Part 1: Pure Laine & King Danny: first impressions of an Albertan CFA in Newfoundland and Labrador.


Newfoundlanders call newcomers to the province Come From Aways (or CFAs). I’ve been a CFA now for about six months since arriving here for Grad school from Alberta. Before getting here I’d heard in the news of premier Danny Williams’ various attacks on the Harper government for this affront or that, and I’d seen enough CBC television to have a picture of St. John’s and its colourful row houses (painted for years with lead paint which is now wrecking havoc with local soil quality) perched on jagged rocks. It wasn’t much of an impression sure, but about as good of one as one might hope spending the past 25 years between Alberta, Quebec and abroad–all places where Newfoundland and Labrador is the last thing on anyone’s mind (with the exception of importing Newfoundlanders for work in the Alberta Oil Patch, but that awareness doesn’t stem from any sensitivity to Newfoundland and Labrador, it is merely a resource worth exploiting).
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