Joey Smallwood

Joey Smallwood Signs Newfoundland's Declaration of Accession to the Canadian Confederation (March 31, 1949)

Joseph "Joey" Roberts Smallwood , PC , CC , (born December 24, 1900 in Gambo , Newfoundland ; † December 18, 1991 in St. John's ) was a Canadian politician , journalist , author , encyclopedist and trade unionist . He was the driving force behind Newfoundland's accession to Canada, which took place on March 31, 1949, and for this reason is considered one of the fathers of the Confederation . A day later he was appointed the first prime minister of the new province and held this office until January 18, 1972. During this time he was also chairman of the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador .

Profession and entry into politics

Smallwood was born in Gambo, a village on the east coast of Newfoundland. When he was five months old, his family moved to the city of St. John's. The family lived in poverty, so Smallwood dropped out of school at the age of 15 and began an apprenticeship as a printer at St. John's Plaindealer newspaper . In addition, he gained his first experience as a journalist. In 1920 he moved to New York , where he worked for the socialist newspaper The Call . There he met Clara Oates, whom he married in 1925. In the same year he returned to Newfoundland and founded the short-lived Labor Outlook . He also worked for the Daily Globe newspaper , which had to suspend its publication due to bankruptcy. After a trip to England , Smallwood settled in Corner Brook on the west coast of the island and started a newspaper there again.

Smallwood had been a unionist for several years. But his political views had shifted more and more towards the center, so that he eventually joined the Liberal Party . In the 1928 elections he wanted to run for the Liberals, but when party leader Richard Squires himself showed interest in the Humber constituency , Smallwood waived in his favor and became its campaign manager. In return, he was appointed justice of the peace . After the elections, Smallwood founded the liberal newspaper The Watchdog in St. John's .

In 1932 he ran in the constituency of Bonavista , but was not elected. The Barrelman radio show emerged from a column in the Daily News in 1937 . In this quarter-hour program, broadcast six times a week by the state broadcaster BCN , Smallwood shared a variety of anecdotes to promote Newfoundlanders' pride in their own culture and history. This made him known throughout Newfoundland. In 1943 he left the station and ran a pig farm near Gander Airport .

Commitment to joining Canada

Since 1934, due to political and economic crises , the once independent Dominion Newfoundland had been administered directly by a government commission that was directly subordinate to the British government. In 1946 the new Labor government under Clement Attlee announced that it would review the status of Newfoundland. She set up the Newfoundland National Convention , which was to advise on the future constitutional role of the colony.

Smallwood was elected to the 45-member national convention. He was in favor of Newfoundland and Labrador joining Canada as he saw it as the best way to create a stable economy and prosperity. In June 1947, Smallwood was part of a delegation that explored the possibility of joining the Canadian federal government in Ottawa . The supporters of an accession formed a minority in the National Convention, the majority sought to return to the status before 1934.

When the national convention refused to raise the question of membership in the mandatory referendum, Smallwood founded the Confederate Association, a lobbying organization, and used his reputation to vigorously advertise membership in radio programs and newspaper articles. Governor Gordon Macdonald finally admitted the question of membership as one of three possibilities.

In the first referendum on June 3, 1948, none of the options achieved an absolute majority. On July 22nd there was a casting vote, in which the supporters of membership prevailed with 52.3% of the votes. Negotiations with Canada were completed and the House of Commons issued the Newfoundland Act . On March 31, 1949, Smallwood, who had been appointed interim head of government, signed the declaration of accession to the Canadian Confederation shortly before midnight .

prime minister

On April 1, 1949, the day after the historic event , Smallwood took office as Prime Minister of the new province. In the first elections to the Newfoundland House of Representatives on May 27, the Liberals he led won a clear majority of the seats. Over the next twenty years, Smallwood's leadership was virtually unchallenged, and the Liberals won another five straight elections.

Smallwood was also Minister for Economic Development and thus had almost unlimited control over the settlement of industrial plants in the province. In doing so, he relied to a large extent on the advice of Alfred Valdmanis , who had been Latvia's Finance Minister until 1939 and was appointed Director General in 1950. Its task was to enable increased investments in the agricultural province through its relations with German and Baltic industrialists. However, the efforts were largely unsuccessful. In 1954, Valdmanis was released on charges of financial fraud (which he later spent two years in prison for). In the subsequent scandal was revealed that he during the Second World War the Nazis had collaborated.

On the other hand, the Churchill Falls hydropower project , which was implemented on the Churchill River in Labrador between 1967 and 1974, was successful . Towards the end of the 1960s, there was increasing criticism of Smallwood, who was accused of governing autocratically. Joining the Canadian Confederation led to generous compensation payments by the federal government, the distribution and use of which Smallwood largely decided itself.

In 1969 Smallwood was only just able to prevail against John Crosbie , who had challenged him for the party chairmanship. Crosbie and other liberals turned away disappointed and joined the opposition Progressive Conservative Party . In the October 1971 elections, the Liberals lost an absolute majority for the first time, but Smallwood refused to resign. It lasted until January 18, 1972, when the only member of the Labrador Party withdrew his support and the government no longer had a majority. Shortly afterwards, Smallwood also gave up his parliamentary mandate.

further activities

After a failed attempt to be re-elected party chairman, Smallwood founded the Newfoundland Reform Liberal Party in 1974 , which won five seats in the September 1975 elections. In 1977 he reconciled himself with the Liberals, but finally gave up his mandate in June of that year.

Smallwood's favorite pastime was writing. In 1937 he had published The Book of Newfoundland , a two-volume work on the history of the island. In the mid-1960s he resumed his writing activity. In 1968 he joined the Freemasons . After the end of his political career, he devoted himself to the Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador . The first volume of this encyclopedia appeared in 1981, the second in 1984. Three years later, the JR Smallwood Foundation was established to enable the encyclopedia to be completed. Smallwood did not live to see the publication of the last three volumes.

The Smallwood Reservoir , a reservoir in western Labrador , is named after him . The 1998 novel The Colony of Unfulfilled Dreams by Wayne Johnston is based in large part on Smallwood's life story, but also contains numerous fictional elements.

Works

• The book of Newfoundland (1937)
• The face of Newfoundland (1967)
• No apology from me (1967)
• I chose Canada: The memoirs of the Honorable Joseph R. "Joey" Smallwood (1969)
• To you with affection from Joey (1969)
• The time has come to tell (1979)
• Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador (1981)

See also

• From the Innu's perspective

Web links

• Joey Smallwood ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• Biography of Joey Smallwood - Library and Archives Canada
• The Confederation Debate: 50 years and counting

Individual evidence

1. ^ Newfoundland National Convention 1946-1948 - Heritage Newfoundland page
2. ^ Ottawa Delegation 1947 - Heritage Newfoundland page
3. ^ Newfoundland History - Marianopolis College page
4. ^ Gerhard P. Bassler: Alfred Valdmanis and the Politics of Survival. University of Toronto Press, Toronto 2000. ISBN 0-8020-4413-1 .
5. ^ Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon