Perspective

From the fall issue of Worker's Voice magazine, and Ralph Winsor's column, "Perspective":

But politically the fact is that Quebec is 100% out for itself and has used and will continue to use every means it can to milk as much from confederation as possibly [sic].

Same could be said of other provinces, non? Say, the one that Quebec borders immediately to the east? (No, not New Brunswick.)

Winsor continues:

A large portion of the people of Quebec still want to separate from Canada. When we add to this, the fact that Quebec has never, and will never, fully accept [sic] the Privy Council decision of 1927, which saw our province gain control of the Labrador interior we can begin to realize what we are up against...

Quebec has dealt with and will continue to deal with our province, as if we had robbed them years ago and are continuing to do so. That is how they see things, to them they should have full control over Labrador, should own it, so if they play hard ball with us on issues like our hydro developments, so what. Quebec's way of thinking is that they were treated unjustly through the decision of the privy council in Britain, to them it was a one-sided and unfair decision when we were awarded the interior of Labrador, so they are justified in any action they take towards us...

It is time now to take control of our hydro resources... We have to develop a provincial route in which to transmit our new Lower Churchill power, and this then must be our route for all future hydro power including the Upper Churchill power when it becomes available.

New power generated from the Lower Churchill must not go through Quebec. A power corridor to the island providing clean renewable power for our own use and then across the straits to other customers is a must.

There is not enough room here to explain the many positive aspects of a new power corridor to the island but suffice it to say that we must now think long-term and develop our economy fully.

(Emphasis added.)

There are so many things wrong with Winsor's column it's hard to pick a good place to start.

First, though, it's not up to Quebec to accept, or to not accept, the Labrador boundary decision. Quebec is bound by it. This is what Quebec's own commission of enquiry, La Commission d'enquête sur l'intégrité du territoire du Québec, concluded, nearly four decades ago.

Secondly, as long as Quebecers OR NEWFOUNDLANDERS keep making Labrador some pawn in their petty, childish, nationalist-cum-separatist political discourse, Labrador is going to suffer. Imagine how much further along Labrador would be, for example, if the two provinces would co-operate on transportation matters, especially when it comes to highway construction and improvement. Instead, Labrador suffered through decades of Newfoundland nationalist paranoia under Smallwood and others, during which time it was high treason to suggest linking Labrador to Quebec by highway. The effects of this pattern of thinking can be seen in the sorry state and still unfinished condition of the TLH and Quebec route 389, to say nothing of the yet-imaginary North Shore highway. This is a direct result of the collision of Newfoundland and Quebec nationalism, and it's high time someone stepped in and told both sets of nationalists to go sit in the corner and think about what they've done.

If Ralph Winsor, or for that matter the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, actually cared about Labrador, and the people who make "it" up, instead of merely coveting "it", they would have realized this decades ago.

But they haven't. And they don't. And they probably never will.

Finally, the juxtaposition of the first-person-plural, and the apparent imperative that Labrador hydro be transmitted to the island, is jarring.

It's another good argument for making Innu-eimun an official language. That way, we — that's the Innu-eimun "inclusive we", by the way — might know which "we" Ralph Winsor is talking about. His "we" certainly doesn't seem to include the people who call Labrador home.

Deciphering his use of the word "we" really and truly is a matter of perspective.

How'd all "our" hydro power get onto their rivers, anyway?

Where, oh where, are the Newfoundland nationalists, Newfoundland social democrats, and Newfoundland nationalist-social democrats, who are looking out for Labrador's interests — or is that "its interests" — first?

All one province... right?