P. W. Crummey

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P.W. Crummey (1891-1960) was a public figure in Newfoundland.

Born in Western Bay, Crummey was a fisherman in his youth and migrated with the "Labrador floater fishery' to Wolf Island in Groswater Bay. Crummey attended Prince of Wales Academy in St. John's and attended college at the Methodist College in New York, U.S.A. before returning to Newfoundland and becoming a school teacher. P.W. Crummey taught at various communities including Shoal Harbour, Bonavista Bay, and eventually became Superintentent of the Methodist School Board. Crummey was an Orangeman; he attended Orangeman Conferences across the Dominion of Newfoundland and also in Canada. P.W. Crummey was Master of The Lord Admiral Nelson (Orange) Lodge in Western Bay, and was elected Grand Master of the Orange Lodge of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1937. Crummey was Captain of Western Bay's detachment of Methodist Guards ( a volunteer cadet corps). He also ran unsuccessfully for the Newfoundland House of Assembly in the 1920s.

During World War II, Crummey served as a Aircraft Identity Corps Volunteer for Newfoundland's Commission of Defence. In March 1942, Crummey received a letter from L.E. Emerson, Commissioner of Defence for Newfoundland telling Crummey that Newfoundland's Aircraft Identity Corps would be organized by the Royal Canadian Air Force. Crummey also received: a letter from H.H. Graham F/Lt. Officer Commanding No. 1 Group R.C.A.F. St. John's; glosserys of airplanes and ships; a Aircraft Identity Corps identity card; instructions and a brass Volunteer Aircraft Obververs button for his lapel pin. [[1]]

P. W. Crummey also served as an Officer of the United Church of Canada, a Commissioner for the Newfoundland Supreme Court and a Justice of the Peace. In 1946, P.W. Crummey was acclaimed to represent Vay de Verde at the Newfoundland National Convention and was a supporter of responsible government. Crummey was a member of a six person delegation sent by the Convention to Ottawa to negotiate the draft Terms of Union between Newfoundland and Canada in 1947. Interestingly, at least three of the six Ottawa Delegates were members of the Orange Lodge: Joseph Smallwood, P.W. Crummey and F.G. Bradley; and two of them had been Grand Masters: P.W. Crummey and F.G. Bradley.

The Ottawa Delegation assigned Crummey to negotiate the Fisheries Portfolio with Canada. He returned to the Newfoundland Legislature to report that the British North American Act dictated maritime affairs are a federal jurisdiction and that Newfoundland would lose sovereignty of its offshore resources if it joined Canada. As a Member of the National Convention's Ottawa Delegation, P.W. Crummey was the last Newfoundland citizen to represent Newfoundland's Fisheries Portfolio. Today, there is a Newfoundland & Labrador Provincial Fisheries minister but the ministry has no authority over maritime affairs, only the processing and marketing of fish after it has been caught and landed on shore.

Crummey was a member of the Responsible Government League formed by anti-Confederate delegates in February 1947 to oppose Canadian Confederation. Fearing that the RG was poorly run and would lose the referendum on Newfoundland's future, Crummey and several other delegates split away on March 20, 1948 to form the Party for Economic Union with the United States led by Chesley A. Crosbie.[2]

Lacking sufficient support in the Convention to have the option of economic union with the US placed on the 1948 referendum ballot, Crummey and the Economic Union Party called for a vote for responsible government in opposition to Joey Smallwood and his Confederate Association. With the results of the first referendum being inconclusive, a second round of balloting was held and Newfoundland joined Canadian Confederation.

Crummey was defeated as the Progressive Conservative candidate for Carbonear/Bay de Verde in 1951 and 1956.

His grandson, Jason Crummey, has been a leading member of the Green Party of Canada and the Terra Nova Green Party.