DECEMBER 1996
By Barry Stagg
Churchill Falls : Colony of Montreal and Toronto
The principles that dictated the federal Liberal's indifference to Quebec holding Newfoundland hostage over Churchill Falls go back to the fifties era of powerful cabinet minister C.D. Howe. George Grant in his 1965 masterpiece "Lament For A Nation" precisely summed up the imperial Liberal attitude toward the outer regions of the country in this passage:"The Liberals openly announced that our resources were at the disposal of continental capitalism....So much did they identify their branch-plant economy with the Kingdom of Heaven that they did not pay sufficient attention to the farmers or the outlying regions. Such regions existed for them as colonies of Montreal and Toronto".
Professor Grant was speaking specifically of the arrogance of the federal Liberals that led to their defeat in 1957 at the hands of John Diefenbaker's Conservatives. The Pipe-Line Debate of 1956 had shown Liberal ruthlessness at its worst in forcing the expropriation of Western land for the Trans-Canada gas pipeline from Alberta to Ontario and Quebec.
The same pack of colonizers was back in power in time to surrender the national interest to Brinco and Quebec in 1966. In plain terms the Pearson Liberals turned Churchill Falls over to Quebec nationalists and a powerful multi-national corporation. Newfoundland territory was no more sovereign than if it had been inside some satellite possession of the Soviet Union.
What is most outrageous about the 1966 pacifism of Pearson's government is that it accomplished the same thing as the Liberal's controversial expropriations of 1956. By not acting in 1966, Pearson enabled Montreal and the powerful Brinco partners to dominate Canada's newest colony: Newfoundland. In 1956 Alberta and Saskatchewan felt the colonial lash whip them into submission over the free passage of Alberta's petroleum riches to the Ontario- Quebec Fatherland. The policy of acting in the exclusive best interests of Ontario and Quebec was alive and well again.
Professor Grant summed up the unholy convergence of interest between Ottawa , Quebec and Brinco in this comment on the uneasy co-existence in the Quebec provincial government of corporate nabob Eric Kierans and ardent nationalist [separatist?] Rene Levesque: "Provincial control of economic development is not only useful for French-Canadian nationalism but also for international capitalism". Ottawa found it convenient to stay out of the way when Quebec provincial extortion of Newfoundland allowed Churchill Falls to be developed in the manner desired by Brinco. In 1956 it had been equally convenient for the Ottawa "Home Office" to throttle provincial controls in the West. Convenience thus leads to great and unforgivable economic tragedy.
There can be no doubt that Newfoundland is now destitute and trembling economically directly as a result of the shameful acts of 1966. An entire generation has come of age and now wallows toward retirement in the putrid wake of the sellout of Churchill Falls. This larceny came about because of confederation with Canada in 1949. Only by being drawn into the Canadian orbit could Newfoundland have been subject to the contemptuous treatment it endured. Premier Tobin like several other would-be warriors now rails against the savage inequities of the 1969 sales contract. He must acknowledge the active role that union with Quebec and Ontario under the Canadian umbrella played in this disgraceful example of neo-colonialist exploitation.
Unless Canada agrees collectively that Canada has wronged Newfoundland in this historically notorious extortion then the chances for redress are minimal. While the disagreement is seen by Canadians as between two provinces, the inertia of the moment, that is to say the uncontrollable urge of Canadians to appease Quebec, will carry the day for Quebec. Our fellow citizens must appreciate that it was an act of passive hostility by the federal government that enabled Quebec to have its way with Newfoundland. Otherwise the cry to overturn this palpable injustice will be lost in the political flatulence that flows unregulated from the debate over Quebec separatism.
Canadians must understand that the fundamentals of Confederation go beyond the question of Quebec grievances and arguments over language etiquette. Canada is a nation of regions and regional economies. The subjugation of Newfoundland to the point where it is a virtual "Eastern colony" is as shameful as any act of Quebec "humiliation" that the disciples of Rene Levesque and Lucien Bouchard can drag into the spotlight. Churchill Falls must be re- negotiated. If not, then Grant's 1965 identification of Toronto's and Montreal's colonies remains as an accurate Canadian road map to ruin as we end 1996.
Merry Christmas.