Encyclopedia
Nova Scotia is a Canadian
province located on
Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in the
Maritimes, and its capital,
Halifax, is the economic and cultural centre of the region. Nova Scotia is the second smallest province in Canada, with an area of 55,284 km². Its population of 936,988 makes it the fourth least populous province of the country.
Nova Scotia's economy is traditionally largely resource-based, but has in recent decades become more diverse. Industries such as
fishing,
mining,
forestry and
agriculture remain very important, and have been joined by
tourism,
technology,
film production, music and other cultural industries.
The province includes several regions of the
Mi'kmaq nation of Mi'gma'gi, which covered all of the Maritimes, as well as parts of
Maine, the
Gaspé, and
Newfoundland. Nova Scotia was already home to the Mi'kmaq people when the first European colonists arrived. In 1604,
French colonists established the first permanent European settlement north of Florida at Port Royal, founding what would become known as
Acadia. The
British Empire obtained control of the region between 1713 and 1760, and established the new capital at Halifax in 1749. Nova Scotia was one of the founding four provinces to join
Confederation with
Canada in 1867.
History
See also individual articles on .
Paleo-Indians
camped at locations in present-day Nova Scotia approximately 11,000 years ago. Archaic Indians are believed to have been present in the area between 1,000 and 5,000 years ago.
Mi'kmaq, the
First Nations of the province and region, are their direct descendants.
Some believe that the Vikings may have settled in Nova Scotia at some time, though there is little evidence of this and the claim is deeply disputed.
While there is some debate over where he landed, it is most widely believed that the Italian explorer
John Cabot visited present-day
Cape Breton in 1497. . The first European settlement in Nova Scotia was established in 1604. The
French, lead by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts established the first capital for the colony
Acadia at Port Royal in 1604 at the head of the Annapolis Basin.
In 1620, the
Plymouth Council for New England, under
King James I & VI designated the whole shorelines of Acadia and the Mid-Atlantic colonies south to the
Chesapeake Bay as
New England. The first documented Scottish settlement in the Americas was of Nova Scotia in 1621. On 29 September 1621, the charter for the foundation of a colony was granted by
James VI to Sir William Alexander and, in 1622, the first settlers left
Scotland.
This settlement initially failed due to difficulties in obtaining a sufficient number of skilled
emigrants and in 1624, James VI created a new order of
Baronets; admission to this order was obtained by sending 6 labourers or artisans, sufficiently armed, dressed & supplied for 2 years, to Nova Scotia, or by paying 3,000 merks to William Alexander. For 6 months, no one took up this offer until James compelled one to make the first move.
In 1627, there was a wider uptake of baronetcies, and thus more settlers available to go to Nova Scotia. However, in 1627, war broke out between
England and
France and the French re-established a settlement at Port Royal which they had originally settled. Later that year, a combined Scottish and English force destroyed the French settlement, forcing them out. In 1629, the first Scottish settlement at Port Royal was inhabited. The colony's charter, in law, made Nova Scotia a part of mainland Scotland, this was later used to get around the English navigation acts. However, this did not last long: in 1631, under
King Charles I, the Treaty of Suza was signed which returned Nova Scotia to the French. The Scots were forced by Charles to abandon their mission before their colony had been properly established and the French assumed control of the Mi'kmaq and other First Nations territory.
In 1654,
King Louis XIV of France appointed aristocrat Nicholas Denys as Governor of
Acadia and granted him the confiscated lands and the right to all its minerals. English colonists captured Acadia in the course of King William's War, but England returned the territory to France in the
Treaty of Ryswick at the wars end. The territory was recaptured by forces loyal to
England then
Britain during the course of Queen Anne's War, and its conquest confirmed by the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. France retained possession of Île St Jean and Île Royale , on which it established a
fortress at
Louisbourg to guard the sea approaches to
Quebec. This fortress was captured by American colonial forces then of returned by the British to France, then ceded again after the
French and Indian War of 1755.
Thus mainland Nova Scotia became a British colony in 1713, although Samuel Vetch had a precarious hold on the territory as governor from the fall of Acadian Port-Royal in October 1710. British governing officials became increasingly concerned over the unwillingness of the French-speaking, Catholic
Acadians, who were the majority of colonists, to pledge allegiance to the
British Crown, then
George II. The colony remained mostly Acadian despite the establishment of Halifax as the province's capital, and the settlement of a large number of foreign Protestants at Lunenburg in 1753. In 1755, the British forcibly expelled the over 12,000 Acadians in what became known as the Grand Dérangement, or
Great Expulsion.
The colony's jurisdiction changed during this time. Nova Scotia was granted a supreme court in 1754 with the appointment of
Jonathan Belcher and a Legislative Assembly in 1758. In 1763
Cape Breton Island became part of Nova Scotia. In 1769, St. John's Island became a separate colony. The county of Sunbury was created in 1765, and included all of the territory of current day
New Brunswick and eastern
Maine as far as the Penobscot River. In 1784 the western, mainland portion of the colony was separated and became the province of
New Brunswick, and the territory in Maine entered the control of the newly independent American state of
Massachusetts. Cape Breton would again became a separate colony in 1784 only to be returned to Nova Scotia in 1820.
Ancestors of more than half of present-day Nova Scotians arrived in the period following the Acadian Expulsion. Between 1759 and 1768, about 8000 New England Planters responded to Governor Charles Lawrence's request for settlers from the New England colonies. Several years later, approximately 30,000
United Empire Loyalists settled in Nova Scotia following the defeat of the
British in the
American Revolutionary War. Of these 30,000, 14,000 went to New Brunswick and 16,000 to Nova Scotia. Approximately 3,000 of this group were slaves of
African ancestry, about a third of which soon relocated themselves to
Sierra Leone in 1792. Large numbers of
Gaelic-speaking Highland Scots emigrated to Cape Breton and the western portion of the mainland during the late 18th century and 19th century. About one thousand
Ulster Scots settled in mainly central Nova Scotia during this time, as did just over a thousand farming migrants from
Yorkshire and
Northumberland between 1772 and 1775.
Nova Scotia was the first colony in British North America and in the
British Empire to achieve responsible government in January-February 1848 and become self-governing through the efforts of
Joseph Howe. Pro-Confederate premier
Charles Tupper led Nova Scotia into the
Canadian Confederation in 1867, along with
New Brunswick and the Province of Canada.
In the Provincial election of 1868, the Anti-Confederation Party won 18 out of 19 Federal seats, and 35 out of 38 seats in the provincial legislature. For seven years, William Annand and Joseph Howe led the ultimately unsuccessful fight to convince British Imperial authorities to release Nova Scotia from Confederation. The government was vocally against Confederation, contending that it was no more than the annexation of the Province to the pre-existing province of Canada:
- "the scheme [confederation with Canada] by them assented to would, if adopted, deprive the people [of Nova Scotia] of the inestimable privilege of self-government, and of their rights, liberty, and independence, rob them of their revenue, take from them the regulation of trade and taxation, expose them to arbitrary taxation by a legislature over which they have no control, and in which they would possess but a nominal and entirely ineffective representation; deprive them of their invaluable fisheries, railroads, and other property, and reduce this hitherto free, happy, and self-governed province to a degraded condition of a servile dependency of Canada."
A motion passed by the Nova Scotia House of Assembly in 1868 refusing to recognize the legitimacy of Confederation has never been rescinded. Repeal, as anti-confederation became known, would rear its head again in the 1880s, and transform into the Maritime Rights Movement in the 1920s. Some Nova Scotia flags flew at half mast on Canada Day as late as that time.
Government
The government of Nova Scotia is a
parliamentary democracy. Its
unicameral legislature -- the Nova Scotia House of Assembly -- consists of 52 members. As Canada's head of state,
Queen Elizabeth II is the Government of Nova Scotia's chief executive. Her duties in Nova Scotia are carried out by the Lieutenant-Governor, Mayann E. Francis. The government is headed by the Premier, Rodney MacDonald, who took office February 22, 2006. Halifax is home to the House of Assembly and Lieutenant-Governor.
The province's revenue comes mainly from the taxation of personal and corporate income, although taxes on tobacco and alcohol, its stake in the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, and oil and gas royalties are also significant. In 2006/07, the Province passed a budget of $6.9 billion, with a projected $72 million surplus. Federal equalization payments account for $1.385 billion, or 20.07% of the provincial revenue. While Nova Scotians have enjoyed balanced budgets for several years, the accumulated debt exceeds $12 billion , resulting in slightly over $897 million in debt servicing payments, or 12.67% of expenses. The province participates in the HST, a blended sales tax collected by the federal government using the GST tax system.
Nova Scotia has elected three minority governments over the last decade. The Progressive Conservative government of John Hamm, and now Rodney MacDonald, has required the support of the
New Democratic Party or
Liberal Party since the election in 2003. Nova Scotia's politics are divided on regional lines in such a way that it has become difficult to elect a majority government. Rural mainland Nova Scotia has largely been aligned behind the Progressive Conservative Party, Halifax Regional Municipality has overwhelmingly supported the New Democrats, with
Cape Breton voting for Liberals with a few Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats. This has resulted in a ? split of votes on a Province wide basis for each party, and difficulty in any party gaining a majority. Progressive Conservative Premier Dr. Hamm announced his retirement in late 2005 and was replaced by Rodney MacDonald after MacDonald won a closely contested leadership convention, defeating former finance minister, and the race's frontrunner, Neil LeBlanc on the first ballot and Halifax businessman Bill Black on the second. MacDonald is the second youngest premier in Nova Scotia's history.
The last election on June 13th 2006 elected 23
Progressive Conservatives, 20
New Democrats and 9
Liberals, leaving Nova Scotia with a Progressive Conservative minority government.
See also: List of Nova Scotia PremiersGeography
The province's mainland is a
peninsula surrounded by the
Atlantic Ocean, including numerous bays and estuaries.
Cape Breton Island, a large
island to the northeast of the Nova Scotian mainland, is also part of the province, as is
Sable Island, a small island notorious for its
shipwrecks, approximately 175 km from the province's southern coast. Nova Scotia is Canada's second smallest province in area , and no point in Nova Scotia is more than 56 km from the sea.
See also individual articles on and
below for a map.
Ten Largest Municipalities
| Municipality | 2001 | 1996 |
|---|
| Halifax | 359,111 | 342,851 |
| Cape Breton | 105,968 | 114,733 |
| Lunenburg County | 47,591 | 47,561 |
| Kings County | 47,159 | 47,486 |
| Pictou County | 46,965 | 22,671 |
| Colchester County | 35,641 | 35,161 |
| Yarmouth County | 26,843 | 25,467 |
| East Hants | 20,821 | 19,767 |
| Annapolis County | 18,429 | 18,937 |
| Cumberland County | 16,183 | 17,738
|
Map
Demographics & Statistics
Population of Nova Scotia since 1851
| Year | Population | Five Year
% change | Ten Year
% change | Rank Among
Provinces |
|---|
| 1851 | 276,854 | n/a | n/a | 3 |
| 1861 | 330,857 | n/a | 19.5 | 3 |
| 1871 | 387,800 | n/a | 17.2 | 3 |
| 1881 | 440,572 | n/a | 13.6 | 3 |
| 1891 | 450,396 | n/a | 2.2 | 3 |
| 1901 | 459,574 | n/a | 2.0 | 3 |
| 1911 | 492,338 | n/a | 7.1 | 4 |
| 1921 | 523,837 | n/a | 6.4 | 7 |
| 1931 | 512,846 | n/a |
7 | | 1941 | 577,962 | n/a | 12.7 | 7 |
| 1951 | 642,584 | n/a | 11.2 | 7 |
| 1956 | 694,717 | 8.1 | n/a | 7 |
| 1961 | 737,007 | 6.1 | 14.7 | 7 |
| 1966 | 756,039 | 2.6 | 8.8 | 7 |
| 1971 | 788,965 | 4.4 | 7.0 | 7 |
| 1976 | 828,570 | 5.0 | 9.6 | 7 |
| 1981 | 847,442 | 2.3 | 7.4 | 7 |
| 1986 | 873,175 | 3.0 | 5.4 | 7 |
| 1991 | 899,942 | 3.1 | 6.2 | 7 |
| 1996 | 909,282 | 1.0 | 4.1 | 7 |
| 2001 | 908,007 |
0.9 | 7 | | 2005 | 937,900 | ? | ? | 7 |
| 2006 | ? | ? | ? | ? |
Population
Nova Scotia is the seventh most populated province in Canada with an estimated 936,988 residents as of January 1, 2006. It accounts for 3% of the population of Canada. The
population density is approximately 17.2 persons/km². Roughly 60% of the population live in rural parts of the province.
Employment
Unemployment is 9.5% of the work force, as of February 2006.
Per capita income
In 2005, per capital income was $28,114 .
Gross Domestic Product
Nova Scotia
GDP is presently approximately $33 billion annually.
Other facts
Nova Scotia is in the
Atlantic Standard Time zone.
The schooner
Bluenose, which appears on the back of the Canadian ten-cent piece and current Nova Scotia
license plate was built in Lunenburg, a town on the South Shore.
500–1000 Nova Scotians today are fluent in
Scottish Gaelic - nearly all live in
Antigonish County or on
Cape Breton Island. No native Nova Scotians speak
Scots.
There has been talk that Nova Scotia might invite
Turks and Caicos Islands to join the province, should these Caribbean islands ever become part of Canada. This would bypass the problems with admitting Turks and Caicos as a separate province.
In November 1761, a furious storm sent the merchant ship
Auguste to its doom, taking with it 114 people bound for
France and all of their earthly possessions. One of seven survivors, Monsieur St. Luc de la Corne, made an epic trek of almost one thousand miles in winter back to his family in Montreal. Almost 250 years later, what is left of the
Auguste and her valuable cargo of gold and silver lies at the bottom of
Cape Breton's Aspy Bay. Underwater explorer, Joe Amaral, and his team have sifted through the sands of Aspy Bay looking for treasure and answers to what really happened during this devastating shipwreck. So far, they have found several cannon, lead sheathing from repairs to the ship, a few coins, and a spoon.
Halifax played a key role in the aftermath of the loss of the
RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, becoming the final resting place of many of her unclaimed victims. Three Halifax ships were involved in the grim task of recovering victims - many of whom were laid to rest in Fairview Cemetery. The
Maritime Museum of the Atlantic on the Halifax waterfront has an exhibition of items recovered from the disaster, including the passenger list and one of the few deck chairs from the Titanic known to exist.
In 1621,
King James I granted Sir William Alexander, the land between
New England and
Newfoundland as
New Scotland . The Baronets of Nova Scotia were created as a settlement. A piece of land is now under the
Esplanade of
Edinburgh Castle to claim their Baronetage is deemed Nova Scotia under Scottish Law. The law has never been repealed.
Halifax also played a key role during the events of 9/11, as Halifax International Airport was a principal landing point for many airborne planes that could not land in the U.S. following the FAA ban on domestic air traffic. On September 11th 2006, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended a ceremony in Halifax to honour and thank the residents of Halifax for helping stranded passengers.
Further reading
- Beck, J. Murray. Joseph Howe Volumes I & II : Conservative Reformer 1804-1848; The Briton Becomes Canadian 1848-1873
- Beck, J. Murray. The Government of Nova Scotia University of Toronto Press, 1957, the standard history
- Beck, J. Murray. Politics of Nova Scotia. vol 1 1710-1896; vol 2: 1896-1988. Tantallon, N.S.: Four East 1985 438 pp.
- Bell, Winthrop P. The "Foreign Protestants" and the Settlement of Nova Scotia: The History of a Piece of Arrested British Colonial Policy in the Eighteenth Century. . reprint Fredericton, N.B.: Acadiensis for Mount Allison U., Cen. for Can. Studies, 1990. 673 pp.
- Bickerton, James P. Nova Scotia, Ottawa and the Politics of Regional Development. U. of Toronto Press 1990. 412 pp.
- Brebner, John Bartlet. New England's Outpost. Acadia before the Conquest of Canada
- Brebner, John Bartlet. The Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia: A Marginal Colony During the Revolutionary Years
- Byers, Mary and McBurney, Margaret. Atlantic Hearth: Early Homes and Families of Nova Scotia. U. of Toronto Press, 1994. 364 pp.
- Campey, Lucille H. After the Hector: The Scottish Pioneers of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Toronto: Natural Heritage Books, 2004. 376 pp.
- J. A. Chisholm, ed. Speeches and Public Letters of Joseph Howe 2 vol Halifax, 1909
- Choyce, Lesley. Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea. A Living History. Toronto: Penguin Books Canada, 1996. 305 pp.
- Conrad, Margaret and Moody, Barry, ed. Planter Links: Community and Culture in Colonial Nova Scotia. Fredericton, : Acadiensis, 2001. 236 pp.
- Conrad, Margaret, ed. Intimate Relations: Family and Community in Planter Nova Scotia, 1759-1800. Fredericton, : Acadiensis, 1995. 298 pp.
- Conrad, Margaret, ed. Making Adjustments: Change and Continuity in Planter Nova Scotia, 1759-1800. Fredericton: Acadiensis, 1991. 280 pp.
- Creighton, Wilfred. Forestkeeping: A History of the Department of Lands and Forests in Nova Scotia, 1926-1969. Halifax: Nova Scotia Dept. of Lands and Forests, 1988. 155 pp.
- Cuthbertson, Brian. Johnny Bluenose at the Polls: Epic Nova Scotian Election Battles, 1758-1848. Halifax: Formac, 1994. 344 pp.
- Donald A. Desserud; "Outpost's Response: The Language and Politics of Moderation in Eighteenth-Century Nova Scotia" American Review of Canadian Studies, Vol. 29, 1999
- Donovan, Kenneth, ed. Cape Breton at 200: Historical Essays in Honour of the Island's Bicentennial, 1785-1985. Sydney, N.S.: U. Coll. of Cape Breton Pr., 1985. 261 pp.
- Earle, Michael, ed. Workers and the State in Twentieth Century Nova Scotia. Fredericton: Acadiensis, 1989.
- Faragher, John Mack. A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland
- Fingard, Judith; Guildford, Janet; and Sutherland, David. Halifax: The First 250 Years Halifax: Formac, 1999. 192 pp.
- Frank, David. J. B. McLachlan: A Biography - the Story of a Legendary Labour Leader and the Cape Breton Coal Miners. Toronto: Lorimer, 1999. 592 pp.
- Fraser, Dawn. Echoes from Labor's Wars: The Expanded Edition, Industrial Cape Breton in the 1920's, Echoes of World War One, Autobiography and Other Writings. Wreck Cove, N.S.: Breton Books, 1992. 177 pp.
- Frost, James D. Merchant Princes: Halifax's First Family of Finance, Ships, and Steel Toronto: Lorimer, 2003. 376 pp.
- Girard, Philip; Phillips, Jim; and Cahill, Barry, ed. The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, 1754-2004: From Imperial Bastion to Provincial Oracle U. of Toronto Press 2004.
- Gwyn, Julian. Excessive Expectations: Maritime Commerce and the Economic Development of Nova Scotia, 1740-1870 McGill-Queen's U. Pr., 1998. 291 pp.
- Hornsby, Stephen J. Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton: A Historical Geography. McGill-Queen's U. Pr., 1992. 274 pp.
- Johnson, Ralph S. Forests of Nova Scotia: A History. Tantallon: Nova Scotia Dept. of Lands and Forests; Four East Publ., 1986. 407 pp.
- Johnston, A. J. B. Control and Order in French Colonial Louisbourg, 1713-1758. Michigan State U. Pr., 2001. 346 pp.
- Krause, Eric; Corbin, Carol; and O'Shea, William, ed. Aspects of Louisbourg: Essays on the History of an Eighteenth-Century French Community in North America. Sydney, N.S.: U. Coll. of Cape Breton Pr., 1995. 312 pp.
- Lanctôt, Léopold. L'Acadie des Origines, 1603-1771 Montreal: Fleuve, 1988. 234 pp.
- Loomer, L. S. Windsor, Nova Scotia: A Journey in History. Windsor, N.S.: West Hants Hist. Soc., 1996. 399 pp.
- McKay, Ian. The Quest of the Folk: Antimodernism and Cultural Selection in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia. McGill-Queen's U. Pr., 1994. 371 pp.
- McKay, Ian. The Craft Transformed: An Essay on the Carpenters of Halifax, 1885-1985. Halifax, N.S.: Holdfast, 1985. 148 pp.
- MacKinnon, Neil. This Unfriendly Soil: The Loyalist Experience in Nova Scotia, 1783-1791. McGill-Queen's U. Pr., 1986. 231 pp.
- Mancke, Elizabeth. The Fault Lines of Empire: Political Differentiation in Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, ca. 1760-1830 Routledge, 2005. 214 pp.
- Marble, Allan Everett. Surgeons, Smallpox, and the Poor: A History of Medicine and Social Conditions in Nova Scotia, 1749-1799. McGill-Queen's U. Pr., 1993. 356 pp.
- March, William DesB. Red Line: The Chronicle-Herald and Mail-Star, 1875-1954. Halifax, N.S.: Chebucto Agencies, 1986. 415 pp.
- Morton, Suzanne. Ideal Surroundings: Domestic Life in a Working-Class Suburb in the 1920s. U. of Toronto Pr., 1995. 201 pp. about Richmond Heights
- Pryke, Kenneth G. Nova Scotia and Confederation, 1864-74
- Reid, John G. et al. The "Conquest" of Acadia, 1710: Imperial, Colonial, and Aboriginal Constructions. U. of Toronto Pr., 2004. 297 pp.
- Robertson, Allen B. Tide & Timber: Hantsport, Nova Scotia, 1795-1995. Hantsport, N.S.: Lancelot, 1996. 182 pp.
- Robertson, Barbara R. Sawpower: Making Lumber in the Sawmills of Nova Scotia. Halifax: Nimbus; Nova Scotia Mus., 1986. 244 pp.
- Sandberg, L. Anders and Clancy, Peter. Against the Grain: Foresters and Politics in Nova Scotia. U. of British Columbia Pr., 2000. 352 pp.
- Sandberg, L. Anders, ed. Trouble in the Woods: Forest Policy and Social Conflict in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Fredericton, N.B.: Acadiensis, 1992. 234 pp.
- Waite, P. B. The Lives of Dalhousie University. Vol. 1: 1818-1925, Lord Dalhousie's College. McGill-Queen's U. Pr., 1994. 338 pp.
- Walker, James W. St. G. The Black Loyalists: The Search
