Lisa Hrabluk

Hugh Thorburn, the Nostradamus of our times.

I’ve been researching the political history of New Brunswick and just finished Politics in New Brunswick by Thorburn, a Queens U prof, who wrote in 1961. His assessment of the province is laughingly and depressingly still current in far too many ways.

Below are some of my highlights:

New Brunswick has not been affected by the dislocating influence of a new immigrant population bringing different folkways with it. Instead, it has been bypassed by the stream of immigration and has continuously lost a considerable portion of its own you and vigourous population. Small wonder, then, that the province holds on to old ways in politics. It has not had change thrust upon it since Confederation. – pp 41-42

Anything you can do, ACOA can do better:

New Brunswick is in no way an economic unit; rather, it consists of several small regional economies that have few interests in common and tend to compete for government projects in their respective areas. p.45

The view from the 2nd floor bunker at the Centennial Building:

The responsibility of government to respond to a complex array of representatives of local, region and special interests each alert to claim the desserts of its principals, results in a rather negative introversion that emphasizes the smaller and more local interests. p.50

Who’s your father syndrome:

…[E]very citizen belongs in his own community through long association and general acceptance. He has his place, which is his pride or his cross, and others recognize it. His family and its social position dogs him through his lifetime. He will be recognized by his family name and by where he comes from…

And my personal favourite:

It is a society which offers few advantages for the energetic young men who have completed their secondary education or obtained university degrees. These are tempted to emigrate unless the opportunities offered by a family enterprise or the practice of a profession present the makings of a career. Many of the members of the notable families find suitable employment and so remain, as do most of the unskilled and uneducated, who can find labouring jobs or stay on the family farm.

It is the educated and vigorous young men without moneyed connections who find suitable employment opportunities scarce, and many of them are drawn off to central Canada.

Those who “kick against the pricks” are encouraged to leave; those who accommodate themselves to things as they are tend to remain.

Perhaps such conditions, existing over a prolonged period, account for much of New Brunswick’s charm, but they are also responsible for its static and traditional outlook, its strong local loyalties and its calm and resigned acceptance of things.

Kick against the pricks. Did that mean the same thing in 1961 that it means today? There’s a bumper sticker waiting to be printed, I think.