"Republic of Newfoundland".Uh huh.
Saw this in a bar this evening. Gosh, why is it you always see stuff like this in, ohhh, Toronto? Calgary? Toronto? Vancouver? And, ohhhh... Toronto? Why is it all the Newfie flag plates I see on $40,000 Ford F-250s are always screwed onto plates that say ONTARIO? Makes you wanna go up to these guys and say, "Gee, when are you going home to the big job in the Great State of St. John's, b'y?" Republic of Newfoundland, yeah. Love us colonies, though.
C'mon, folks. Regional pride's great and all, but for Christ's sake, give the rest of us just a small break already.
3 comments:
Eh? Been gone so long, never seen one of these....some kind of take-off on the "Republic of Ireland" shirts I used to see...???
It's the only one I've seen so far, but I have to say I get a little fed up with this. Like I say, I'm all for being proud of your part of the country... without that pride, the place will fall apart. But I get tired of the line that Newfoundland has suffered as part of Canada, or that its joining Canada was some injustice foisted upon it. Let's be plain... Newfoundland is a part of North America that's fairly rugged, and -- at least till recently -- really did not have much going for it in terms of resources. There's no shame, so far as I can see, in realizing that as dear as the place you love may be, living there really requires of you being part of a larger community. Previously, it was Britain. Now it's Canada. Turning that fact complete around and suggesting Canada is some kind of vampire REALLY gets on my nerves. I mean, you can't get blood from a Rock, to coin a phrase. And when NFLD joined us in 1949, it was about as anemic a specimen as a body could be this side of the morgue.
If Ireland's a republic, it became one out of the necessity to recover after 800 years of systemic brutality. If anyone would care to outline the parallel course in Newfoundland vis-a-vis Canada in the last 60 years, I'm all ears. I expect the high note of the litany to be Joey Smallwood's sucker deal with Quebec on Labrador's power generation. Why blame dough-heads in St. John's when it's so much more soothing to rail against devils in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, London, etc., etc., etc., etc.
Yup, I hear ya. Just had never seen the shirts...though I'd seen the Irish counterparts in Boston, on rare occasions.
People need to take a little more responsibility in their own destinies, sometimes. I am reminded of that oft-quoted line in Julius Ceasar...
Post a Comment