Garage sale finds (II)

"Conspiracy theories of history have a life of their own, for no amount of contrary evidence can ever conclusively refute them. After all, it is always possible to believe that the 'real' evidence has been destroyed or hidden or the official record cunningly falsified, and that only when the secret archives are opened (or the long-lost diary found, and so forth) will the 'true story' at last be told. Such notions are hardy perennials, especially in the case of historic events where the margin between success and failure, victory and defeat, was razor-thin, as it was in Newfoundland in 1948."

— closing lines of Peter Neary, Newfoundland's Union with Canada, 1949: Conspiracy or Choice? In Buckner and Frank [eds.], Atlantic Canada After Confederation; The Acadiensis Reader: Volume II. Acadiensis Press, 1985, at p. 386