Because Canada is a huge and diverse country, I decided in this article to consider Newfoundland as the region studied and the rest of Canada as the exterior of the region.

Presentation of the country’s government

The government manages the executive power in Canadian territory. Canada is a constitutional monarchy. Indeed, Elizabeth II is also the queen of Canada because she is the chief of the commonwealth. We can see her figure on Canadian 20 CAD bills.

But the government chief is the Prime Minister Stephen Harper, chief of the conservatory party of Canada which received the majority vote in 2011. Its political orientation emphasises the creation of employment through low taxes, improving the communication between the available employment and unemployed people, investing in big infrastructures such as roads and common transports, balancing the budget and reforming the immigration system concerning temporary work of foreigners.

So let me give you some advices for your internship or temporary work. If you want to work in Canada, I advise you to look for an employer as soon as you have the responses concerning the destinations. Indeed, you must have the letter of acceptance of your employer before asking for a working permit. The application for a working permit takes time and you must have it when you arrive in Canada. You can apply for your permit after you arrive but it will be more difficult and you should go to the French embassy which is not in St John’s so it will cost you a lot. Moreover, you will see, the four months pass very quickly so it is great to have our full time to enjoy there and not doing papers. I didn’t find an employer before leaving France so I searched again once arrived I in St John’s but still did not find a job. So I found a volunteering in United States.

Regional geopolitical context

Provinces have a huge power.

Newfoundland and Labrador was a British and French colony since the 16^th century and became independent in the 19^th century. With the confederation of 1949, it became a province of Canada.

Its official flag was adopted in 1980. The blue represents the sea, the white: snow and ice, the red: efforts of settlers, and the gold represents their confidence. The blue triangles remind us of the Union Flag to highlight the British heritage. The two red triangles represent the two parts of the region: Labrador (land) and Newfoundland (island).

Since the collapse of the cod fishery at the beginning of the 90’, the economy in Newfoundland has been depressed, followed by a decrease of population.

10 years after, the growth restarted moderately because of the exploitation of energy and resources. Now, the largest part of the economy is the service industry followed by mining of iron and nickel, oil production, manufacturing and tourism. But the fishing industry is still an important part of the economy, and aquaculture is growing.

External regional conflicts

The Grand River land dispute started to have a huge importance in 2006, the date on which a demonstration raised awareness about First Nation land claims in Ontario.

The land in dispute in Caledonia is 40 hectares: some want this land to be giveback to native people whereas some support the project of Enco Industries, which is the development of the residential subdivision: Douglas Creek Estates.

Internal conflicts :

This content comes, for a large part, from my Newfoundland culture and society lesson. I advise you to take this course because, besides being really interesting, it is easy to validate. Indeed, we must read extracts of texts for every two weeks. We have an exam on each session in which we must answer one of three questions. At the end of the semester, depending on our grades, the teacher told us whether or not we were required to do the final exam.  

To begin with: as for me, there are few tensions inside the territory of Canada. Indeed, during my semester, I never heared on TV remarks concerning a special big conflict in Canada.

Here, I suppose that most of the conflicts in Newfoundland are disagreements concerning ethnicity.

Newfoundland has a huge story!

Indeed, Newfoundland has been discovered at the beginning of the 16^th century and was settled during the following decades. Settlements took time because, at the beginning, there were only year-round fishers. Before, there were two main Indian groups living here: the Beothuk’s and the Mi’kmaq.

The Beothuk’s, because of their way of life and the little settlement at the beginning, didn’t have much contact with Europeans. But the more villages were settled on the coast, the more they moved to live inland. But the climate in Newfoundland is hard so they lack food and, for many other reasons, the Beothuk’s disappeared in 1829.

The picture on the right is a painting of the last one.

Mi’kmaq had more contacts with European settlers because they took part of the trade of fish and seal, but, as for Beothuk’s, they moved inland because of European settlements. The creation of the railway in 1898 made the European economic activity move inland by the development of the wood trade.  First, the Mi’kmaq people worked as guides, but the European exploitation of inland resources lead to diminishing the number of Mi’kmaq. Today, some Indian people are still here. By the 70’s, the creation of the native association of Newfoundland allowed the protection of a certain amount of land. But in 2008, The Mi’kmaq signed to be referred as a “landless band”. 

I’m going to talk a bit about cell phones.

Mobiles phones working in Canada are those with four stripes. But, we guess that some companies prefer us to buy a phone at their store because most of the phones of the exchange students seemed not to work whereas they should have worked normally. Indeed, my phone with four stripes didn’t work nor did the I-phone of a friend. So, after weeks of attempting to make my phone work, I decided to buy a new one. Luckily, cell phones here are less expensive than in France. In general, if a new technology product is at 100€ in Europe it will be at $100 in Canada, whereas with 100€ you can have 150$ because of the exchange rate.

Nevertheless, be careful because in Canada, taxes are not included in the price and the tax in Newfoundland is 13% so you notice it when you buy an expensive product.

Now, I am going to speak about the plans. To put it in a nutshell, in Canada the phone plans are the same as in France … before the arrival of Free! So, today (I can’t know what will be the situation next year) the cheapest phone plan is at $20 a month! (15€). For this price you have: 50 minutes of communication and unlimited texts. The advantage: you have also international texts which is comfortable to speak with your friends in France. But concerning the communications: those 50 minutes include YOUR calls and the incoming calls! So, if you call someone for 50 minutes you don’t have any more credit, but if someone calls you for 50 minutes: it is the same!

So be careful because the plans are not blocked! So I gave 40$ in order to not need to reload it but one month later: I could not call anymore because I already went over the limit!

So now I can speak about the customer service: Virgin customer service is the best ever! I called to ask about details concerning my calls… and to know what happened to my credit (because I didn’t know that I had to pay the incoming calls). First of all: the call to Virgin is free! Moreover, the respondent was really kind and understanding. At the end, they gave me the best way to solve my problem! They said: “you didn’t know that you had to pay the incoming calls so, because of that, we give you 45$ so that you can have the plan at 35$ during one month.” And my new plan was available 5 minutes after! BEST customer service EVER!

 As I heard many people advising me to do the screech-in : I decided to become a Newfoundlander one Thursday night.

Let me explain: in Newfoundland, we can “become a Newfoundlander” by doing the screech-in ceremony. This ceremony is a way of welcoming new people to Newfoundland and Labrador.

So; if you come to NL: go to the bar named “the Christian’s” (and pay 15$ because there are other places where it is cheaper but, as for one of my friends, the ceremony at the other places is less funny). When there are sufficient people registered, one guy dressed as a fisherman enters singing Newfoundland traditional songs. After, each one person introduces themselves and the fisher makes us repeat a sentence: "Deed I is me old cock, and long may your big jib draw!" And here, you will believe that you have lost all your English skills!

Indeed, Newfies (Newfoundland inhabitants) have a strong accent which is quite difficult to understand. At the beginning of the semester, I believed I had serious problems comprehending English but, one of our British friends told us that sometimes she had trouble to understand newfies too so I became reassured.

So the fisher said the phase quickly and asked people to repeat it but I could not understand the sense of the phrase so I tried to repeat the sounds I heard and it was quite funny.

So the song means: “Indeed, I am. My old friend. May there always be wind in your sails”

After this, he gave us a piece of ham. It seems to be a traditional ham of Newfoundland. Then, we made a round and drank a shot of screech which is a traditional Newfoundland rum. They do not produce rum but traditionally, they sold salt fish to Jamaica and get rum in return.

At the end, he brought a frozen awful cod and each of us had to kiss it.

And it’s finished! Each of us received a certificate confirming that we were now an honorary Newfoundlander!

This ceremony was really funny. Indeed, there was a friendly ambience and the repetition of the song was quite tough. This was a folkloric night reminding me of Irish folklore. Indeed, Newfoundland and Labrador has been settled in part by Irish people so there is a strong Irish culture here: there are many Irish pubs, Irish decorations (shamrocks and goblins) and we celebrated St Patrick’s day.

Because, in France, Britany is really influenced by Irish culture and folklore, and because Newfoundland is an island, the ambience and landscape here sometimes reminded me of Britany. For sure, there is less snow in Britain but the landscape with cliffs can remind us of it. 

Yesterday, we went to a hockey game!

I really recommend you to go there: it is a real experience!

It was the ice-cap (Newfoundland hockey players) against a group from the American city Springfield. So a girl sang the two hymns. Then, the game began.

It is quite violent so they are wearing thick sport clothes and a helmet. The goal keeper is also wearing leg protections. Apparently, this match was not so violent: they did not really fight whereas some of my friends came to see a hockey game and the players were always fighting.

Moreover, it was a really dynamic match because fifteen goals have been won (8 by the Americans and 7 for us).

I am not found of watching matches but I really loved it!

I arrived on January 10th and will leave on April 16th. 

i have seen snow during all my stay. Before my arrival, there has been a huge snow storm and I witnessed some little ones during my stay.

Even if, as for Newfoundlanders, this winter is exceptionnaly cold and snowy, you should expect having a cloudy, snowy and cold weather if you come to St John's. So, bring your ski clothes expecially snowshoes because you will have to walk a lot in the snow. Roads are cleared but sideways are not and even in the campus yo can need it sometimes.