The author, activist and actor Greg Malone discusses his new book, Don’t Tell the Newfoundlanders: The True Story of Newfoundland’s Confederation with Canada (Knopf, 2012), with Joseph Planta.

Don’t Tell the Newfoundlanders: The True Story of Newfoundland’s Confederation with Canada by Greg Malone (Knopf, 2012). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Don’t Tell the Newfoundlanders

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

A few weeks ago on this program, I asked a guest, ‘Are you bitter?’ If you’ve followed Canadian media over the last 20-25 years, that’s a Barbara Frum-ism and really, I was thinking of Greg Malone and his send up of Barbara Frum from his years on CODCO. There’s a famous clip where Mr. Malone and Ms. Frum are at an award show and he says that line to her. So it’s really neat to have Greg Malone on the program today. He has just written a revelatory new book, Don’t Tell the Newfoundlanders: The True Story of Newfoundland’s Confederation with Canada. It’s a surprising and fascinating history of how Newfoundland and Labrador became Canada’s tenth province in 1949. The story goes back to the year prior and the referenda that were held asking Newfoundlanders to decide their fate. It’s Mr. Malone’s contention that they were suspect. He goes back further looking at the relationship with Britain, what Newfoundlanders really wanted, and moves ahead to sort of chronicle what’s become of them. What he’s done in this book is loads of research, uncovering documents heretofore unseen, and exposes how screwed they were by forces beyond (the Brits, the Americans, and the Canadians), as well as some of their own, namely Joey Smallwood. I’m really looking forward to finishing the book, and am looking forward now to asking Mr. Malone about it and where he feels the relationship with Canada is today, and perhaps where it should be. Greg Malone is known for his satirical work on WGB and CODCO, which has netted him accolades and notoriety across Canada and beyond. He’s an actor and director who lives in St. John’s, and he’s also a strident political activist, recently participating in the campaign against the privatisation of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro. His previous book was the memoir You Better Watch Out. This new book is published by Knopf. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, in Toronto today, Greg Malone; Mr. Malone, good morning.

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