By Barry Stagg
February 1995
BRIAN AND CLYDE
A Saturday or two after the new year I went to a board meeting of N.A.L.C.A., a new alliance of hardworking Newfoundlanders in Southern Ontario. The organization which elected its initial Board of Directors in November realized its initial impact had been significant when Chairman Davis Hull turned up with former Newfoundland Premier Brian Peckford in tow. Once the assembled directors had got over this pleasant surprise we were informed by fellow director Bill Ruth that present Newfoundland Premier Clyde Wells had accepted our invitation to be guest speaker at N.A.L.C.A.'s March 31, 1995 celebration of the forty-sixth anniversary of Canada's amalgamation with Newfoundland.
The dinner and dance style celebration will be going full tilt on the evening of Friday, March 31, 1995 at the Howard Johnson Hotel complex at 2737 Keele Street, North York, Ontario. This is basically at Keele Street and the 401 in the heart of Metropolitan Toronto.
Premier Wells is certain to attract a broad audience as his popularity in central Canada at certain times has even exceeded his popularity on the Newfoundland domestic scene. The N.A.L.C.A. executive have indicated to me that they regard this celebration as both an opportunity to commemorate Newfoundland's entry into Confederation as well as a significant chance to raise funds for the new and rapidly strengthening alliance.
N.A.L.C.A. is a business oriented organization with a mandate that focuses on the need for a healthy economic social and cultural independence for all Newfoundlanders. In my estimation there is a broad consensus in the organization that economic health is really the solid foundation that produces the social and cultural stability for which all Newfoundlanders long.
This brings me to the basis for Brian Peckford's low key but inspiring talk at our breakfast meeting. The former Premier lives in British Columbia now and is a globe trotting business consultant active in raising capital for numerous enterprises both in Canada and abroad. The resurrection and revitalization of Triton Airlines is now his main focus.
Peckford's message to us really came down to placing yourself in a position to help yourself. He stressed the importance of obtaining informed access to government services. His most basic advice was to get a Newfoundland government telephone book. If you wish to obtain information and action from public servants then it helps to have the telephone numbers of those who are not only on the surface of the bureaucracy but those who dwell deep within that living and breathing behemoth. This is the same advice I remember receiving from my older brother when I began my practice of law with him in Stephenville some sixteen years ago. Fred and Brian of course were caucus mates in the Newfoundland House of Assembly through the 70's and 80's.
The other main point that I gleaned from the former Premier's talk was the idea that the best type of social therapy for any poverty stricken area is employment and good jobs. We discussed how too often economically deprived societies build cultural strength as a substitute for economic power. Newfoundland and Ireland were examples that readily came to mind in our talk. Afterwards I thought about Israel and the Jewish culture worldwide and how that did not seem to fit into our idea. That is a story for another time.
At any rate, on March 31, 1995 the Premier is coming and N.A.L.C.A. is going to have the welcome mat open for both Premier Clyde Wells and three hundred guests at a celebration that will mark forty-six years of Newfoundland in Canada and will also take stock of Newfoundland and Canada, forty-six years after that pivotal event.
It makes me long for the days in 1979 and Newfoundland's big oil strike when it looked like the big bulldozer of prosperity was going to shudder straight through the middle of Newfoundland's economy. Grave concerns were being raised in 1979 about preserving Newfoundland culture in the face of an onslaught of Saudi-style prosperity. Couldn't all of Canada handle that type of crisis right now? Maybe we can get Premier Wells to tell us about that time?