Curling Gold and National Pride in Newfoundland and Labrador

On Friday February 24th history was made when the Newfoundland and Labrador men’s rink captured curling gold for Canada. Many in the Province and throughout the Country watched with pride as Brad Gushue and the team from the St. John’s curling club captured Canada’s first ever gold medal in curling and the first gold medal of any kind for Canada’s newest Province.

I watched that game with the sort of pride I always feel when a Canadian team reaches for the podium, but this time there was something more, this time my feelings ran just a little bit deeper. This time it was the local boys who had brought it home.

As proud as I was at that moment I didn’t realize that it was even possible to experience an even stronger feeling of pride, not until those initial feelings were eclipsed a few short moments after the game was over.

Let me start by saying that the good folks at CBC Sports deserve a huge round of applause for their treatment of the moments immediately following the Gushue victory. The act of empathy, understanding and diplomacy they displayed during that time touched me and many others very deeply.

Yes Newfoundland and Labrador is indeed a Canadian Province and yes the win was indeed a Canadian win but when CBC Sports took it upon themselves to capture the moment by airing a full and uninterrupted rendition of the Newfoundland Anthem, “The Ode to Newfoundland” they displayed a depth of character the likes of which is not often seen. They also displayed a deep understanding of the Province’s culture and sense of history that should not be forgotten.

For many people across Canada it was perhaps the first time they had heard or even realized that Newfoundland had an Anthem of its own. It was this that started me thinking about our existence in the Canadian Dominion and about how little so many people across this great Country really know about us. Often Newfoundland and Labrador is viewed as the “poor little” province down East or simply the place where “those Newfies” come from. "Kiss da Cod" and grab some "Screech" bye's.

All too often many Canadians are unaware of the rich history and the feelings of pride this place invokes in its people.

Many in the Province, including myself, often debate our treatment at the hands of Ottawa. We talk of having our resources taken to supply smelters and mills “up along”. As a lightly populated Province we sometimes view the current program of equalization based on population as a stumbling block to self sufficiency and growth. We feel that we’ve been let down by the mismanagement that has resulted in the collapse of our fishery, which was the backbone of this place for so long, and we wonder why this Province always seem to take one step forward before taking two backward.

Today, after listening intently as the Ode to Newfoundland being played and upon recognizing the understanding exhibited by a network that cared enough to air the song right across the Country, I have to wonder if we haven’t been fighting the symptoms rather than the problem itself?

If we really examine it closely what it all boils down to is respect. That’s really the only thing any of us really wants isn’t it? Don’t we all want to hold our heads up high and simply know that the rest of Canada truly understands that this place is different? Not that it’s any better or worse than the other Provinces, it’s not that at all, simply that it’s different. I wonder if all aspects of our Canadian experience might not improve it we could simply achieve such a level of understanding.

YesCanada, we do have our own anthem, two in fact, since the Labrador portion of the Province also has a very beautiful one of its own. The reason we have an anthem is because up until the early 1930’s we were an independent Nation on an equal footing with Canada. North America was made up of 4 Countries, Canada, America, Mexico and Newfoundland.

Newfoundland and Labrador has its own dialects, words and phrases that are used nowhere else in the world. We have our own forms of art, music, songs, poetry and lore. We have a history that includes Norse visitors to our shores 500 years before other Europeans even knew North America existed.

During the time of sail we saw settlers and traders arrive on our shores from places like Spain, Portugal, England and France. When the Europeans arrived on U.S. shores onboard the Mayflower and began to settle in the area of Plymouth Rock it was Newfoundland merchants that they traded with for much needed supplies and which helped ensure their survival. While New York was little more than a muddy village St. John’s was a bustling sea port involved in world wide trade.

During the dawn of air travel our little corner of the North Atlantic made Newfoundland the cross roads of the world for international travel. During World War II thousands of allied aircraft built in the U.S. and Canada destined for the war in Europe, left from this place and when the first wireless signal reached across the globe ushering in the age of radio, television and wireless internet that signal was sent from this place.

We are a people that lost 10% of its population during World War I, a level of committment unmatched by any other Nation and we are a place that has seen natural or man made disasters touch our shores and our lives nearly every single year of our existence.

The Province has a culture of closeness and caring that sees the people of Canada’s poorest Province consistently rate as the highest per capita donors to charitable causes in the Country. We are a place where people are accepted for what they are, not what we expect them to be and we have a culture where the pursuit of wealth has, and always will, take a back seat to the nurturing of our family and friends.

People have survived in this sea swept outpost almost continuously for over 500 years and this could not have been accomplished without strength of character, a will to survive and the ability to pick up your neighbour when he’s down, all the while knowing that he will undoubtedly have to do the same thing for you one day.

Life in this place has not always been an easy one. Icy winter storms often rip through the North Atlantic and gale force winds can send merciless waves crashing through villages along its shores. The people have survived here for centuries and it is through this survival that a pride of place has grown in our people. Although life is often much easier today this sense of pride still exists. It flows through the veins of every Newfoundlander and Labradorean, from generation to generation, Father to son and from Mother to daughter.

Yes we are Canadian, but Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans are a people who also feel the same pride in their Province that most other people feel for their Country and I believe that is what we really want the rest of Canada to understand. I believe that if the people of Canada, and by extension the government of Canada itself, were to fully understand what makes this place so special to its people then everything else would begin to fall into place. Simply put, Newfoundland and Labrador is a unique and very special place with all of the trappings of a Nation but none of the power it needs to control its own destiny.

Former Federal MP and Tory Finance Minister John Crosby (Skipper John) once said, “You can always tell who the Newfoundlanders are in Heaven. They’re the ones who want to go home.”