PAGE 1/2

    The coming of electricity to the peninsula in the early 1960s brought with it a new element of cultural disruption: television. Its effect was to turn people away from traditional forms of entertainment, such as the veillée. It would of course be wrong to refuse anyone the advantages of modern technology and to regret the near passing of a particular way of life. As was the case elsewhere, French Newfoundlanders took to television with pleasure but without always realizing that it indirectly represented a new threat to the survival of their language and culture for, until 1974, television was entirely in English. The effects 'of television and some of its programmes had a crucial influence on viewers, an influence which in turn seemed to give the coup de grace to the folktale as the chief form of entertainment. The sixties brought more than electricity to the French of Newfoundland. The upgrading of highways allowed easier access to work available in Stephenville and even further afield. But in 1966 the American base finally closed down, putting an end, in one fell swoop, to the principal source of prosperity. At this period the traditional occupation, the fishery, to which the newly unemployed might have returned, was suffering from the effects of over-exploitation. Bay St. George, which for generations had provided an abundance of cod and lobster, seemed on the point of depletion. Almost overnight people had to rely on social security programmes in a milieu in which most French Newfoundlanders had previously been able to earn an adequate living.