St. John's — Harbour, Fire & Signal Hill
The Rooms and Newfoundland Identity
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
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Transcript
The Rooms brings together Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial museum, archives and art gallery.
Its hilltop site overlooks the harbour and sits near the location of former military facilities.
This is the right place to confront Newfoundland's political difference from the rest of Canada.
The colony achieved responsible government in the nineteenth century and later became a dominion. Severe financial problems contributed to the suspension of responsible government in 1934, when a British-appointed Commission of Government took control.
After the Second World War, Newfoundlanders debated their political future. Referendums in 1948 eventually produced a narrow majority for Confederation with Canada, which took effect in 1949.
That history remains politically and emotionally significant.
Newfoundland did not “become a province because Canada expanded east.” Voters made a contested choice after a long period of separate political development.
The archives upstairs preserve how close the alternative futures once felt.