from provincial buildings. “The federal government has turned its back on the people of this province,” he said. *“We will not accept less than what was committed.”*⁹
The flags came down before Christmas. They returned after talks resumed.
Four years later, he ran the ABC—Anything But Conservative—campaign. Every Tory in the province lost.
“Out here, leverage isn’t a tactic. It’s survival.”
Even Newfoundland’s illegality had style. In the 1920s, American rum-runners registered under the Newfoundland flag to dodge U.S. patrols¹⁰. It wasn’t deception. It was seamanship.
And so, we return—again—to that piano.
It was owned by Miss Morris, a schoolteacher whose name faded faster than her instrument. That night in 1932, she watched from the crowd as men dragged it downhill. Someone tried to save it. She later told a reporter she’d shouted, “Play it first!” But they didn’t.
They weren’t smashing music. They were smashing silence.
That’s the arc. That’s the echo.
Each time Newfoundland is told to yield—it raises a piano. Or a flag. Or a microphone.
It doesn’t always get it right. But it never stays quiet.
And maybe that’s why I keep returning. To ferry docks and wind-scoured bookshelves. Because Newfoundland reminds you: a place can fracture, retreat, and still rise. And if it’s lucky, maybe even sing again.
They were not always right. They were always, unmistakably, from here.
Bibliography
1. Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage. “The Riot at the Colonial Building.” Memorial University. Documents the April 5, 1932 riot including the assault on Prime Minister Squires and the symbolic smashing of the piano in Bannerman Park.
2. Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage. “The 1908 Election and Its Aftermath.” Memorial University. Describes the eighteen-eighteen deadlock between Robert Bond and Edward Morris.
3. Newfoundland and Labrador Heritage. “Alexander Pindikowski and the Colonial Building Ceiling.” Memorial University. Chronicles the story of a convicted forger who painted the Colonial Building ceiling while in custody.
4. Smallwood, Joseph R. I Chose Canada: The Memoirs of the Honourable Joseph R. Smallwood. Toronto: Macmillan, 1973. Offers Smallwood’s reflections on his early life and political rise.
5. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). “Voices from Resettlement.” CBC Newfoundland Archives. Oral histories of those impacted by the resettlement policies of the 1950s–70s.
6. Hansard, Newfoundland House of Assembly. “Debates on the Come By Chance Refinery Collapse.” March 10, 1976. Legislative discussion on the refinery’s economic failure.
7. The Canadian Encyclopedia. “Atlantic Accord.” Historica Canada. Overview of the 1985 agreement on offshore oil resource management.
8. CBC Archives. “Meech Lake Accord: Harper and Wells.” Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Quotes and analysis from Harper and Wells during Meech’s defeat.
9. CBC News. “Williams Orders Canadian Flags Removed.” December 23, 2004. Reports on Williams’ protest of federal revenue sharing.
10. Fay, C. R. Rum-running and the Newfoundland Flag of Convenience. University of New Brunswick Law Review, 1982. Analyzes Newfoundland’s flag registry use during U.S. Prohibition.