That's a common Newfoundland expression. These days it's used sort of ironically, in that people generally have it pretty good.
See, it used to be that we were a have-not province. Hell, before we were a have-not province we were perched on a Godforsaken rock in the North Atlantic, desperately clinging to a fishery that left us poor and in debt to rich merchants. I often think of the long lean month of March when Newfoundlanders must have found their lives hardest; all their berries and root vegetables used up and a bitter northeast wind blowing. Oh yes, times were tough. It was a hard go.
But we are not ordinary people. We are a hardy, tough breed. In the 1970s and 1980s young people left in droves for Ontario and Alberta to find easier lives. But they pined for home, for whatever it is that makes us love this place.
Then in the 1990s the closure of the fishery. Many thought it would be the end of it all. And yet.
There is always something, something about our bleak unyielding landscape that we can't quit. I cannot imagine living anywhere else. The politicians are mostly bad, the weather is terrible, and often even the attitudes can be awful. But there is a pride here that cannot be contained. Walk downtown and sample the food, hear the music played by talent like no other. Where else can you see icebergs, puffins, whales in one day? Where you can watch a multitude of small fish roll on a beach, giving life to the next generation of this wonderful ecosystem? Where else can you have the sweetest blueberries on earth (yes, on earth) and literally taste the salty air? Only one place that I have ever been.
I love to travel. I love it so much it is my passion in life. But I have also begun to realize that without my home, my rock, it is nothing. Newfoundland is the yin to my yang. It is the completion of the circle. Leaving here to travel to new worlds excites me but it is also equally exciting to return. I get nervous butterflies of anticipation just before I arrive. People don't just clap on landing at St. John's airport because of the harrowing winds (although it might be a little of that too). It is also the sea of expectant faces at the bottom of the stairs at the airport, looking with love for those that return. It is being able to call this place home, or wanting to.
So that levy? The one in the budget that we are all up in arms about? I'm ok with it. I'd pay more if I had to, to stay here. I unabashedly love this province, whether it is a have, or have-not. It's not such a hard go.
