Why did Newfoundland and PEI not join confedaration?

Answer 1

For them, there was no evidence that Confederation would be of any real advantage to the colony.

First, the healthy Roman Catholic community in Newfoundland - composed mostly of people of Irish descent - thought that Union with the rest of Canada (which was Protestant, by the way) would have just the same results as the Union between Ireland and England - that is, bad.

Second, the traders and merchants thought that Confederation would mean Newfoundland would have to pay taxes to the mainland for the mainland's purposes, and tariffs imposed by the federal government would limit where they could and could not sell their products.

Finally, Newfoundland believed they would function perfectly even if they remained an independent British colony, instead of being part of Canada. If they thought they couldn't have handled independence, then Newfoundland would have reconsidered, opposition or no.

So, these main factors (in addition to a couple others) led to Newfoundland's opposition to the Confederation.

Answer 2

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