Word: smallwood
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Almighty God said, I think I'll raise him up to persuade Newfoundlanders to join Canada. If he persuades them, Newfoundland is going to need a Premier.' " And that, as Joey Smallwood liked to confide at political gatherings, was more or less how he came to be called, in one of his favorite phrases, "the Only Living Father of Confederation." Others prefer to describe him as the "Kwame Nkrumah of Newfoundland." Until he retired last week from the province's Liberal Party leadership after 23 years of almost absolute power, Smallwood was one of the Western Hemisphere...
Characteristically, Smallwood until the last minute had Canada's wintry, easternmost province in an uproar over whether, at 71, he might somehow hear a call to remain in politics, or even wangle his way back into office. Narrowly defeated by his Conservative opponents last October, he had challenged the results in court and held on to the premiership until mid-January. Newfoundland's Liberals named as party leader Smallwood's former executive assistant and onetime local health minister Ed Roberts, 31. Said Smallwood: "There's no future for me whatsoever. I'm through with politics...
...little man with the face of a thoughtful, testy owl, Smallwood ran his "poor, bald rock," as he once called Newfoundland, as a personal fiefdom. Nonetheless, he was dearly loved by most of the 500,000 Newfies-"a community of Irish mystics cut adrift in the Atlantic," in the colorful phrase of Novelist Paul West-and his picture adorned the poorest living rooms in tiny fishing ports with names like Blow-me-down and Come-by-Chance. Newfoundland admired Joey simply for being his outrageous self: he would sneer at the Tories for being the "waffle-iron salesmen...
Newfoundland was a British dependency at the time. When Britain offered the islanders the choice of independence or union with Canada after World War II, Smallwood saw opportunity, rallied the proconfederation forces to win a hard-fought referendum and took over the premiership...