While it may be difficult for non-residents to believe, many Newfoundlanders PREFER margarine to butter. Me too. Matt A piece of history 8/5/03 By Richard Foot, CanWest News Service —Halifax When food giant Unilever Canada spread word last month it was shutting down its St. John’s margarine plant, only a solitary sentence in its announcement hinted that the closure will bring an end to a historic Newfoundland icon, with its own special place in Canada’s Constitution. “Established in 1925 as the Newfoundland Butter Company by the Crosbie family,” Unilever said, “the St. John’s margarine facility was purchased by Unilever in 1937.” It turns out Newfoundland was built on more fodder than fish. The Newfoundland Butter Co. — which never once made butter — became not only an economic force in St. John’s but also Canada’s original margarine maker when the province joined Confederation in 1949. At the time margarine was outlawed across most of North America to protect the continental dairy industry. But in Newfoundland, where dairy farms were scarce, people had been eating and enjoying margarine since the 19th century. When Canada and Newfoundland began working out the colony’s entry into Confederation, negotiations bogged down for a while over whether the St. John’s margarine factory would be exempt from Canadian dairy rules. The result was a special clause in the Terms of Union — Newfoundland’s constitutional rights and obligations in Canada — allowing “oleomargarine” as it was then called, to be manufactured in the province, but forbidding its export beyond. “There’s a nostalgia for this company among Newfoundlanders,” says Roger Crosbie, a former company president. “It’s been a respected and recognized part of the fabric of Newfoundland for a long, long time. I hate to see it go.” Crosbie and his better-known cousin John, the former federal Tory cabinet minister, are members of a family dynasty with deep business roots in Newfoundland, dating back to their grandfather, Sir John Crosbie. Sir John was a successful fish exporter, sending ships around the world carrying, among other things, cargos of seal and whale oil to margarine manufacturers in Europe. It was there in 1870 that Frenchman Hippolyte Mege-Mouries created margarine. Responding to a challenge from Emperor Louis Napoleon III for a substitute to butter, Mege-Mouries made margarine out of margaric acid — so called because the acid’s lustrous oil drops looked like pearls, known in Greek as margarites. Margarine turned out to be the perfect condiment for Newfoundland. The colony was poor in dairy cattle but rich in seal and whale oil, which were key ingredients in the making of early margarine. Two Newfoundland companies were producing local margarine by the late 1800s, but none lasted as long as the oddly-named Newfoundland Butter Company, founded by Sir John in 1925. Sir John bartered margarine for fish in Newfoundland’s outports until he died in 1932. Five years later the Butter Co. was bought by Unilever, but the Crosbies continued to manage the firm until Roger Crosbie stepped down as president in 1999. Curious Newfoundlanders came from far and wide to gape at the amazing sign. During the Second World War, however, authorities ordered the lights turned off as part of war-time blackout rules, and the cow was taken down. In 1949 the business earned its special status in the Terms of Union, and soon after changed its name to the Newfoundland Margarine Co. — although Crosbie says Newfoundlanders continued to call margarine butter. Canada now had its first margarine maker, a lucrative business with more than 150 workers. And although St. John’s margarine couldn’t be exported to other provinces, it wasn’t long after Newfoundland joined Canada that the national dairy rules were changed and Unilever began making margarine in the rest of the country. The international food giant now says the St. John’s plant and its 17 workers are too small a concern to be maintained in a world of large-scale, centralized manufacturing. After making margarine for almost eight decades, and introducing the product into Canada, Newfoundland will now get its margarine shipped out from Unilever plants in Ontario. “Everybody hates to see our old companies disappear,” says Crosbie, “but time marches on.”