A Word to Say: The Story of the Maritime Fishermen's Union

Richard Wilbur is Supervisor of the Legislative Research Service at the
New Brunswick Legislature and author of The Rise of French New
Brunswick.

This is an excellent study not only of the efforts of Maritime inshore
fishermen to form their own union but also of another closely related
theme: a rising Acadian awareness. Calhoun does not permit her close
personal association with Gilles Thériault, the central figure in this
story, to distort her well-crafted narrative. Rather, she skillfully
links his initial efforts to organize inshore fishermen in northeastern
New Brunswick with the complex changes in fish stock and how they were
being managed in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.

Besides detailing the obstacles posed by conservative-minded
politicians and leaders of fisheries co-operatives (who correctly viewed
the MFU as a serious rival), Calhoun makes extensive use of interviews
conducted both during and after the events. As well, she shows great
skill in reducing a mass of detail about endless meetings and
legislative maneuvers into a readable narrative.

Former federal fisheries minister Romeo LeBlanc admits in his foreword
that his “neutrality” prevented him from giving MFU the leading role
in organizing the herring fishermen, rather than the Eastern
Fishermen’s Federation, which continues to rely on federal subsidies.
Yet LeBlanc’s support was far greater than that of his provincial
counterparts, especially those in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island,
who adamantly refused MFU requests for collective bargaining
legislation.

Considering the intense sense of individualism among inshore fishermen
and their tenuous financial state, it is a miracle that the MFU got off
the ground, let alone remained alive for 15 years. Calhoun correctly
credits the incredible devotion to the union cause displayed by a
handful of fishermen, mostly Acadians, who supported the
university-trained Thériault through the rollercoaster years of the
1980s.

This is a first-rate modern history of the single most important
economic group in the Maritime provinces—the inshore fishermen. A
close reading will provide an invaluable insight into the Maritime
psyche.