COD

Before Europeans settled in Newfoundland, the ships just followed the cod. Then it was brought ashore to be salted and dried in coastal villages founded for just that purpose. But history does repeat itself. Once again, fishing is mostly migratory, with countries sending massive factory-freezer trawlers around the world to harvest and process the catch at sea.

Newfoundland and Labrador's historic cod fisheries attracted local and international fishing fleets for almost five centuries before the Canadian government shut the industry down indefinitely in July 1992.

By then, once-plentiful fish stocks had dwindled to near extinction and officials feared they would disappear entirely if the fisheries remained open. The moratorium put about 30,000 people in the province out of work and ended a way of life that had endured for generations in many outport communities. It also made evident the vulnerability of marine resources to overexploitation and that existing regulatory regimes were insufficient to protect cod stocks.

10th Province

In Newfoundland, the Anti-Confederates, led by businessman Charles Fox Bennett, defeated the government of the pro-Confederation Premier Sir Frederick Carter in 1869, effectively killing Confederation as a saleable proposal for two generations.

In the referendum of June 1948, the responsible government option received 44.6 per cent of votes, Confederation received 41.1 per cent and the Commission Government option received 14.3 per cent. A month later a run-off vote was held between responsible government and Confederation, and Confederation won with 52.3 per cent support.

Canada was eager to bring Newfoundland into Confederation, partly out of fears that the United States, with a large military presence there, would one day take possession of the territory. Smallwood led a team to Ottawa to negotiate the terms of entry with Prime Minister Mackenzie King. The British and Canadian parliaments approved of the terms of merger, and on 31 March 1949, Newfoundland became Canada’s 10th province. Smallwood was elected its first premier.

In 2001, the province's name was officially changed to Newfoundland and Labrador.