Facts and figures

And again this week, The Independent puts on a stunning exhibit of its crackerjack research skills. As Ryan Cleary columnizes:

Incidentally, when Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949, we had 36 MHAs and a population of around half a million. Our population today is about the same, with 48 MHAs.

In the last pre-Confederation census of Newfoundland and Labrador, in 1945, the population was 321,819. In the first post-Confederation census of Canada, in 1951, the new province's population was 361,415. Interpolating for 1949 gives you a ballpark figure of 350,000, which, as it turns out, was also a frequent estimate used by the press reporting on the entry of the new province in 1949.

If 36 MHAs was appropriate for the 1949 population, which was roughly 350,000, then, measured per-capita, the current population should mathematically merit 52 — the size of the House of Assembly before the redistribution of 1996.