By Barry Stagg
June 1997
Baron Amulree: Year 436
June 24 marks the 500th anniversary of the first government sanctioned European discovery of Newfoundland. Anthropologists and astute historians as well as the legend tellers of Newfoundland know full well that our fishing folk ancestors had sailed across the Atlantic for centuries before that in unchronicled but profitable pursuit of fish. Of course the historically accepted date of June 24, 1497 as the moment that Newfoundland came to exist for Europe is in keeping with Newfoundland's relationship to government in the 500 years that followed that fifteenth century rendezvous. Then as now it appears that Newfoundland's existence is only acknowledged by government at government's convenience.
Government over the years has attempted to be introspective about its attitude to Newfoundland at various times. With the frenzy of the 500th anniversary celebrations coming hot on the heels of the June 2 federal election, it is instructive to note what comments a Royal Commission on the state of Newfoundland made concerning the state of government politics and the electorate. The following is a rather incisive extract from the Commission's report:
"As a general statement, it is not too much to say that the present generation of Newfoundlanders have never known enlightened government. The process of deterioration, once started, could not be controlled. The ... electorate were visited every few years by rival politicians, who, in the desire to secure election, were accustomed to make the wildest promises involving increased public expenditure in the constituency and the satisfaction of all the cherished desires of the inhabitants. The latter, as was not unnatural, chose the candidate who promised them most. This might be said of other countries, but in Newfoundland this cajoling of the electorate was carried to such lengths that, until the recent crisis brought them to their senses, the electors in many cases preferred to vote for a candidate who was known to possess an aptitude for promoting his own interests at the public expense rather than for a man who disdained to adopt such a course. They argued that, if a man had proved himself capable of using his political opportunities to his personal advantage, he would be the better equipped to promote the advantage of his constituents: an honest man would only preach to them. The country was thus exposed to the evils of paternalism in its most extreme form. The people, instead of being trained to independence and self-reliance, became increasingly dependent on those who were placed in authority..."
This remarkably frank analysis of the Newfoundland political situation has more than a few practical applications to the present alignment of the tourism extravaganza of the Cabot celebrations and the Chretien federal election. The celebratory flourishes of the Cabot celebrations are comparable to the cynical though not unexpected re-opening of the cod fishery by Fisheries Minister Fred Mifflin. Both are examples of government's typical tactic of creating economic diversions to both distract the electorate and to distort the stark and unpleasant realities of the Newfoundland economy.
If anything has been consistent in government's attitude to Newfoundland in the past 500 years it has been a policy of brutal, paternalistic exploitation of Newfoundland's resources. The cod fishery has been piddled away as if that resource were Ottawa monopoly money. The fiscal majesty of Churchill Falls was reduced to a pitiful national pawn in the Canadian national pastime of appeasing narcissistic Quebecois. The Hibernia oil project went from a west Texas style bonanza to a government make-work project in the time it took Pierre Trudeau to set loose the National Energy Program and his partisan rottweilers, Energy Minister Marc Lalonde and Finance Minister Alan MacEachen.
The Royal Commission commentaries accurately sum up a government tactic of using political flourishes amply seasoned with government money to divert the electorate away from the unpleasant fact that they are being raped and pillaged in the worst tradition of the English buccaneers.
The critical flaw in all of this government adventurism is still the small Newfoundland population. Topping out at less than 600,000 people and falling, the province still needs only one big on-shore oil strike from the likes of Hunt Oil, Talisman Energy , Norcen Energy or Sandhurst Roxanna Exploration to turn western Newfoundland in particular and Newfoundland in general into a frenzied private enterprise version of Fort McMurray-by-the-sea. All of these wildcat oil exploration companies have licenses to drill for oil along the west coast of Newfoundland. If one of these turns up a gusher then all the best laid plans of sleepy bureaucratic slieveens will go the way of Robbie Burn's mice and men. The province and our people will be prosperous in spite of government rather than because of it.
So on June 24 the politicians will preen and those who have worked on the government tab to organize these shows will revel in the civic splendor of their accomplishments. We can all look upon these not so mighty works and remember the words of the Amulree Royal Commission of 1933 quoted above. It seems that the more things change the more they remain the same.