Editing Newfoundland and Labrador (section)

===British Dominion ===
{{Main|Dominion of Newfoundland}}
[[File:Town and Harbour of St. John's, Newfoundland (1911).jpg|thumb|center|upright=3|Town and Harbour of St. John's, 1911 by [[John William Hayward]]]]

==== Reform and the Fisherman's Union ====
In 1907, Newfoundland acquired [[dominion]] status, or self-government, within the [[British Empire]] or [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]].<ref name="mapleweb">{{cite web|url=http://www.mapleleafweb.com/old/features/constitution/federalism/newfoundland-labrador/nfld-history.html|publisher=Mapleleafweb|title=Newfoundland & Labrador and Canadian Federalism – History of Newfoundland & Labrador|access-date=February 5, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110602120916/http://www.mapleleafweb.com/old/features/constitution/federalism/newfoundland-labrador/nfld-history.html|archive-date=June 2, 2011}}</ref> Government of Newfoundland was conducted mostly by a cabinet accountable solely to the legislature in St. John's, subject only to occasional policy changes from the British government, for example vetoing a trade agreement Newfoundland had negotiated with the [[United States of America|United States]].<ref name="mapleweb"/> A new reform-minded government was formed under [[Edward Morris, 1st Baron Morris|Edward Morris]], a senior Catholic politician who had split from the Liberals to form the [[Newfoundland People's Party|People's Party]]. It extended education provision, introduced old-age pensions, initiated agriculture and trade schemes and, with a trade union act, provided a legal framework for collective bargaining.<ref name=":6"/>

There had been unions seeking to negotiate wage rates in the shipbuilding trades since the 1850s. Those working the fishing boats were not wage earners but commodity producers, like farmers, reliant on merchant credit. Working in small, competitive, often family, units, scattered in isolated communities, they also had little occasion to gather in large numbers to discuss common concerns.<ref>{{cite web|last=Rennie|first=Rick|date=1996|title=Labour Organization and Unions|url=https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/economy/labour-movements.php|access-date=January 25, 2022|website=heritage.nf.ca|archive-date=January 25, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125223539/https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/economy/labour-movements.php|url-status=live}}</ref> These obstacles to organization were overcome from 1908 by a new co-operative movement, the [[Fishermen's Protective Union]] (FPU). Mobilizing more than 21,000 members in 206 councils across the island; more than half of Newfoundland's fishermen,<ref name="fpu">[https://www.mun.ca/mha/fpu/fpu18.php Formation of the Fishermen's Protective Union] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305071041/https://www.mun.ca/mha/fpu/fpu18.php |date=March 5, 2016 }}, Maritime History Archive, Memorial University. Retrieved February 20, 2008.</ref> the FPU challenged the economic control of the island's merchantocracy.<ref name=":8">{{cite web|title=1959 Newfoundland and the IWA – Canada's Human Rights History|url=https://historyofrights.ca/encyclopaedia/main-events/1959-iww-strike-newfoundland/|access-date=January 24, 2022|website=historyofrights.ca|archive-date=January 2, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220102154558/https://historyofrights.ca/encyclopaedia/main-events/1959-iww-strike-newfoundland/|url-status=live}}</ref> Despite opposition from the Catholic Church which objected to the FPU's oath taking and alleged [[socialism]],<ref name="fpu" /> led by [[William Coaker]] the candidates for the FPU won 8 of 36 seats in the House of Assembly in the 1913 general election.<ref>{{cite web|title=Election Results 1913|url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/law/fpu_1913_election.html|url-status=dead|work=Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage|publisher=Memorial University|access-date=January 24, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005061757/http://www.heritage.nf.ca/law/fpu_1913_election.html|archive-date=October 5, 2012}}</ref>

At the beginning of 1914, economic conditions seemed favourable to reform. In a little over a decade, exports, imports and state revenue had more than doubled. Schemes were afoot for the exploitation of coal and mineral resources, and for the utilisation of peat beds for fuel. Benefiting from the settlement of disputes over fishing rights with France in 1904, and with the New England states in 1910, the fishing industry was looking to develop new markets.<ref name=":7" />

====First World War and its aftermath====
[[File:Somme 1July16 Newfoundlandstjohnsroadtrench watermarked.jpg|thumb|Colourized photo of soldiers in St. John's Road, a support trench, 200 metres behind the British forward line at Beaumont Hamel, 1916]]
In August 1914, Britain [[United Kingdom declaration of war on Germany (1914)|declared war on Germany.]] Out of a total population of about 250,000, Newfoundland offered up some 12,000 men for Imperial service (including 3,000 who joined the [[Canadian Expeditionary Force]]).<ref name=":7" /> About a third of these were to serve in [[Royal Newfoundland Regiment|1st Newfoundland Regiment]], which after service in the [[Gallipoli campaign|Gallipoli Campaign]], was nearly wiped out at [[Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial|Beaumont-Hamel]] on the [[first day on the Somme]], July 1, 1916.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zoktc9xBDvwC&q=.%20History%20of%20Newfoundland%20and%20Labrador%E2%80%8E&pg=PP1|title=Newfoundland and Labrador: a history|first=Sean Thomas|last=Cadigan|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-8020-4465-5|access-date=November 18, 2020|archive-date=June 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210601214606/https://books.google.com/books?id=Zoktc9xBDvwC&q=.%20History%20of%20Newfoundland%20and%20Labrador%E2%80%8E&pg=PP1|url-status=live}}</ref> The regiment, which the Dominion government had chosen to raise, equip, and train at its own expense, was resupplied and went on to serve with distinction in several subsequent battles, earning the prefix "Royal". The overall fatality and casualty rate for the regiment was high: 1,281 dead, 2,284 wounded.<ref name=":7">{{cite web|title=Newfoundlanders and Labradorians in the First World War|url=https://www.heritage.nf.ca/first-world-war/articles/nl-in-the-first-world-war.php |access-date=January 24, 2022|website=heritage.nf.ca|archive-date=January 24, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220124125909/https://www.heritage.nf.ca/first-world-war/articles/nl-in-the-first-world-war.php |url-status=live}}</ref>

The FPU members joined [[Edward Patrick Morris]]' [[World War I|wartime]] [[National unity government|National Government]] of 1917, but their reputation suffered when they failed to abide by their promise not to support military conscription without a referendum.<ref name="fpu2">[https://www.mun.ca/mha/fpu/fpu20.php Union and Politics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418195947/https://www.mun.ca/mha/fpu/fpu20.php |date=April 18, 2021 }}, Maritime History Archive, Memorial University. Retrieved February 20, 2008.</ref> In 1919, the FPU joined with the [[Liberal parties in Newfoundland (pre-Confederation)|Liberals]] to form the [[Liberal Party of Newfoundland|Liberal Reform Party]] whose success in the [[1919 Newfoundland general election|1919 general election]] allowed Coaker to continue as Fisheries Minister. But there was little he could do to sustain the credibility of the FPU in the face of the post-war slump in fish prices, and the subsequent high unemployment and emigration.<ref name="fpu3">[https://www.mun.ca/mha/fpu/fpu21.php Fishermen's Protective Union] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419222254/https://www.mun.ca/mha/fpu/fpu21.php |date=April 19, 2021 }}, Maritime History Archive, Memorial University. Retrieved January 24, 2022</ref><ref name="ce">[https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/fisheries-policy Fisheries Policy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220124175632/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/fisheries-policy |date=January 24, 2022 }}, ''Canadian Encyclopedia''. Retrieved January 24, 2022</ref> At the same time the Dominion's war debt due to the regiment and the cost of the trans-island railway, limited the government's ability to provide relief.<ref name=":3">{{cite web|last=Higgins|first=Jenny|date=2007|title=Events Leading up to the Great Depression|url=https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/depression-origin.php|url-status=live|access-date=May 21, 2021|website=Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage|archive-date=May 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210508022405/https://www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/politics/depression-origin.php}}</ref>

In the spring of 1918, in midst of disquiet over wartime inflation and profiteering, there had been protest. The Newfoundland Industrial Workers' Association (NIWA) struck both the rail and steamship operations of the [[Reid Newfoundland Company]], effectively isolating the capital and threatening the annual seal hunt. Central to the eventual settlement were not only wage increases, but "the great principle that employees are entitled to be heard in all matters connected with their welfare".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=McInnis|first=Peter|date=1990|title=All Solid along the Line: The Reid Newfoundland Strike of 1918|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25143419|journal=Labour / Le Travail|volume=26|pages=61–84|doi=10.2307/25143419|issn=0700-3862|access-date=January 25, 2022|archive-date=January 25, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125151701/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25143419|url-status=live}}</ref>

When in January 1919, [[Sinn Féin]] formed the [[Dáil Éireann]] in [[Dublin]], the [[Irish question]] and local sectarian tensions resurfaced in Newfoundland. In the course of 1920 many Catholics of Irish descent in St. John's joined the local branch of the [[Irish Self-Determination League|Self-Determination for Ireland League (SDIL)]].<ref name="Mannion2">{{cite web|last1=Mannion|first1=Patrick|title=The Self-Determination for Ireland League of Canada and Newfoundland|url=https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/the-self-determination-for-ireland-league-of-canada-and-newfoundland|access-date=December 16, 2020|website=Century Ireland|publisher=RTE|archive-date=December 18, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218213844/https://www.rte.ie/centuryireland/index.php/articles/the-self-determination-for-ireland-league-of-canada-and-newfoundland|url-status=live}}</ref> Although tempered by expressions of loyalty to the Empire, the League's vocal support for Irish self-government was opposed by the local [[Orange Order in Canada|Orange Order]]. Claiming to represent 20,000 "loyal citizens", the Order was composed almost exclusively of Anglicans or Methodists of English descent.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mannion|first=Patrick|date=January 2015|title=Contested nationalism: The "Irish question" in St. John's, Newfoundland, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1919–1923|url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/acadiensis/article/view/24359/28203|journal=Acadiensis|volume=44|issue=2|pages=27–49|via=UNB Libraries|access-date=April 13, 2021|archive-date=April 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413161932/https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/acadiensis/article/view/24359/28203|url-status=live}}</ref> Tensions ran sufficiently high that Catholic Archbishop [[Edward Patrick Roche|Edward Roche]] felt constrained to caution League organisers against the hazards of "a sectarian war."<ref name="Mannion2" /><ref name="NYT">{{cite news|date=June 4, 1945|title=Lindsay Crawford of Trade Council|work=[[The New York Times]]|issue=19}}</ref>

Since the early 1800s, Newfoundland and Quebec (or Lower Canada) had been in a [[Labrador boundary dispute|border dispute]] over the Labrador region. In 1927, the British [[Judicial Committee of the Privy Council]] ruled that the area known as modern-day Labrador was to be considered part of the Dominion of Newfoundland.<ref name="mapleweb" />