Few believe it's a political movement that will lead to significant change, but separatism is enjoying a resurgence in Newfoundland and Labrador.

A royal commission on the province's future within Canada has helped feed that sentiment.

The commission has handed its report to the provincial government and it's due to be made public on Wednesday.

In the meantime, Dave Hopley of St. John's has been selling about 200 of his "Free Nfld." T-shirts a month. "It's a popular sentiment these days," he said.

Earlier this year, Premier Roger Grimes suggested Canada should renegotiate the terms of Confederation with Newfoundland to reallocate control over the fisheries.

The royal commission spent a year and $3 million speaking to residents all over the province, getting their views on the Canada-Newfoundland relationship.

During that time, a new political party has sprung up. The Newfoundland and Labrador separatist party held an organizing meeting in Corner Brook on June 26.

"We are going to move now," said founder Fred Ollerhead. "We're going to move as a people all together and we're going to vote."

James Halley, one of the lawyers involved in negotiating the deal to get Newfoundland into Canada in 1949, says the province got a raw deal, especially in regard to the fisheries.

"Newfoundland has a growing cancer in its system," he said. "The root of our trouble is centred in the relationship between the two countries, between Newfoundland as a country and Canada."

Retired Memorial University political science professor Mark Graesser says nationalism bubbles up in Newfoundland from time to time, but never leads to much. "It's a form of cultural expression, a fad," he said. "It's like cocking a snook at the rest of Canada to say sure, let's free Newfoundland, go independent."

Grimes said he'll take 60 days to review the report, then hold what he describes as a "people's congress" on it.