The Responsible Government League was a political movement in the Dominion of Newfoundland .
31-524: The Responsible Government League of Newfoundland, led by Peter Cashin , was formed in February 1947 by anti- Confederation delegates to the Newfoundland National Convention on the future of the colony. It was one of several Anti-Confederation movements which suffered intermittent popularity between 1865 and 1948 as the issue of Confederation between the colonies of Newfoundland and Canada
62-612: A National Convention was called by the Governor of Newfoundland and the Commissioners of Government. In September 1947 the assembly was convened. The mandate of the National Convention was to debate the various forms of government that the people were to choose from. While almost all members of the National Convention advocated change, two strong factions soon developed. One called for Confederation with Canada. The other called for
93-665: A Commission of Government made up of the British-appointed Governor and six commissioners appointed by the Crown made up of three British officials and three Newfoundland-born appointees. Alderdice was in favour of this recommendation and accordingly put it to the House of Assembly , which duly approved the proposals and thus voted itself out of existence. The Commission of Government was sworn in on 16 February 1934, with Alderdice as vice-chairman, and immediately set about reforming
124-603: A general election that defeated the Squires government but also cost him his own seat in the legislature. Cashin moved to Montreal in 1933 returning to Newfoundland in 1942. In his day he was considered one of the best orators in Newfoundland. Upon his return to the island he embarked on a campaign opposing the Commission of Government which had been brought about in 1934. Elected to the National Convention formed in 1946 to consider
155-496: A large public debt noted above, the Newfoundland economy collapsed and the government was forced out of office. A new government led by Frederick C. Alderdice came to power after promising to ask the British Government to appoint a Royal Commission to inquire into the possibility of suspending responsible government. That Royal Commission recommended a "rest from politics," after which the Newfoundland legislature requested that
186-638: A number of younger delegates and supporters, fearing that the League was poorly run and would lose the referendum, left to form the Party for Economic Union with the United States with Chesley Crosbie as its leader. The RGL tended to draw its support from The Avalon peninsula, Bonavista South, and from Roman Catholics in Eastern Newfoundland. There were two referendums held in 1948 as the first vote on June 3
217-471: A separate political entity for a further four generations. During the 1890s the question of Confederation again arose but Canadian diplomats were cold to the idea. The colony was granted dominion status at the same time as New Zealand . During World War I , Newfoundland mustered its own Regiment, and sent it to both Gallipoli , Turkey and the Western Front , France . In return for this contribution,
248-541: A solution to its problems. The commission (commonly known as the "Amulree Commission") was chaired by Lord Amulree , appointed by the British government, and also included Charles Alexander Magrath , appointed by the Canadian government, and Sir William Ewen Stavert , who represented the Newfoundland government. The commission recommended the temporary suspension of responsible government in Newfoundland, and replacing it with
279-511: A time of worldwide economic stagnation. American and Canadian military spending in Newfoundland during the 1940s caused an economic boom and allowed the Commission of Government to consider how to reintroduce a system of democratic government. However, the British government believed that wartime prosperity would be short-lived. So it established the Newfoundland National Convention in 1946 to debate constitutional options, which were submitted to
310-621: The British colony 's future. In 1947, Cashin was one of the members of the National Convention's delegation to London charged with finding out what assistance the British government was prepared to give Newfoundland in the future including development aid or cancellation of the dominion's debt. The results were disappointing as Britain refused to give Newfoundland any promise of financial assistance. Nevertheless, he opposed Joey Smallwood 's campaign to join Canadian Confederation and became
341-676: The Prime Minister of Newfoundland was appointed to Britain's House of Lords . Newfoundland was granted dominion status and was as independent as Australia, Canada, or New Zealand in this Period. This was confirmed in the Balfour declaration and in The Statute of Westminster, 1931 . The Great Depression hit the Newfoundland economy hard causing the dominion government to collapse in bankruptcy. Newfoundland's economy experienced many cycles of recession. Its government's finances collapsed completely in
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#1732848853723372-596: The British appoint a Commission of Government. In February 1934 the island reverted to something similar to crown colony status. A Commission of Government was established to govern the Dominion. Calls for a return to a system of democracy in Newfoundland had been quiet during the Second World War, but the question of Newfoundland's constitution was reawakened by Clement Attlee in the British Parliament. In 1946,
403-574: The Confederate League to benefit from better funding and a united organization. The Responsible Government League lost the second referendum held on July 22 with 47.7% of the vote compared to 52.3% for confederation. The RGL attempted to scuttle or delay confederation through a petition to the British government, signed by 50,000 Newfoundlanders, demanding the immediate restoration of the Newfoundland House of Assembly arguing that only it had
434-558: The Depression. In 1933, following a prolonged period of economic crisis and severe budgetary deficit , and civil unrest culminating in a riot which brought down the previous government , the government of Prime Minister Frederick C. Alderdice asked the British and Canadian governments to establish a royal commission (the Newfoundland Royal Commission ) to investigate the dominion's continuing crisis and to suggest
465-699: The Québécois: he thought that if Newfoundland joined in Confederation with Quebec, then the Canadian Parliament would be dominated by Canada East (Quebec); he feared there would be a whole dynasty of French-Canadian statesmen who would centralize power in Ottawa and ignore the people of Newfoundland; he feared a National Unity Crisis within Canada and believed that Newfoundland would lose control of its natural resources to
496-455: The administration of the country in hopes of balancing the government's budget. With the help of grants in aid from the United Kingdom , the Commission attempted to encourage agriculture and reorganize the fishing industry. While it did much to expand government health services to rural areas, for example, it could not solve the basic economic problems of a small export-oriented country during
527-481: The attractive bait which will be held out to lure our country into the Canadian mousetrap. Listen to their flowery sales talk which will be offered to you; telling Newfoundlanders they’re a lost people, that our only hope, our only salvation, lies in following a new Moses into the promised land across the Cabot Strait." Cashin was unsuccessful in the referendum, though he was convinced that he had actually won and that
558-535: The authority to enact Confederation. The petition was ignored and a legal challenge by six members of the pre-1934 House of Assembly that argued that the National Convention Act and the Referendum Act were both unconstitutional was quashed when Justice Dunfield ruled that with the reversion of Newfoundland to Crown Colony status in 1934, the British Parliament was free to do as it saw fit. [1] Having lost
589-636: The collapse of Newfoundland's economy during the Great Depression , it was dissolved when the dominion became the tenth province of Canada on March 31, 1949. It was composed of civil servants who were directly subordinate to the British Government in London . Newfoundland's economic difficulties were exacerbated by debt incurred during the First World War and the collapse of fish prices during
620-467: The early 1930s due in part to considerable debts incurred by the government in its aid of the Allied effort during the First World War and the large government debt acquired in constructing a railway across the island . Economic collapse led to political crisis. In 1932, due to economic dislocations brought about by the Great Depression , government corruption and a resulting riot and the lingering effects of
651-454: The election, Cashin then served as director of civil defence for the province until 1965. Cashin's nephew, Richard Cashin , was a politician in the 1960s and subsequently an important trade union leader in the province. Commission of Government The Commission of Government was a non-elected body that governed the Dominion of Newfoundland from 1934 to 1949. Established following
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#1732848853723682-621: The fight against Confederation, the Responsible Government League decided to join with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and form the Progressive Conservative Party of Newfoundland with H. G. R. Mews as the new party's first leader and RGL leaders Cashin and Malcolm Hollett leading the party through the 1950s. Peter Cashin Major Peter John Cashin (March 8, 1890 – May 21, 1977)
713-485: The floor to join the Newfoundland Liberal Party in 1925 in a dispute over tariff policy. He served as minister of finance from 1928 to 1932 when he resigned from the government and accused Sir Richard Squires , the Prime Minister of Newfoundland , of falsifying the minutes of Executive Council meetings to cover up certain legal fees he had been paying himself out of public funds. His actions precipitated
744-481: The leader of the Responsible Government League leading it into the 1948 referendums on Newfoundland's status. On May 17, 1947, Cashin delivered this speech to the National Convention regarding the future of Newfoundland . "I say to you, that there is in operation at the present time a conspiracy to sell, and I use the word sell advisedly, this country to the Dominion of Canada. Watch in particular
775-412: The new federal government. Both before and during the Confederation debates of the 1860s, there was a "Native Newfoundlanders" movement: The Newfoundland Natives' Society was formed in 1840 to lobby for more labour and employment rights in the forestry and fishery for Newfoundland residents. Also, songs such as "The Anti-Confederation Song" and "The Antis of Plate Cove" were popular at the time. In 1869,
806-555: The people of the Colony of Newfoundland voted in a General Election against Confederation with Canada. The Confederation debates were furious and sometimes ludicrous: Anti-Confederates charged Newfoundland children would be drafted into the Canadian Army and die to be left unburied in distant sandy, dry Canadian deserts. There was also vague, xenophobic, anti-French sentiment. Because Newfoundland did not join Canada in 1869, it would remain
837-565: The referendum result had been falsified by the British. After Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949, Cashin was elected to the provincial legislature as an independent. In 1951, he joined the Newfoundland Progressive Conservatives leading it into that year's provincial election in which the party won five seats. He served as leader of the opposition until 1953 when he quit the Tories to run again as an independent. Defeated in
868-511: The restoration of responsible government for Newfoundland, and for it to revert to its previous status. Since the pro-Confederation forces in the Convention seemed to have the upper hand, a group of business and professional men and women outside the Convention formed a sort of political party, the RGL, to counter the effective pro-Confederation propaganda. The RGL suffered a split on March 20, 1948 when
899-677: Was a businessman, soldier and politician in Newfoundland . Cashin, a son of Sir Michael Cashin , joined the Newfoundland Regiment during World War I and ultimately served in the British Machine Gun Corps . He returned to the family fishery supply business upon being demobilized. He entered politics by winning election to the Newfoundland House of Assembly as a Liberal-Labour-Progressive in 1923, before crossing
930-405: Was debated. The purpose of the RGL was to ensure that Newfoundland and Canada remain separate countries. In the 19th century, various Anti-Confederates were strengthened in their resolve by outspoken figures such as Charles Fox Bennett who successfully championed Responsible Government's cause in an election on the confederation issue in 1869. Bennett was opposed to Confederation because he feared
961-424: Was inconclusive with responsible government receiving 44.6%, confederation 41.1% and Commission of Government 14.3%. A second referendum was held with only confederation and responsible government on the ballot. The Economic Union Party and Responsible Government League tried to reunite the opposition to Joey Smallwood 's Confederate Association but relations between Crosbie and Cashin's parties were tense allowing