Why Newfoundlanders aren’t Maritimers
This week, Collected Wisdom dons a sou'wester and sallies forth into the teeth of a howling nor'easter in a quest to discover why one of our maritime provinces isn't one of Canada's Maritime provinces.
THE QUESTION: Tom Killeen of Toronto wonders why Newfoundland and Labrador is not considered part of the Maritimes, "a moniker that appears to be reserved for New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island." Surely, he says, by any dictionary definition, Newfoundland and Labrador would be considered a "maritime" province.
THE ANSWER: "As I remember being taught in the late 1960s in a two-room grade school on PEI," writes D. Kent MacDonald of Calgary, the name of the Maritimes was given to PEI, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick shortly after PEI joined Confederation in 1873.
"Most mornings," he says, "when we arrived at school, our day's lesson inscribed on the blackboard would be hidden behind a pull-down map proclaiming the union of these three provinces as the Maritimes. He says the map was "curiously donated by the Neilson chocolate company and advertised Jersey Milk and other chocolate bars in each corner."
He says Newfoundland (which was officially renamed Newfoundland and Labrador in 2001) did not become a Canadian province until 1949, by which time the Maritimes had become firmly established as a provincial grouping.
Here, Ken O'Brien of St. John's takes up the story. "Occasionally one will read references to the Maritimes including Newfoundland, but the accepted usage is that the term 'the Atlantic provinces' refers to the Maritimes plus Newfoundland. If you asked the Maritimers in a room to stand up, those from Newfoundland would remain seated, as we do not describe ourselves that way."
A final word on this comes from Richard Cashin, also of St. John's. "Essentially, it is a political designation, not geographic," he writes. Otherwise, British Columbia, for instance, could be considered part of the group.
THE QUESTION: Teaching schools of yore were often called "normal schools," writes Peggy Richardson of Leith, Ont. Why the word "normal"?
THE ANSWER: "They were called normal schools because they instructed prospective teachers in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum," writes Peter McGuinness of Downsview, Ont. "Before there were normal schools, anyone who wanted to could set themselves up as a teacher, whether or not they knew anything about how to teach or what to teach."
HELP WANTED
- When you pay a bill online or through a bank's telephone system, the completed transaction is assigned a confirmation number, says Wendy Oberlander of Vancouver. "When I pay a second bill, within less than a minute, the number is different by many digits." Why are these numbers not remotely close in sequence?
- Why do cats "totally freak out" if they see another cat outside through a window and yet not react when they see their reflection in a mirror? J. Burton of Bolton, Ont., wants to know.
- "I know that the moon shines because it reflects the sun's rays," writes Wayne Eyre of Saskatoon. "But how is it that the dusty surface of the moon shines so brightly and whitely?"
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