Confederation, cartographed

A little first for this corner: an interactive map.

This map shows the results of the second-round referendum of July 22, 1948, in which the people of Newfoundland and Labrador chose between Confederation and Responsible Government. This was only the third time that the people of Labrador had the right to vote; the first two being to choose a delegate to the National Convention in 1946, and the second, the first round of the referendum in June 1948.

Each symbol shows a community location and the result on July 22nd. The two green squares are the only two places in Labrador which voted for Responsible Government. The squares in various shades of red voted for Confederation, with the Confederate side taking between 50 and 99% of the vote. The four shades, in ascending depth of colour, represent 12.5% brackets. The yellow stars are communities where 100% of the vote was to join Canada.

Click on a symbol to see the community name (as it was given in the referendum return) and detailed numerical result.


Through some historical accident or another, the poll-by-poll results of the referendum in the electoral district of Labrador survived. In most of Newfoundland, they did not. The figures shown here are drawn from the table published in the December 1984 edition of Them Days. Any errors or omissions are theirs, not mine.

If a community symbol is not in the right location, leave a correction notice in the comments.