Most Canadians know who Joey Smallwood is, the first premier of Newfoundland and Labrador. Richard Gwyn, one of Canada’s pre-eminent popular historians, book on Smallwood lists his triumphs and his failures.  Gwyn’ makes you wish you had known Smallwood and realize that characters such that can no longer exist in your hyper-connected world.

SMALLWOOD: THE UNLIKELY REVOLUTIONARY by Richard Gwyn, February 17, 2015

A Practical Socialist and Politician

Smallwood called himself a socialist and spent much of his early years on one failed social project or another in Newfoundland and a brief stint in New York city.  By his middle age, and after the Second World War, he seemed to have missed his chance to make his mark in the world despite having hosted a widely popular Newfoundland based radio program.

However, timing is everything, and just after the war Newfoundland was given an opportunity to regain its ability to self-govern or join Canada (joining the United States was another possibility  but lacked a champion).  In this campaign, Joseph Smallwood became Joey a likable buffoon with cat-like political instincts.

Needless to say Joey won the referendum (the second one actually) and Newfoundland joined Canada.  He then went onto to become one of Canada’s longest-serving premiers until his election loss in 1972 (23 years in office).  More than just a provincial politician, Joey played key roles in the Canadian Federal Liberal scene and was an intimate of St. Laurent, Pearson and Trudeau.

Impractical Schemes, Graft and Churchill Falls

Smallwood was a man of his times and Gwyn paints a sympathetic albeit tragic portrait of the man.  Newfoundland had a small war chest on joining Canada and Joey proceeded to use the money in (mostly) misguided attempts to industrialize the province.  While there were some successes in iron ore mining and paper mills, most would now be considered busts including his crown jewel – the Churchill Falls Hydroelectric station.

In addition, some of the associates and government ministers re-directed government resources for their own benefit.  Despite this temptation and Joey looking the other way, Smallwood did not enrich himself during his time in office – but others did.  These others are part of a cast of characters that Smallwood associated with in order to achieve his objective of industrialization.

A Book 3-Decades in the Writing

This book was initially published in 1968 just as Smallwood had announced his (first) retirement and then was updated 1972 after he retired for a second (and last) time after his election loss.  Gwyn re-issued it twice in 1999 (8 years after Smallwood’s death) and most recently in 2015.  In many ways reading a book written and revised over 3-Decades is almost as interesting as the core subject matter.  Gwyn does not fully update the text but does tease out some individuals for special mention who went on to greater things such as John Crosbie or Rex Murphy.

In the end, a good read about an interesting character, a period in Canada of significant change and our newest and most easterly province – Newfoundland.