They're not sensitive about their Irish heritage (though my father-in-law's family is likely scottish heritage so there goes that generalization), rather they see themselves as let down by the British govmt (who just wanted to offload a tiny colony in the middle of nowhere), which means they had very similar treatment to the Irish (especially Northern Ireland).Originally Posted by TriangleMan
I'm not arguing that this is necessarily the truth, but rather that a significant proportion of Newfoundlanders see it as such.
Additionally, since confederation (where they signed away what they see as a lot of their "distinct" culture), they see themselves as victims of greedy mainland provincial governments (eg Churchill Falls- I'm lead to believe that the NL govt receives no revenue from this, instead Quebec receives it all; Atlantic Oil- which employs few to no NL residents as labour and profits are sourced from Big Canadian Oil which is based in Alberta).
Then of course there is the ongoing fishery debacle which many from NL see as being an imposition at best and downright insulting at worst. (Many see the stock problem as weakness by the Canadian govt against the Big Trawlers from NE US which they blame for the depletion).
Not a happy bunch.
By the way, I'm an expat Brit living in Canada who happened to marry into a Newfoundland family so this was quite the eye-opener for me I can tell you.
Anyway, perhaps this is drifting a little too far off topic.
Christian
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