John Joseph Peddle.Courtesy of family
John Joseph Peddle: Family man. Pacifist. Traveller. Newfoundlander. Born June 7, 1945, in Corner Brook, N.L.; died Sept. 10, 2019, in Corner Brook, of Alzheimer’s disease; aged 74.
John Peddle spent most of his life in Corner Brook, N.L., a place he loved. But he was curious about the world and interested in making it better. He reached out across international borders, helped his community and celebrated his family, fascinated by his unknown Mi’kmaq roots.
Growing up, he often travelled across Newfoundland with his father on his route as a salesman, peddling everything from toilet paper to Chiclets to medicines and cod liver oil. He quickly learned the importance of appreciating the hospitality of others and would turn these adventures into bedtime stories for his own children.
As a young man, he attended seminary school in Toronto, but decided it was not the life he wanted and returned to Corner Brook, then completed a BA at Saint Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S.
After meeting Joan in St. John’s, the couple fell in love and married in 1963. But John nearly missed his own wedding when he found the lift bridge in Placentia elevated – leaving him stuck on the wrong side of the water.
While the couple raised two girls – Karen and Katrina – John worked as an employment counsellor. He believed in helping people, even learning sign language to better communicate with clients. Through his work, he acted as a community liaison to the Corner Brook Indian Band, and was surprised to see many of his cousins at band meetings. He discovered that his grandmother had kept her Indigenous identity secret. This put him on a quest to countless graveyards and churches, as he painstakingly mapped his Mi’kmaq roots and re-established his family’s connection to their culture. He joined the Federation of Newfoundland Indians and was delighted to be a founding member of the Qalipu First Nation.
When his children were little, John was adamant that Joan keep working as a nurse. This meant he was at home with the kids (or at music lessons, the ski club or band practice), while Joan worked evenings at the hospital. John was his children’s biggest cheerleader, especially through challenging times. When Katrina came out to her father in Greece, she was worried she had tanked the family holiday. But John and Joan offered complete acceptance. John always welcomed his kids’ chosen family into his home. Katrina’s partner still talks about how John was so happy to meet her that he gave her two hugs.
John was an unflappable traveller. He always packed patience and good humour, once urging a hotel concierge in Paris to call the police so that he could sleep in jail rather than in the street when his reservation had been cancelled. He also loved camping in Newfoundland, and would bring hitchhikers home for a warm meal and to dry out their sleeping bags. Mostly, he adored his cabin in the Bay of Islands, with its “million-dollar view.”
John strongly believed militarism did not serve anyone, especially the poor. In the 1980s, John and a friend spoke with the captain of a Russian fishing boat at the wharf. They talked about world peace, and in the years that followed, John and other Project Ploughshares members accommodated scores of Russian sailors at their home and built lifelong friendships.
John was a true Newfoundlander. He showed us all the difference a kind heart can make. He was some shockin’ good.
Katrina Peddle is John’s daughter.
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