Newfoundland resisted Confederation with Canada. The elites/merchants mainly in the capital, St. Johns, and the Irish Catholics were very vocal in opposing a union with the rest of Canada. They held out until 1949. Newfoundland, larger, farther away, and less closely linked to the mainland, was another matter. Newfoundlanders faced outward, to the Atlantic and the fishery; their markets were not in Canada, but in Europe or the West Indies; and both the colonial, mercantile, elite in the capital, St. Johns, and the Irish-dominated Catholic church were strongly opposed to joining Canada. Catholics argued that Irelands problems derived almost exclusively from its union with England. Why should the same mistake be repeated? In Newfoundland, people of Irish descent had gained home rule, state-funded separate schools and a fair share of government patronage. Why put all this at risk by uniting with Upper Canada [todays Southern Ontario], seen as a hotbed of militant anti-Catholicism? As for the merchants, they could see no economic or financial advantage to the proposed federation. They predicted a significant increase in taxation, imposed by mainlanders for mainland purposes, which would increase the cost of doing business. In addition, they thought that a federal tariff would be designed to protect mainland industries, and that this would restrict their ability to buy and sell where they wanted. --Robert Bothwell, The Association for Canadian Studies in the United States Papers, History of Canada Since 1867, p. 7; Memorial University of Newfoundland. The Debate: Confederation Rejected, 1864-1869
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 01:21:32 +0000
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