In 1980, I was driving back from Montreal on a late April evening, when I picked up a hitchhiker shivering beside the road in a jean-jacket. He was on his way to Toronto from Newfoundland. He had sent his belongings ahead by bus, but was conserving funds by hitching rides. It turned out he had been laid off from a St. John’s shipyard, and having only worked there a couple of years had concluded he would be one of the last called back. This was before any Newfoundland oil