A very parliamentary state: Newfoundland and Labrador as the 50th US state

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Introduction to the timeline
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    • Declan

    This timeline would cover the process of Newfoundland and Labrador becoming the 50th, and most recent state of the US, along with it's unique political situations. This timeline would cover events from statehood until the year 2000(to avoid the modern politics clause).

    My first timeline I'm posting here.

    I will be using fictional characters eventually, so if you see an unfamiliar name, it's probably made.
    I'll try to update as frequently as I can
     
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    • Rikard Osenzi

    Truenorth14 said:
    What convinces Newfoundland to join the US?
    Click to expand...
    My guess is that Responsible Government wins in the 1948 referendum, and the Economic Union party wins a majority of seats in parliament. It'll be really interesting to see how this would affect US-UK-Canadian relations.
     
    The Election of the convention
  • Index

    • Declan

    1945, VJ day.
    In London, many bureaucrats and politicians breathed a sigh of relief. The war was finally over without the UK having to send off it's men to help in what was to be a very bloody Operation Downfall. Now they can turn to the many other issues facing the UK at that time. The elephant in the room being that the UK was pretty much bankrupt. Which was problematic for the empire at large, but especially for the Dominion of Newfoundland, which was bankrupt even before the war.
    For the past few years, Newfoundland was under a commission in exchange for the economic aid from the UK. With the metropole itself in crisis, everyone knew something had to be done about Newfoundland.

    The best option the UK could think of was just dumping Newfoundland onto Canada, the relatively more prosperous dominion. The only problem being that the Newfoundlanders didn't want to join Canada.

    Regardless, Newfoundland was at th crossroads, and a decision needed to be made. Pursuant to this, a convention was called for. The members elected by Newfoundlanders. In 1946, the election for the convention was to be held. On one side, Joey Smallwood, a longtime advocate for Canadian confederation waged his campaign. On the other side, there was the Responsible Government movement.
    Initally the Responsibile Government side appeared to be lackluster at campaigning; giving the pro-confederation side and fence sitters the edge. That is until one man was brought in to be the chief campaigner for the League. A man named Nick O'Balley. O'Balley, though of distant Irish heritage, was a Protestant. This gave him the ability to balance the simmering tensions regarding the Irish minority in the Dominion. In addition, O'Balley had recently returned home from the war(as a volunteer), among the first to be demobilized in September 1945. He immediately jumped into politics upon his return.

    O'Balley was a belligerent, yet effective campaigner. His charisma on a round tour of the dominion helped him win over more people to his cause. However, Nick was a relatively young politician, at only 33 years old. Joey, a radio host, believed the best way to neuter this up-and-coming politician was to humiliate him on a radio debate. Joey extended the offer to come on the show to debate. Nick agreed. Contrary to what Joey intended, Nick was quite able to hold his own in the debate and it ended in a verbal stalemate. After this, Nick essentially became the face of the responsible government movement.

    Finally, in June 1946, the election was held. A contentious one indeed. But one in which the League, representing the responsible government side had a majority.
     
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  • Index
    • Comparing deals
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    • Declan

    When the convention gathered, the Responsible government side dominated. This was due to them having a majority, in addition to fence sitters who could be persuaded either way. The two charismatic titans, Smallwood and O'Balley ensured that debate was always present.


    In 1946, the convention dispatched a delegation to London to negotiate Newfoundland's future, the results were grim. Simply: the UK wouldn't want them and would offer no economic assistance to a responsible government.
    In 1947, a motion to send a delegation to Ottawa to explore a potential membership of the confederation was proposed. O'Balley decided to support this motion, but not unconditionally. He proposed a counter proposal: sending a delegation to Washington. Both were passed on the same day.

    For the most part, the idea that Newfoundland could become part of the US was a remote, yet dreaded one. Now, however, momentum seemed to be starting for union with Washington. Governor Macdonald, and chairman of the commission, decided to do his best to nip it at the bud. Within hours of the Washington delegation motion passing, he announced that the commission simply will not allow Newfoundland the option of joining the US as part of this restructuring process. London and Ottawa breathed a sigh of relief.
    Since the Washington delegation was effectively overruled, much to the annoyance of O'Balley, only a delegation was sent to Ottawa. To avoid bias, half would be pro-confederation supporters(including Smallwood) and the other half would be responsible government supporters/undecideds.

    As negotiated dragged on, the maritime and fishing issues formed a major hurdle that neither side could cross, Eventually, fed up responsible government supporters simply left negotiations. The Canadian side refused to negotiate unless the entire delegation was present.
    The collapse of negotiations with Canada was a massive PR disaster for the pro-confederation. The delegation was recalled, and the convention decided to send another delegation to Ottawa, one that would be more amicable to Ottawa. O'Balley decided to strike while the iron was hot, he moved to follow through with sending a delegation to Washington; and he succeeded. Two delegations were dispatched, the rebooted Ottawa one and the one for Washington.

    This time, the Ottawa delegation managed to come back with a proposed deal, that would allow Canada to help out Newfoundland. The Ottawa deal paled into comparison the one the Washington delegation came back with. President Truman had no real strong interests in annexing Newfoundland, but a permanent security of US bases and a lingering sense of manifest destiny inclined him to support it. Newfoundland's debt was less that a $100 million, while no drop in the bucket, it paled in comparison to US debt; which the later was handling quite fine. Importantly, the US economy was beginning to take off, making the US more than capable of dealing with Newfoundland's debt. Truman proposed the US federal government would directly foot the bill for 85% percent of Newfoundland's debt and the rest to the state government. On non-debt matters, the US constitution's broad relegations of power to the states means that Newfoundland would be able to meet its desires with respect to fisheries.

    However, this report would never be presented to the whole convention. Since the US option was effectively moot, the convention chair dismissed presenting it. Leaving only the London and Ottawa reports to be presented. Since he couldn't present it to the convention, O'Balley decided to present it to the public, holding various rallies to not only read out the Washington report, but how the government is trying to censor it. Once made public, Canada made a hasty edit its plan; a counter offer of 90% of Newfoundland's debt to be taken on by the federal government.

    Regardless, an impact was made by O'Balley and the delegations. The very favourable US deal as presented opened the minds of many Newfoundlanders to the fact that the US is a realistic option to go to. On the converse, the breakdown of negotiations, and the less than favourable Canadian deal left a bitter taste towards Confederation.
    The pro-confederation side had lost this round.
     
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  • Index
    • Challenging the choices
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    • Declan

    The Commission went the reports presented at the convnetion from the different delegates. Their task was to use those reports as a guide to determine what's to do. They came to the consensus that a direct referndum needs to be called. But what would be the options was the real question. The Commission set out a draft a referendum for 1948. In it, there would be three options: Continue the Commission, return of Responsible government, or join Canada.

    This unusual set up was not lost on Nick O'Balley and his supporters. By putting three options, they reckoned the commission was trying its best to bias Newfoundland to Canada. In this regards, the commission was acting on the interests of the UK, which aligned with Canada's dream of annexing Newfoundland.
    Before further details were released, O'Balley began to organize a response.

    There were a few, scattered, isolated isolated protests over this, by and large the discontent this caused stayed in the realm of political talk in pubs. The iron was hot, and O'Balley was going to strike. He created a petition to send to the governor, requesting a more fair referendum.

    Using position in the convention as a bully pulpit, and with the help of a few sympathetic businessmen, he promptly put the petition in circulation. He was soon able to get over 10,000 signatures and counting quickly. After a few days, O'Balley put out an annoucement on the radio: it call for all signers to join in on a march on the 17th of October to the Governor's residence to deliver the petition.

    Come the day of the march, the quaint streets of Newfoundland's capital saw protest action. Over 6000 people answered O'Balley's call. The protesters marched to the Governor's residence, where O'Balley entered as the sole representative of the protest. The Governor, in spite of the protest, allowed O'Balley in since he was a convention member. There, the petition was delivered. The process was quick and O'Balley soon rejoined the protesters.
    He lead the protesters a square in town. On short notice, he planned to give a speech. He only had a microphone, a couple speakers, and a park bench top as stage. He derided the referendum as layed out, as a backdoor victory plan for the confederation side. He called for true democracy for Newfoundland, to cheers of the crowd.

    Joey Smallwood, the major pro-confederation politician, payed little attention to the petition initially. He assumed it would go nowhere. When the protest did manifest, he still said nothing. Joey had also inferred the referendum would be biased to the confederation side, hence loved it. Regardless, he though he could count on the Commission to remain resolute in their decision. He was wrong.

    The next day, the commission met at the behest of the governor. There, the governor presented the petition, signed by thousands, to the other commissioners. The commission had actually planned a 50% minimum and a runoff if neither of the top two me it. But this wasn't released to the public, as the referendum was still being finalized. At the meeting, the commission discussed whether to go public with their plans to disuade fears, or change the referendum entirely. By a slim margin, the commission voted to change it.

    Instead, there would be two referendums, at maximum. The first one was a simple yes/no on continuing the commission itself. The second, provided "no" won would be to decide Newfoundland's fate, whether it be responsible government or joining Canada.

    O'Balley and his side rejoiced when these changes were announced. This entire debacle was negative to Smallwood's side. His silence on the matter, on the assumption it would blow over, backfired, and made that side appear as scheming to undo the self determination of the Newfoundlanders. But most importantly, it was another boost in Nick O'Balley's career. Even among his own side, he was regarded as young hot heat. Though a major force on the election to the convention, he had often deferred to the more experienced politicians on his side when dealing with the convention. Now, this protest solidied him as the most prominent pro-responsible government politician in Newfoundland.
     
  • Index
    • The Referendum
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    • Declan

    Once the commission had finalized the referendum, the remaining months of 1947 into the beginning of 1948 were a period devoid of the major political controversies of the recent past. The convention, which had served its purpose, was dismissed. The commission had managed to stay out of controversy. Everything for the time being was settled; now it was a a matter of waiting.

    In March 1948, campaigning officially began. Nick O'Balley and Joey Smallwood ushering it in for their respective sides. The referendum was scheduled for May of that year. This referendum was to decide whether to terminate the commission or not. Despite this, both sides ignored this issue entirely; everyone in Newfoundland knew the commission was going to get booted out. Instead, the focus of the campaign was on the expected second referendum: to join Canada or return to Responsible government. Up and down the land, campaigners went to rally Newfoundlanders to their side.

    As expected, the first referendum resulted over 75% of voters electing to terminate the commission. The second referendum was scheduled to be held later that month. For the most part, this was the final leg of the campaign. During the entire campaign, O'Balley adopted a tactic he knew that the pro-confederation campaign couldn't beat: extending what amount to an olive branch to the pro-confederation side. O'balley emphatically announced he's not an independence absolutist. He understands that Newfoundland is in dire straits, of which outside help may be needed. Pursuant to that, O'Balley said that he wouldn't rule out the possibility of joining Canada sometime in the near future. But that should only occur if the options of Newfoundland under responsible government look increasingly unlikely to yield good returns. He then compared his own attitude with that of Smallwood, arguing confederation seals the deal for Newfoundland as part of Canada for the foreseeable future.

    The day of the second referendum arrived. Anticipation was building for the results. When it was all counted: Responsible government won by a 5% margin, even better than what was expected. O'Balley and his side rejoiced while the pro-confederation side wallowed in their major loss. The choice of the Newfoundlanders was in. The commission just had to implement it. Back in London, the government was pressuring the commission to get the issue over as quickly as possible to avoid paying the costs of the continued commission and financial relief. So the commissioners decided to schedule elections for July 1948.
    Newfoundland was now on the road to elections
     
  • Index
    • The Parties formed
  • Index

    • Declan

    The implementation of the referendum results was anticipated to be soon thereafter. But elections in July caught everyone in the Newfoundland political scene off-guard. With campaigning began the day after the election announcement, it was almost as it campaigning had never stopped since the referendum campaign.


    When the commission had originally been formed, all prior political parties had been dissolved. Now the time had come to reform parties, and quickly at that. Joey Smallwood was left leaning and an activist for the Liberal party prior to its dissolution. To no surprise he reformed the Liberal party with him as its leader to run with it. With Smallwood at its helm, the Liberal party, in addition liberal and left wing views, incorporate pro-confederation as one of its main policies. One that Smallwood ensured all ranking party members, that he was appointing, adhered to.

    Nick O'Balley had achieved the overarching political goal of his career so far: re-establishing responsible government. By all accounts, this would logically be the point where he leaves the political scene. But he was still very young, and he a lot of political momentum and notoriety behind him. If he gave up now, all that political potential would go to waste. He didn't have a lot of time to make a decision, in this short campaign, days mattered. So O'Balley decided to run for parliament. To do so, he formed his own political party: the Alliance for the Fiscal Restoration of Newfoundland(AFRN) party. With him as leader, O'Balley was ipso facto in the running for prime minister.

    There was a third party. While Smallwood, a liberal, dominated the pro-confederation campaign, the issue of responsible government vs confederation had split even the left and right wing. There were some conservatives who held the monarchy and Britain dear to heart. For these people, the desire of the UK for Newfoundland to join Canada put them in the pro-confederation side. So they formed the Conservative Party of Newfoundland(Tories). The Conservative party was slightly to the right of most conservatives in the province.

    The AFRN as a party was big tent in nature, in spite of O'Balley being on the ideological left. For him, the party had one simple mission: putting Newfoundland back on track. The party was essentially a way to put a formal umbrella under the pro-responsible government coalition than had formed: with liberals, centrists, and conservatives all joining. In districts likely to go for left wing candidate, O'Balley put a left wing candidate. Conversely, in rural right wing districts, O'Balley ran a right wing candidate. As alluded to previously, the conservatives in the AFRN were not as conservative as those in the Tory party.
     
  • Index
    • General election of 1948
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    • Declan

    During their campaigns, both the Tories and Liberals coincidentally, yet unsurprisingly, had the exact same policy as their centre piece; renegotiating with Canada once in power. For O'Balley, this was an easy target. The dominion had just had a referendum. Appealing the weariness of the populace to the confederation debate, he chastised both parties as trying win with their party in power what they couldn't win in a referendum. For that reason, he argued, they should not be in power. He contrasted that with his new AFRN party, which he promised would move Newfoundland beyond this issue. Pursuant to this, the AFRN's main policy on its platform was dealing with the debt. As a result of WW2, the UK had actually negotiated not paying any of Newfoundland's debt until 1949 to focus on the war. One of the AFRN's planks was that it won't ask for another extension, but tackle the debt head on when payments resumed.


    O'Balley, once again, reiterated his statement during the referendum campaign: that's not an independence absolutist. He was open to the possibility that Newfoundland may need to join a large union, once all else had failed. Most important in this statement, in contrast to his previous one, he never said anything directed indicated it would be Canada Newfoundland might join.

    O'Balley went on a round tour of the province preaching his message to Newfoundlanders who readily accepted his vision. It soon became clear that both the Liberals and Tories were being outplayed by the AFRN.

    The election was held on July 10th. With the campaign before to judge, the results were unsurprising. The AFRN had won 17 seats out of the 28 seat parliament. It had a popular vote share of 51%. The Liberal party came in second with 6 seats with 26% of the popular vote. Last came the Conservative party with 5 seats and 22% of the popular vote. The remaining 1% when the miscellaneous persons. The Tory party had done well in the rural, anglo dominated seats(however small they were) while the Liberals and AFRN fought it out in the cities. The AFRN emerging victorious

    On July 20th, the parliament was sworn. Almost immediately after being sworn into parliament, O'Balley was whisked away to the governor's office. With his party controlling the majority of seats, he as their leader was to become prime minister. On that day, the Governor swore him in.
    Nick O'Balley, at age 35, was sworn in as the 11th Prime Minister of Newfoundland
     
  • Index
    • Austerity and Crisis
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    • Declan

    Upon assumption of the premiership, the first task O'Balley got to was to begin drafting a balanced budget, inclusive of debt repayments. For a government that ballooned in debt, this was the most logical step. But it was the hardest. There would be outcry over the drastic cuts, and the raised taxes, but to O'Balley, there simply was no room to negotiate.


    The 1948-1949 fiscal year budget was released, planned well in advance. In parliament, immediately after the reading, O'Balley made a speech. In it, he called for restraint, he called this a necessary sacrifice. One that every Newfoundlander knew was the right thing to do. He argued that this a burden the must be carried, if Newfoundland is to remain independent.


    In contrast, the Liberals and Tories walked out. Both parties soon thereafter held rallies to start organizing protests. To them, the costs of Newfoundland's self-rule was already too high to bare. Persons from both parties filed motions for parliament to reconsider confederation with Canada. There were discontent and peaceful street protests, certainly the largest since the days of the convention and referendum. In all of this, O'Balley make several speeches to both soothe and build acquiescence to the budget. For the most part it worked. His charisma, and pre-existing popularity, keeping his administration above water. Easing dominion into austerity without riots and his administration imploding was by no easy task for a new prime minister, but O'Balley did it.

    One year later, the budget worked as intended. The government kept within budget. Most importantly, the country made every debt payment on time. Inevitably, there would come an economic downturn, but by late 1949, the information from latest quarter indicates that the rate of economic growth may start to increase in subsequent quarters.
    In parliament, he made a note of that in a regular PMQ. Furthermore, in that session, he noted that the opposition were still incessant on joining Canada and made response.
    He said:
    "The opposition on the other side, still thinks that we should give up all our efforts, despite the progress I have shown. Is it not worth seeing this tunnel of light to the end first? However, I recall what I said when campaigning in last year, and I'll make a solid promise, so as long as I'm in the majority, parliament would consider the issue of joining a larger union only after 2 years from now. Only then can we make the first true judgements on this experiment, and talk about joining Canada. Or the US for the matter. For what it's worth, assuming the deal they gave us a few years back still holds true, I think that could be more advantageous to the dominion. But I digress."

    This comment, was fleeting but important because it was the first time since the convention, when someone elected mentioned joining the US. Furthermore, it came from the prime minister himself. O'Balley didn't know it, but his words had just ignited a diplomatic dispute between three countries.
     
  • Index
    • The Newfoundland Crisis I
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    • Declan

    The news of O'Balley's speech reached Canada. Despite it only being a small section of the speech, it caused alarm in Canada. The Canadian government disliked this development. Relations between Canada and the US were close, Canada was even run by the pro-US liberal party in 1949. Despite this, ceding Newfoundland would give the US a lot of control over the Gulf of St Lawrence, and thus access to the St Lawrence river. It caused a lot of anxiety. The Canadian government knew that the Tories would not be happy about this in the slightest. In fact, the majority of Canadians disapproved of such a development.

    In the UK, the news was muted, but the government still reacted to it. Newfoundland, though under responsible government, has deferred all matters of foreign policy to the UK, though voluntarily. If Newfoundland was indeed pursuing statehood, it would be conducting its own foreign policy. To clarify the situation, the government ordered the governor of Newfoundland to have a meeting with O'Balley.
    Canada summoned the British representatives to find out themselves what was going.
    In the meeting O'Balley confirmed the comment was in passing and not actual policy. The British then informed the Canadians of this.

    Despite being at the centre of unfolding dispute, the US was very much uninterested in it. It barely made news in the vast country and the federal government didn't say anything. That is until a Canadian journalist managed speak with Secretary of State, Dean Acheson. This conversation was only fleeting, Acheson only had about 5 minutes to spare. In it, the journalist asked for Acheson's reactions to the Newfoundland dispute. Acheson wasn't too versed in the dispute and mistakenly assumed Newfoundland was making a semi serious bid for statehood. In the interview, Acheson reiterated that the previous offer to Newfoundland(when under the commission) was still valid and that the US would actively work towards making Newfoundland a state.

    This caused uproar in Canada. It was the news story of the day. In the UK, the situation was getting concerning. To calm any residual fears, the Governor made O'Balley give a radio address to explicitly announce that there are no current plans to join the US. As a result America's two major allies were getting increasingly uncomfortable over the situation, US press finally started paying attention to it(with a measure of bewilderment over it).

    Lyndon Johnson, the senator from Texas, commented on this. It was a short, crude remark typical of his style. When asked by a reporter Canada's objections, he simply said, "They can go kick rocks". The next day it was front page news in Canada the next day. It started to turn some of the fear against Newfoundland potentially joining the US into anger, especially among the pro-British Canadians. In response to Lyndon's, a Canadian Tory MP suggested Canada and the UK should just occupy and then simply annex Newfoundland into Canada.

    So far, the dispute of the US vs Canada and the UK had been a war of words, waged in the press and government statements. A one sided one at that. At a diplomatic level, nothing happened. But that was to change. This had gone on for long enough, and finally, ambassadors were being summoned.
    The diplomats came back with a successful resolution in talks that were approved by Harry Truman, Louis St Laurent, and Clement Attlee.
    A joint statement of the three countries was produced and disseminated to the press. In it, the US stated it values the self-determination of the Newfoundlanders and that is not working towards any change in the status quo, and that it will respect any outcome. Most importantly, it basically stated that all three would just forget this saga and reset relations to before this all started. This ended the dispute 11 days after it began when O'Balley made his address to parliament. For Canada and the UK, this was a satisfactory enough conclusion.

    The event that would later on in history become known as the First Newfoundland crisis had ended.
     
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  • Index
    • Protests against austerity
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    • Declan

    The imposition of austerity in 1948 caused the quality of life for many in Newfoundland to decline and rapidly at that.

    For the first year of austerity, there was some growth. But in the following years, the economic growth would fluctuate between a slow positive growth and negative growth in the next. Starting in 1951, there would be, however, a consistent decline in wages, while unemployment and poverty increased.
    From the get go, there were a large number of people who, seeing that there was another option, disliked the auterity. As the years passed, frustrations grew and more people began dislike the austerity imposed.

    In April 1953, notices began circulating around the capital of St Johns. It called for a protest against auterity on the 10th. This would the first protest of its scale against austerity. The organizers, disgruntled Newfoundlanders of all backgrounds, hoped for 1000 people to turn up. On the day of the event, they easily breached that number. For most of the day it was a simple protest. As evening drew and the crowds dispered, some protesters remained. The remaining protesters were mainly unemployed youth. At some point a handful of people started getting violent and it started to spread. For those people it was if a dam had broken, pent up frustrations being released. Soon there was a small riot in St Johns. Windows were smashed and on one street rubbish was dragged into it and set alight.

    The police would be sent in. By nightfall, the rioters were arrested. The next day, the news of what had happened at the protest was frontpage news in Newfoundland. The police were quick to dismiss the rioters as just some hooligans. It was shocking, not only for the city of St Johns but Newfoundland as whole to have a riot. There was a knock-on effect that the news had. Seeing that this was over austerity, some people in other towns too started to form their own protests. St. Johns itself would see protest again by the afternoon of the 11th.

    Prime Minister O'Balley, like all Newfoundlanders, keenly followed the news of the riot and protests. Elections were in July of this year. At the point, O'Balley realized something had to change, lest his parliamentary opponents seize this wave of popular sentiment and ride to electoral victory. O'Balley in the next PMQs would directly address the protests. O'Balley yielded to pressue, the government, he said, would stop debt repayments and begin easing the austerity. O'Balley would hope that the next budget would be free from all austerity measured as by now, he privately decided that Newfoundlanded needed to pick a country to unify with.
     
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