A name never spoken by Newfoundlanders except as part of an expletive is that of Sir Robert Bond. As colonial secretary under Whiteway in 1889, Bond almost effected a reciprocity agreement between Newfoundland and the United States without consulting Canada. This was clearly in contravention of Clause 6(b) of the British North America Act, which states that “the interests of one part of British North America may not be sacrificed to those of another except when the phrase ‘one part of British North America’ is defined as ‘Newfoundland.’” Luckily, the Canadians heard of it in time to complain to Britain, which vetoed the agreement as it was obliged to do under the above-mentioned clause.
In the colony, Bond managed to convince Newfoundlanders that their interests had, for the umpteenth time, been sacrificed by Britain to those of the Canadians. It was because Bond was among its members that the delegation of 1894 pulled a Whiteway and turned its back on the generous terms of union offered by Canada to Newfoundland — and because of the failure of that delegation that for the next fifty years Confederation was as dirty a word in the colony as Bond is today.
It is nearly twenty years before Newfoundlanders realize what a scoundrel Bond has been, before they realize he was almost single-handedly responsible for hardening the terms of the already granite-like agreement with the railway-building Reid family.
Bond so fools his countrymen in 1900 that they elect him prime minister by the largest majority in Newfoundland history and re-elect him in 1904.