoundlanders had only really achieved responsible government self-government just a couple of years before, and many people felt like, oh, it’s too early for us to give this up for union with Canada when there’s no clear benefit to it. You know, for many Canadian provinces, the prospect of a transcontinental railway was something that would unite them and bring economic benefits.
But Newfoundland, as an island, there was nothing. There was no tangible benefit. And so Newfoundlanders voted again in an election, voted in 1869, voted against joining the Confederation. And Confederation had kind of always been, in the back of people’s minds in economic hard times. So if the price of fish was low, or the price of iron or was low, any of the exports from the island, people would think, oh, well, maybe joining Canada would give us some economic stability. And then when the economy was doing better, people felt like, well, there’s not really any kind of tangible benefits.
So it really wasn’t until the Great Depression and the Second World War that the sort of factors conspired into really bringing it back to the fore again.
Angela Misri – And why did that make a difference? Why did those moments in time change people’s minds?
Dr. Jeff Webb – Well, the Great Depression, not surprisingly, I mean, it hit almost everywhere in the world, you know, very severely. Newfoundland was, of course, a self-governing colony that relied on the export of natural resources. It was hit particularly hard by the collapse of world trade, to the point where the Newfoundland government in 1933 had to turn to Britain to get some financial support in order to avoid a bankruptcy. And the British had a cost for that. Right. The British government was willing to support Newfoundland, but the price that had to be paid was relinquishing self-government. So if you can imagine, the British position was, we are not going to write you a check unless we get to control how it’s spent.
So Newfoundland, starting in 1934, no longer had an elected government. In the Second World War, the economy revived. There was a great economic boom. Newfoundland was now in a position to start making loans to Britain rather than receiving money from Britain. So self-government came back on the agenda in the mid 1940s. The question was: is it self-government within the British Empire? Or, hey, maybe we’ll revisit the question of Confederation again.
Angela Misri – This sounds so parental, like every single conversation I’ve had with my parents, also with my child: “If you’re going to live in this house….”
So it’s clear that there was a strong divide between those who were for Confederation and those who were against it. Can you tell me a little bit more about those groups who wanted Newfoundland to join Canada and who didn’t, and what were the reasons behind their arguments?
Dr. Jeff Webb – It breaks it down in a couple of ways. One of the ways it breaks down is kind of geographic, and one of the ways that it breaks down is religious. And those two kind of overlap a little bit.
The Roman Catholic Church’s leadership felt that joining Canada, an overwhelmingly Protestant country with all of the bad reputation of, you know, Orangemen and Ontario and, you know, that joining this majority Protestant country would not be good for Roman Catholicism. And of course, these are Irish Roman Catholics who were suspicious that the French Roman Catholics in Canada would not be good allies. And so for many Roman Catholics, they had a continued attachment to self-government.
It also broke down geographically on the Avalon Peninsula. People had much more of a connection to the Newfoundland government, the Newfoundland state, a much more nationalistic view. And so for them, self-government was very appealing and very attractive for people in Labrador and people on the bulk of the island. They were quite distant, both geographically and also culturally quite distant from Saint John’s. And so for them appeals to nationalism. You know, don’t sell your country. That sort of thing didn’t really hit the same way. And they were far more interested in the tangible benefits that union with Canada could bring in.
Angela Misri – By tangible, do you mean economic? Do you mean? Safety? Security? Liquid?
Dr. Jeff Webb – I would say both. You could think about that in both ways. First of all, you can think about it in, you know, the Newfoundland government would have greater security in being part of Canada than if the government would have another layer of government that could help out in difficult fiscal times.
But it was also very personal. And, you know, after the Second World War, Canada, you know, creates a social welfare state, Britain creates a social welfare state. And so for many people in Newfoundland, the Family Allowance program or,, as it was popularly known, the “baby bonus program,” family allowance program, old age pensions, all of those sorts of things promised a kind of family security, a kind of backstop that was really attractive.
Keep in mind that when people were talking about responsible government. One of the things that the option on the ballot said was responsible government as it existed in 1933. Well, what’s going on in 1933? You’re really at the depth of the Great Depression. And so people are remembering. “Oh, we don’t want to go back to that kind of poverty. We don’t want to go back to being that vulnerable.” And so, in a way, the Confederation advocates had an easier thing to sell to people: These are the concrete, specific ways that joining Canada will benefit you. While the advocates of responsible government fell back on, “Don’t sell your country!” They fell back on nationalist appeals and nationalist slogans. And nationalism is a much easier kind of ideology to buy into when you have a full belly. When you don’t have a full belly, this nationalist appeal can ring pretty hollow.
Angela Misri – Do you think there is still a strong anti confederation sentiment among some Newfoundlanders today?
Dr. Jeff Webb – Any Confederation sentiment? No. Disappointment in Ottawa? Certainly, yes.
And I think that you would find that in many Canadian provinces, in many instances.
So there is still disappointment about the way that the federal government didn’t support Newfoundland in the development of the Churchill Falls hydroelectric deal, something which, you know, Quebec gets a great deal of profit from every year. And we don’t get any profit from. Their disappointment about the way that the offshore fish resources were handled, leading to the cod moratorium in 1992. It’s not unusual for Newfoundlanders to be disappointed. It’s very rare for Newfoundlanders to think, “Oh, well, we would be better off if we hadn’t joined Canada.” Or, “We should leave Canada.”
I think the Brexit analogy is a really good one. I think you would have to be very rash to be thinking, “Oh yeah, we really want to go it alone.” You know, a half a million people in an economy that relies entirely on world trade and that imports almost all of the things that we consume, to not be part of a larger trading bloc, to not be part of a larger community… It doesn’t seem very feasible to me.
Angela Misri – I mean, I’m from Alberta, and there’s some Albertans out there that are all in for just getting out. There’s a popular theory among some Newfoundlanders that the vote in the 1948 referendum was rigged, that Newfoundlanders had no real say in the process, and that there was a massive coverup of evidence. Can you tell me more about this theory, and what are your thoughts on it as an expert in Newfoundland’s history?
Dr. Jeff Webb – There was a suspicion, you know, in the 1940s, that both Britain and Canada wanted Newfoundlanders to choose to join Canada. And that much is true. Both the British government and the Canadian government felt that the best thing for them, and the best thing for the Newfoundland people was to join Canada. And so both the British government and the Canadian government did quiet things behind the scenes to make it more likely for Newfoundlanders to vote. The idea that this is undemocratic seems nutty to me. You know, Newfoundlanders had a universal franchise, men and women voting, all adults vote, you know, had the opportunity to vote.
The proposed terms of union had been negotiated between the national convention and Ottawa and publicized through the radio broadcasts. And so people absolutely knew what they were voting for, and had every opportunity to do so. The idea that there’s something wrong with the vote flies in the face of any evidence. Not only is there no evidence that there was anything untoward, but also nobody asked for a recount.
Anybody in 1948, if they had had a suspicion that there was, you know, some fiddling with ballot boxes or the count wasn’t accurate or something like that. Under the legislation, all they needed to do was to go to a magistrate and ask for a recount. And no one did. And no one in the 1950s talked about there being anything wrong with the referendum. Nobody in the 1960s. It wasn’t really until the 1980s and 90s that you started to hear people say, “Oh, you know, the referendum was rigged, you know, the results were switched…” and all of that sort of thing.
So I think the belief in the kind of conspiracy theory, I think that tells us more about people now than it tells us about people in the 1940s.
Angela Misri – So let’s say the vote had gone the other way, and Newfoundland and Labrador didn’t become Canada’s 10th province in 1949. What do you think would be different now?
Dr. Jeff Webb – Well, those sorts of things are what historians call a counterfactual question, and we can never know for sure because things would have had to have been different. But I think it’s a very plausible reading of this to think that what would have happened, there would have been an election in 1949 for responsible government. The majority of people off of the Avalon Peninsula would have voted for a party that would have favoured Confederation. A majority of the people on the Avalon Peninsula would have favoured an anti-Confederation party. Given the distribution of seats geographically, it would have meant that a pro-Confederation party would have won the first election in 1949, and it would likely have gone to Ottawa and said, “Now we would like to negotiate a union between Newfoundland and Canada.” And Newfoundland would probably have become a province of Canada in 1950 or ‘51 or so. I think that is a very likely outcome.
The other thing about that is that the economy, you know, it was still doing very, very well in the late 1940s. By the 1950s, with the prices of natural resources, there would have been much higher unemployment, there would have been strain on government resources. And so the desire to join Canada would have been greater. And if I might just add one more thing. Some of the people who voted for responsible government in 1948, they were not opposed to union with Canada. They just didn’t like the way that it was being done behind the scenes. What they would have liked would have been for Newfoundland to elect its own government. And then two elected governments have negotiated confederation instead of a kind of self-appointed group of the national convention going to Ottawa to negotiate union.
Angela Misri – It’s an interesting distinction. So looking ahead, what do you hope future generations of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians will remember or take away from the history of Confederation and the province’s cultural identity?
Dr. Jeff Webb – Well, I think, you know, one of the points that I try to make with students is, is, of course, that nothing is inevitable. You know, in the 1860s, most people in what is now Canada were either ambivalent or hostile towards Confederation. You know, the only province that had a vote on it originally was New Brunswick, and the Confederation Party lost. In Nova Scotia, they didn’t have an election. And the first elected government was a repeal government.
You know, there’s nothing inevitable about this. These are choices that people made based on the information that they had, and they thought what they thought was best. Now, one of the professional interests that I’ve had over the last few years has been the way that Newfoundlanders’ nationalism and their sense of identity and their sense of having their own country responded to now being a province of Canada. And so you see a great cultural fluorescence in the 70s and 80s, even to this day, among people that are thinking, “Well, we’re no longer a self-governing colony, and the British Empire were now a self-governing colony within Canada. But we can still have pride in our culture, our heritage, our history, the things that make us who we are…”
Angela Misri – Thanks so much, Jeff.
Dr. Jeff Webb – Thank you. It’s been a great pleasure. Take care. Bye.
Angela Misri – Thank you for listening to Canadian Time Machine. This podcast receives funding from the Government of Canada and is created by The Walrus Lab. This episode was produced by Jasmine Rach and edited by Nathara Imenes. Amanda Cupido is the executive producer.
For more stories about historic Canadian milestones and the English and French transcript of this episode, visit TheWalrus.ca/CanadianHeritage. There’s also a French counterpart to this podcast called Voyages dans l’histoire canadienne. So if you’re bilingual and want to listen to more, you can find that wherever you get your podcasts.
