Is Newfoundland joining Confederation inevitable?

I often notice that we have certain ideas of nations because we've always seen them in the same way on a map. Consider a U.S. that only connects to the Pacific via Washington and Oregon. How freak would that be? Anyways, sometimes looking at a map, one can make all kinds of generalizations.

Like say Newfoundland. It's just an island with a small population, right? So it has to be part of Canada, right? Just gravitates towards it. No sense leaving it out. But it wasn't part of the mainland until 1949. And in retrospect, New Zealand is tiny compared to Australia, but ANZAC isn't a single country.

So why is that? And could Newfoundland have remained independent?
 
I often notice that we have certain ideas of nations because we've always seen them in the same way on a map. Consider a U.S. that only connects to the Pacific via Washington and Oregon. How freak would that be? Anyways, sometimes looking at a map, one can make all kinds of generalizations.

Like say Newfoundland. It's just an island with a small population, right? So it has to be part of Canada, right? Just gravitates towards it. No sense leaving it out. But it wasn't part of the mainland until 1949. And in retrospect, New Zealand is tiny compared to Australia, but ANZAC isn't a single country.

So why is that? And could Newfoundland have remained independent?

Hell yes. They were, and are, pretty independant-minded; Joey Smallwood dragged them kicking and screaming into Confederation. I have no trouble whatsoever seeing the Dominion of Newfoundland reach the 21st century. It would be pretty economically close to Canada, of course, but the oil boom after they discovered Hibernia might actually make them pretty prosperous. Hmmm...
 
I like the idea of an independent Newfoundland much for the novelty of it. It's one of those footnotes in the 20th century Americas, much like the short-lived West Indies Federation.
 
Discovery of the Voisey Bay FeNiCuCo deposit, maybe the garnet/zircon/rutile beach sands, the Grandpa's Knob FeMn deposit and the iron mines of the Quebec/Labrador district, though that one needs a railroad to get to tidewater. How to get Sept Iles into Labrador?
And Newfoundland also has the island sites. Au, PbZnAg, etc. I'm not sure about those. They are not magnetic or surface deposits. Might be undetectable at 1934 technology.
 
And in retrospect, New Zealand is tiny compared to Australia, but ANZAC isn't a single country.

Offtopic, but I HATE it when people misuse the term "ANZAC" like this. "ANZAC" stands for "Australian and New Zealand Army Corps" - it was a military abbreviation, like RAAF or RAN. "ANZAC" is NOT a term that should be used to collectively refer to Australia and New Zealand... unless both countries were unified under a military junta...
 
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