TRIVIA

• This most easterly province is made up of Newfoundland (island) and Labrador (mainland).
• Thousands of small islands are also included.
• Labrador is larger and is bordered by Quebec. The North Atlantic Ocean is to the east.
• The island of Newfoundland is surrounded by the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean.
• The capital city and largest city is St. John’s.
• flower – Pitcher Plant, tree – Black Spruce, bird – Atlantic Puffin.
• motto – “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.”

THE PEOPLE

• About 508, 944 people live in Newfoundland and Labrador (2008).
• Most of the population lives on the island of Newfoundland.
• People live in fishing villages along the coast and small rural communities.
• About 60% of the people live in towns and cities.
• Early settlers mainly came from England, Ireland and Scotland.
• About 96% are British and Irish, and about 2% are of French descent
• Aboriginal ancestry include Micmac, Inuit, Innu and Métis.

CLIMATE

• In northern Labrador the climate is subarctic.
• The Atlantic Ocean affects the climate.
• Summers are cool and winters are long.
• There are many storms, fog, strong winds, heavy precipitation and cold temperatures.
• Newfoundland experiences more fog than any of the other Atlantic Provinces.

HISTORY

• The first people of Newfoundland were the Beothuk (now extinct) who hunted caribou and fished.
• For thousands of years ancestors of the Inuit hunted seal and polar bears along the Labrador coast.
• Vikings (Norsemen) were the first to visit Newfoundland and Labrador.
• Five hundred years later (in 1497) the explorer John Cabot arrived.
• He claimed the “new found isle” for the King of England.
• Fishermen from France, England, Spain and Portugal fished in the waters of the Grand Banks.
• English, Irish and Scottish settlers built small villages along the coast.
• In 1949 Newfoundland became a Canada’s tenth province.

LAND AND WATER

• There are many bays and deep fiords along the coastlines.
• Pack ice and icebergs can be seen off the coastline.
• Much of the island, south and central Labrador – covered with thick forests, many rivers and lakes.
• Torngat Mountains in Labrador – the most spectacular mountains east of the Rockies.
• Gros Morne National Park (west coast of Newfoundland) – mountains, forests, lakes, sand dunes
• Terra Nova National Park (east coast of Newfoundland) – rocky cliffs, rolling hills, forests, lakes, ponds
• Continental Shelf off the coast – includes shallow areas (banks) and deeper areas (troughs and channels)
• The Grand Banks – a shallow part of the Continental Shelf (less than 50 metres deep) that lie off the coast of Newfoundland.

RESOURCES/INDUSTRY

• Main exports are oil, fish products, newsprint, iron ore and electricity.
• Newfoundland and Labrador are part of the Canadian Shield.
• Iron ore is produced in Labrador. (Steel is made from iron ore.)
• Oil and gas are found under the Grand Banks.
• Churchill Falls in Labrador is the second largest hydroelectric power plant in the world.
• Fishermen catch cod, herring, Atlantic salmon, flounder, turbot, halibut, tuna and haddock.
• Lobster, scallops, shrimp, and crab are also caught.
• Overfishing caused a severe decline of fish in the Grand Banks.
• Fish processing is an important industry.
• Forests ( mostly coniferous trees ) cover one third of Newfoundland.
• Summers are cool and the growing season is short.

PLACES AND PEOPLE

• Signal Hill is a high cliff where Italian inventor Marconi received the first wireless signal (1901) from across the Atlantic Ocean.
• Titanic, a large passenger ship, sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg south of Newfoundland.
• A transatlantic telegraph cable was laid on the bottom of the ocean from Ireland to Heart’s Content, Newfoundland in 1866.

• Joey Smallwood – first premier of Newfoundland, the main force for bringing Newfoundland into Confederation in 1949
• Kevin Major – a Canadian children’s author lives in St.John’s.
• W.Grenfell – a doctor and missionary in the early 1900s, who visited fishing villages along the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland to care for the sick.