SENATORS’ STATEMENTS — Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Elections

Honourable senators, today I am pleased to present Chapter 84 of “Telling Our Story.”

The world is abuzz today about yesterday’s election in the United States and what type of election it turned out to be. These conversations always cause me to think back to my own personal experiences with election campaigns, which include having my name on three municipal ballots, four provincial ballots and three federal ones. While from time to time there were events that caused my campaigns to go sideways, they pale in comparison to some others in the history of Newfoundland and Labrador.

My first story took place in the town of Burin in 1873, when a candidate named James Winter found himself confronted by a drunken mob. It was nomination day, and the mob demanded to know Winter’s stance on a confederation with Canada. Winter replied that he would only support a confederation if the majority of people backed it through a referendum. That answer was not good enough for the angry mob, so they continuously called him out as a traitor. To stop him from being nominated, they hustled him into the Burin courthouse and straight into a jail cell. Fearing Winter’s supporters would arrive and set him free, the mob forced Winter into a boat and sailed him 19 kilometres away to the town of Beau Bois, where he was once again held under lock and key.

Now, if a political candidate was confronted by an angry mob today, tossed in a cell, taken to another town and locked up again, they might consider dropping out of the race. But, just like Donald Trump, none of that deterred our James Winter. Winter managed to escape later that night and walked the 19 kilometres back to Burin. Earlier that day, before the mob arrived and locked him up, Winter had submitted his nomination papers to the town’s returning officer, and by the time Winter returned home he had won the election.

Friends, that was not the end of the story. James Winter definitely had the last laugh. He went on to become the tenth pre-Confederation Premier of Newfoundland, and the town of Winterton was named in his honour. For any of you who may be contemplating offering yourselves as a candidate in the upcoming federal election campaign, the lesson here is to make sure you get your nomination papers submitted early.

Then there is the story of the 1893 election in Newfoundland. The entire election campaign was marred by mudslinging, dirty tricks and candidates hurling personal insults. Many of you think that that only happens here in Ottawa or down in the United States.

When the votes were counted on election night in 1893, the Liberal Party had secured a large majority of the seats. The defeated Conservatives accused most of the Liberal caucus of cheating by promising prospective supporters government jobs for their votes. I was shocked to read that something like buying votes could happen in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The 1893 election results were challenged in court, and the ensuing courtroom drama dragged on for months and months. In the end, the accused Liberals were all found guilty, booted from their freshly won seats and barred from running for office again.

But the Conservatives were not able to savour the victory for long. When the by-elections were called to replace those who had been voted out, the Liberals were returned to power with precisely the same number of seats they had held the night before. As our former premier Joey Smallwood used to say, “The only bad publicity is no publicity.”

Then there was the story of the 1971 provincial election that was so close that several districts had to have recounts. The results were once again challenged in court, because after the deputy returning officer in the small community of Sally’s Cove counted the ballots she accidentally threw them in the woodstove. But to hear the details of that exciting political drama in Newfoundland, you will need to stay tuned for Chapter 85.