Newfoundland and Labrador was not a part of Canada earlier because the fishery was very valuable to Britian. We traded fish all over Europe, the Caribbean and parts of Asia.

Newfoundland and Labrador fishery was a very valuable. In the book "Salt" and "Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World" explain this much better than I could in a subreddit.

We also had a much smaller population that was not allowed to settle the island until late in the 1700s. The population was about 60 percent Irish and the Irish were not allowed to own property or plant vegetables until the mid 1810s. For example my family were indentured servants from Ireland that came to NL in the 1730s. They left St. John's and settled on a small island where they could hide instead of being forced to go back to Ireland. Once people were allowed to settle then the population boomed.

The economic and political interest was still not there for Newfoundland and Labrador to become a part of Canada. There was a vote for confederation in the late 1800s but the vote for confederation did not win and Newfoundland and Labrador remained a colony then became a dominion.

After the great fire and then the bank crash in the following year, 1894, we lost our own currency. The Rooms Provibcial Museum has on display the "cancelled" Newfoundland and Labrador currency with a Bsnk of Nova Scotia stamp and a new amount that the currency is worth stamped on it. Then the railway and the First World War contributed to further economic issues. "A Death on Two Fronts" is a good book to explain this. With the great depression and major corruption in the local government we lost the right to govern ourselves and Britian sent over a group to suspend government and make recommendations for the future of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Armulee report is the document that came out of this. During this time NL was in a sort of limbo. Then World War II brought in the "American Invasion" in the form of American bases across NL. See "A Friendly Invasion: The American Military in Newfoundland 1940 - 1990". This brought some prosperity to the province but put off the confederation vote.The Rooms has an exhibition on right now on the history of Radio in NL and talks about the confederation debate on public radio with Joey Smallwood, the father of confederation, swaying the vote and laying the groundwork through his radio program "The Barrelman." There were two separate votes. The first offered the United States, staying a part of Britian, or joining with Canada. In the first vote joining with America lost and was taken off the next vote. If you read the reports from this time you can tell that Britian wanted nothing more to do with NL and were pushing for us to join Canada. Confederation with Canada won the vote by a slim margin. My family were anti confederation and I grew up being told you're a Newfoundlander first, Canadian second.

I work in History and have done lots of research and writing on the subject. Confederation with Canada was the only option. We had the highest rate of infant mortality of any developed country. I hope this answers some of your question? I'm on my phone since my computer died two days ago and I'm working from home.