A Look at the Provinces, Part VIII: Nova Scotia

This is the eighth article in the series. Nova Scotia is the most Eastern Mainland territory in Canada. Situated east of New Brunswick is one of the provinces that made up Acadia. It has an area of 55,490 square kilometres and has a population of 899,942 people (less than Toronto's Population, hell less than Ottawa's Population). The Capital is Halifax. It was one of the founding provinces in 1867.

The province of Nova Scotia (New Scotland in Latin) is completely in the Appalachian natural region like all the other Atlantic or Maritime Provinces. Nova Scotia is the one of the smallest provinces, second only to Prince-Edward-Island.

It is believed that the Vikings, led by Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, were the first Europeans in Nova Scotia. There have been traces of habitations and tools from the year 1000. John Cabot took a walk around but there wasn't much so he went back to England saying there was land over there in the west somewhere. Jacques Cartier, on the other hand, decided to build something there when he came in 1534 called L'Habitation. The First French Colony was created in Canada in 1604 (BEFORE Jamestown) and it was called Port Royal. It was abandoned in 1607 but rebuilt in 1610. It is now know as Annapolis Royal. The Colony changed hands a few times, although it was mostly French all the time and was mostly French influenced as mostly Acadians lived there. In 1621, during one of the British ruling of Nova Scotia, King James I changed the Name to Nova Scotia and this created the probably wanted result. A bunch of Scots came over the ocean and settled in Nova Scotia. But it latter became French again. The definite British rule of Acadia was in 1713 with the Treaty of Utrecht, which gave Acadia with the exceptions of Ile Saint Jean (Prince Edward Island) and Cape Breton Island. In 1763, even that became British as all of France's North American possessions became British. The only exception is Saint Pierre and Miquelon (This one's for you Monsieur) so France could have some of the fish that would last forever anyway (Reference to Heritage Minutes, the one that makes me crack up each time Cabot says that). During the time of the war, The Governor of Nova Scotia decided that Acadians who were foolish because they didn't want to fight against the French, their compatriots, and stayed neutral. Weren't they Glad that they didn't suddenly decided to fight along with the French? I mean there was practically more French in Acadia (small territory) than in all of New France that extended from Northern Quebec to Manitoba to New Orleans. In 1763, Saint John's Island (PEI), New Brunswick and Cape Breton joined Nova Scotia. PEI separated in 1769 and New Brunswick and Cape Breton were detatched in 1784. Cape Breton was rejoined to Nova Scotia in 1820. Sir Charles Tupper who was the first Premier of Nova Scotia (within Confederation) decided to bring Nova Scotia into Confederation even though if there had been a referendum, Nova Scotia would be its own Colony or Country today. Well maybe it would have joined at a latter time. Anyway, the economy of the province was sinking until world war I and II, when demand for wood and stuff like that raised the economy significantly.

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