Separatists: bad

Friday morning on the airwaves of the Ministry of Truth, radio host No Names Please dismissed the Bloc Québécois, the federal separatist party, with the phrase, “They want to break up Canada, yup.”

From the context and tone of the quip, it would appear that No Names Please thinks breaking up Canada is a bad thing.

This would represent a marked change of attitude on the part of NNP, his second this decade, in fact. Back when he had a column in the Quebec-based St. John’s daily newspaper, he wrote, on June 18, 2005:

Last year, I went to Ottawa a cuddly little confederate. Seven months later, I tore back home out of it a savage Newfoundland separatist. The moral? If you want to keep on enjoying your hamburgers, don't ever visit the slaughterhouse.

To be candid, though, I felt my enthusiasm for Confederation waning years ago at Joey Smallwood's cabinet table, listening more often than was healthy to this: "Newfoundland ought to be down on her knees, on her very knees, to thank God, yes Almighty God Himself, for the manifold benefits, the countless indubitable blessings, of Confederation."

NNP then went on to make that favourite of Newfoundland nationalist-separatist comparisons… the one with Iceland:

If Newfoundland decided at this stage to go it alone like Iceland, would we thrive, too, and develop one of the highest standards of living in the world?

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Generally, could we make a go of it alone in the face of those and similar challenges? At this stage it would be extremely hard, but I think we could. Islands like Tasmania, Sicily, Corsica and Newfoundland have withered as inconsequential appendages joined to a large country. Islands like Ireland and Iceland have thrown off the colonial yoke and flourished. I believe we could belong to the latter group. I personally would love to see Newfoundland assuming the challenges and self-esteem of independence.