fantapolitica
humorous look at Italian politics (bilingual)Saturday, March 06, 2010
Il Dominio Terra NeoTrovato
Name that country
the electors in many cases preferred to vote for a candidate who was known to possess an aptitude for promoting his own interests at the public expense rather than for a man who disdained to adopt such a course. They argued that, if a man had proved himself capable of using his political opportunities to his personal advantage, he would be the better equipped to promote the advantage of his constituents: an honest man would only preach to them
No it's not Italy. I told you what it was (translating for your inconvenience). It was the British domain of Newfoundland. Domains had home rule. Newfoundland was a failed state. It was necessary for his Magesty to decide whether to demote it to directly ruled colony or merge it with Canada. I understand that most Canadians have, more or less, come to accept the final decision.
Oddly, I found the quote here (this guy has hit it big. A link from eschatonblog and one from fantapolitica in the same day). The blogger who blogs as P. O'Neil expected his readers to guess Ireland.
Comments:
That's not quite correct. Newfoundland was a Dominion, as were Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In 1934, it became bankrupt and temporarily gave up self-rule to the UK, until such a time as it was financially stable again.
This happened during the Second World War, but understandably Britain had more important things to deal with.
In 1948 two referenda were held. The initial choice was: return to self-rule or contain under direct British control. Through some backroom dealing, a third option was added to the ballot: become part of Canada.
In the first vote, a return to independence for Newfoundland received the most votes, but it was not a majority. The least popular option was dropped from the ballot and a second vote was held.
In this one, independence received about 48% of the vote and joining Canada got about 52%.
As you can imagine, the 48% who did not want to join Canada were somewhat upset about things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_of_Newfoundland
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This happened during the Second World War, but understandably Britain had more important things to deal with.
In 1948 two referenda were held. The initial choice was: return to self-rule or contain under direct British control. Through some backroom dealing, a third option was added to the ballot: become part of Canada.
In the first vote, a return to independence for Newfoundland received the most votes, but it was not a majority. The least popular option was dropped from the ballot and a second vote was held.
In this one, independence received about 48% of the vote and joining Canada got about 52%.
As you can imagine, the 48% who did not want to join Canada were somewhat upset about things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominion_of_Newfoundland
