Said Smallwood: 'I would fight against Confederation in any shape or form'

Blasts from NL’s past


Quotes of the week from the August, 2007 Independent newspapers


“I would fight against Confederation in any shape or form, now or at any time in the future.”

— Joey Smallwood, as quoted in a 1928 letter to the editor of Corner Brook’s Western Star newspaper. (Independent, Aug. 3)


“I was introduced in church Sunday as the Old Testament prophet Noah.”

— Pentecostal minister Jason Martin on facing the wrath of tropical storm Chantal the day after moving to Bay Roberts. (Independent, Aug. 10)


“I couldn’t have thought of a better way to go out. That was me right there. Tara the goofball, walkin’ on sunshine.”

— Canadian Idol contestant Tara Oram. (Independent, Aug. 27)


“The last polls we were at an 83-84 per cent approval rating. So far be it from me, I can tell you, to do a deal to try and pick up that last 16 per cent.”

— Danny Williams on the timing of the Hebron announcement. (Independent, Aug. 24th)


“And now we finally land the big tuna and now it’s ‘jeez, you know, there’s got to be something wrong.'”

— Dean MacDonald, on the Hebron MOU. (Independent, Aug. 31st)


Letter to the editor

“There was a day when individualism had its proper and fateful place in the story of Newfoundland. It was individualism that made this country survive as a country despite the tricks and schemes of those who would hamper and destroy it. That day is over.

Now when we stand on the hills of Avalon, we can see the Long Range, and from the crags of Twillingate, we spy far away in our mind’s eye the sails of the ‘Bankers’ drifting east by Ramea. Whether we realize it or not, we are a nation, not a handful of fishermen at some bare cove, or a crowd of lumberjacks in the deep forest, or a coterie of office-workers in a mill or a mining town who don’t care what goes on outside our particular circle — but a nation whose pulses beat with pride at the name of Newfoundland.”

— The Newfoundlander, August 1944


Quote of the week

“The Regatta on Thursday passed off very quickly. The only drawback to the pleasure of the day was the state of the weather, which was very disagreeable.”

— The Courier, St. John’s, Aug. 11, 1877.

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