He vigorously promoted economic development through the Economic Development Plan of 1951, championed the welfare state (paid for by Ottawa), and attracted favourable attention across Canada. He emphasised modernisation of education and transportation to attract outsiders, such as German industrialists, because the local economic elite would not invest in industrial development. Although he had had socialist leanings in his youth, he often sided with bankers and became hostile to the militant unions that sponsored numerous strikes. He relied heavily on the expertise of German industry in his repeated attempts to industrialise Newfoundland in the post-Confederation period. His efforts to promote industrialisation were a mixed bag, with the most favourable results in hydroelectricity, iron mining, and paper mills.Sean T. Cadigan, Newfoundland and Labrador: A History (2009), Chapter 10. Part of Smallwood’s industrialization legacy is the 1969 agreement locking Newfoundland into selling electricity from the power dam at Labrador’s Churchill Falls to Quebec until the year 2041—at a fixed rate that is now roughly one-tenth of the market price.
