History of Newfoundland and Labrador - 20th Century

20th Century

Sir Robert Bond (1857–1927) was a Newfoundland nationalist who insisted upon the colony's equality of status with Canada, and opposed joining the confederation. Bond promoted the completion of a railway across the island (started in 1881) because it would open access to valuable minerals and timber and reduce the almost total dependence on the cod fisheries. He advocated closer economic ties with the United States, and distrusted London for ignoring the island's viewpoint on the controversial issue of allowing French fisherman to process lobsters on the French Coast, and for blocking a trade deal with the U.S. Bond became Liberal Party leader in 1899 and premier in 1900. In 1904 he helped negotiate the end of all French fishing rights, and was reelected in a landslide. His efforts to restrict the rights of American fishermen failed. His party was badly defeated in 1909 and Bond proved an ineffective opposition leader. Bond formed a coalition with the new Fishermen's Protective Union (FPU), led by William Coaker (1871–1938).

Founded in 1908, the FPU worked to increase the incomes of fishermen by breaking the merchants' monopoly on the purchase and export of fish and the retailing of supplies, and tried to revitalize the fishery through state intervention. At its peak, it had more than 21,000 members in 206 councils across the island; more than half of Newfoundland's fishers. It appealed to Protestants, and was opposed by Catholics. The FPU morphed into a political party in 1912, the Fisherman's Union party.

In 1909 Bond was succeeded as premier by Edward Morris (1859–1935), a prominent Catholic and founder of the new People's Party. Morris began a grandiose program of building branch railways, and adeptly handled the arbitration at the Hague tribunal on American fishing rights. He introduced old-age pensions, and increased investment in education and rural infrastructure. In the prosperous and peaceful year of 1913 he was reelected. As a result of a wartime crisis over conscription, and the decline of his popularity due to accusations of wartime profiteering and conflict of interest, Morris set up an all-party war government in 1917 to oversee the duration of the war. He retired in 1917, moved to London, and was given a peerage as first Baron Morris, the only Newfoundlander ever so honored.