Canada's Tenth Province?

• Published in: University of Toronto Quarterly
• Main Author: Lacey
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) 1943
• Subjects: General Arts and Humanities; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/utq.12.4.435; https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/utq.12.4.435

“Why is Newfoundland not a province of Canada?” is a natural question for Canadians, especially, to ask. A glance at the map is enough in itself to suggest such a question. Here is this large island lying across the St. Lawrence, at Canada's very front door. It looks as if Mother Nature had, in some fit of caprice, cut off, with a snip of some gigantic shears, this triangular piece of territory from the rest of the mainland, and set it a short distance off-shore. It is a part, and yet not a part, of the continent. One side is indeed turned toward Canada, but the other is turned towards the Motherland across the ocean. Standing at the threshold of the New World, Newfoundland still casts a lingering glance at the Old. The most populous and most influential part of the island—the Avalon peninsula—is the part furthest from Canada and nearest to England. As an old political ditty of the year 1869 puts it: “Her face is to Britain, her back to the Gulf.” And this has, in fact, been the prevailing attitude of Newfoundland throughout her history up till the present day.