The Fighting Newfoundlander

When Word War I began, Newfoundland had been without any kind of military organization for almost half a century. Public-spirited citizens immediately formed themselves into a Patriotic Association and within sixty days had recruited, partially equipped, and dispatched 537 officers and men overseas.

The true story, drawn from official documents and hours of personal interviews, of how Newfoundland and Labrador joined Confederation and became Canada's tenth province in 1949. A rich cast of characters--hailing from Britain, America, Canada and Newfoundland--battle it out for the prize of the resource-rich, financially solvent, militarily strategic island. The twists and turns are as dramatic as any spy novel and extremely surprising, since the "official" version of Newfoundland history has held for over fifty years almost without question. Don't Tell the Newfoundlanders will change all that.

Newfoundland played a significant role in the defence of Upper Canada during the War of 1812. "Defending the Inland Shores: Newfoundland in the War of 1812" tells this incredible story. The book describes many key battles, including the siege and capture of Fort Detroit, taking of an American naval schooner on Lake Ontario, a surprise attack against Ogdensburg, New York, and desperate defence of a British ship on the Niagara River during an American night assault.

Terry Ryan was poised to take the hockey world by storm when he was selected eighth overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1995 NHL draft, their highest draft pick in a decade. Expected to go on to become a hockey star, Ryan played a total of eight NHL games for the Canadiens, scoring no goals and no assists: not exactly the career he, or anyone else, was expecting. Though Terry's NHL career wasn't long, he experienced a lot and has no shortage of hilarious and fascinating revelations about life in pro hockey on and off the ice. In Tales of a First-Round Nothing, he recounts fighting with Tie Domi, partying with rock stars, and everything in between. Ryan tells it like it is, detailing his rocky relationship with Michel Therrien, head coach of the Canadiens, and explaining what life is like for a man who was unprepared to have his career over so soon.

On July 1, 1916, the best and the brightest of a generation of Newfoundland men were virtually wiped out. From every bay and cove and town, from fishing stage to merchant's home, they marched off to the Great War, proud members of their very own Newfoundland Regiment, never suspecting what one terrible morning of treachery would bring. The Battle of Beaumont Hamel is considered the greatest tragedy in Newfoundland and Labrador's history. Beyond the trenches were lovers and mothers and others who held them dear. The soldiers were part of the immeasurable turmoil of war, yet as they travelled to dangerous and distant lands they were never without the spirit and humour they brought from their homeland. Adapted for stage from the novel of the same name.

Death on Two Fronts, part of The History of Canada series, examines the tragic trans­formation of Newfoundland’s political culture between 1914 and 1934. For many people throughout Canada and the rest of the world, 1914 was important because it marked the beginning of the First World War. While the year became significant for the same reason in Newfoundland, it was not originally so. Newfoundland’s economy depended on the sea, and the seal hunt was vital. During the spring of 1914, seventy-seven men of the S.S. Newfoundland died and many more were injured when they became lost on the ice fields, locally known as “the front,” off the north­east coast. What became known as the Newfoundlandsealing disaster galvanized popular discontent against mercantile profiteering and recklessness on the seal hunt, and influenced Newfoundland politics. The Great War muted this discontent and fostered a nationalist political culture founded on notions of honour, sacrifice, and patriotism—particularly after the mass deaths in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont Hamel. This nationalism was easily shaken, however, in the post-war economic crisis that plagued Newfoundland, frustrating more progressive attempts to deal with economic and social problems, and led to the collapse of responsible gov­ernment in 1934. Although sealers had died in 1914 and soldiers fell in the years of the Great War, it was liberal democracy in Newfoundland that was the final casualty in the bitter struggles over the meaning of these events.