Quote:
Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker
Ha! 
One thing that has shocked me since moving home is the strength of separatist sentiment. I simply didn't hear it growing up - now it's everywhere.
Even my parents have said, when they were growing up, no one even thought of independence as an option.
They said, about 25 years ago, people really started to bring it up in anger, or as a joke - but now it comes up all the time, in every political conversation, as a realistic and sober option.
There seems to be a passion for it that wasn't there before as well. I notice a lot of people, especially the younger generation, seem disappointed and even saddened by the political status quo. They feel... robbed of something, they feel it personally.
And the attempts to revive some of the aspects of our culture that were lost following Confederation are obvious enough. The Mummers Parade, as you know, perfect example.
I'm... not saying too much. But I think Newfoundland really is moving in a separatist direction. I don't think we're anywhere close to that yet, but I do think - if nothing changes in our relationship with Canada - that's where we're headed. We're definitely becoming less integrated, politically and emotionally, not more. |
I disagree with you. Do we wonder how history would have unfolded had we voted to stay our own nation, yes! But nobody I know has a separatist attitude. We tend to think of ourselves as Newfoundlanders first, and Canadians second.
Te rest of Canada also seems to often forget we exist. For example, often on national news programs/ morning talk shows they will give out the national weather, but they stop at Halifax as if we do not even exist. Another example, the term Maratimes. (NB, NS, PEI. NL excluded) I hear this word often on the news as opposed to "Atlantic Canada". Just another way we are excluded.
As former premier Danny Williams would put it, the rest of Canada too often gives Newfoundland "the shaft". But even though we are different than the rest of Canada, often excluded, and made the butt of jokes across the country, we put up with it!
Although the vast majority of us as a province, are much more patriotic to Newfoundland than Canada, separation will never happen. I have never even heard of Newfoundland Seperatists before. We need Canada. There is no way you would ever get the public here to support separation, unless some huge disagreement with the federal government.
Had the outcome of the vote been different, we may have made it on our own. But today, it makes no economic or political sense, and is something that has never even crossed my mind.
There is no way we would make it as a nation. No way.
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