The Margarine Bootleggers of Newfoundland
During Canada's Margarine Prohibition, Newfoundland kept us supplied
Today, margarine on the grocery store shelves is not unusual but there was a time that such a thing was illegal.
In 1886, through an Act of Parliament, a ban was put in place on margarine. That ban remained in place until 1917 when dairy shortages offered a brief respite from the ban.
In 1923, the ban was put back into place in 1923. It was not until 1949 that margarine could be sold, albeit with some rules like it couldn’t be yellow.
During the time when margarine was banned, Newfoundland, came to the rescue. At the time, Newfoundland was not a part of Canada. It was its own colony and it allowed margarine.
Bootlegged margarine became a very popular import to Canada during that time and the bootleggers in Newfoundland were more than happy to supply it.
The margarine produced in Newfoundland was typically produced through whale, fish and seal oil. The biggest margarine company in Newfoundland was the Newfoundland Butter Company. Founded in 1925, it may have had butter in its name but margarine was its only product.
The company had complete support from the Newfoundland government and was established by Sir John Crosbie, the Minister of Fisheries for Newfoundland. He had made a trip to Denmark and saw that the country had a strong dairy industry, and a vibrant margarine industry.
To kick off interest in the margarine from the company, silver and gold coins were included with the first tubs of margarine produced.
The Newfoundland government then put a six per cent import tax on margarine, which helped Crosbie make even more money out of his business.
When a survey found that Newfoundland residents were not getting enough Vitamin A and D, the company began adding the vitamins to its products.
As for Canada, bootleggers bought margarine at a low rate in Newfoundland, then travelled to the Canadian mainland. There, they sold the margarine for half the price of butter.
The days of the margarine bootleggers when the Supreme Court of Canada lifted the ban on margarine. One reason for this was that Newfoundland was about to join Canada and one of its conditions to do so was that the island province would be able to continue to produce margarine.
The negotiations between Newfoundland and Canada would result in Term 46 of the Newfoundland Act.
This term prohibited the sale of margarine to the rest of Canada but allowed the manufacture and sale of it within Newfoundland. Many were not pleased with the fact that Newfoundland could make margarine but not ship it off the island. It would lead Greg Power, a poet in Newfoundland, to write a poem called The Ballad of Oleo Margarine:
I pray that I shall never know
A future without oleo
Or live to see my little sons
Turn up their noses at my buns
But there is one with soil so dead
Who’d sacrifice our spread for bread
And ban from every Newfie table
Our wholesome, rich, improved Green Label.
This condition helped the Newfoundland Butter Company earn a special mention in the Terms of Union with Canada, and it would become the first margarine manufacturing company in Canada. It also changed its name officially to the Newfoundland Margarine Company.
With Newfoundland now in Canada and making margarine, margarine producers began to use that as a way to lobby the government to be able to sell it to the rest of the country. The tactic worked and margarine soon became legal in 1949, the same year Newfoundland joined Canada.