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Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia
Nouvelle-Écosse
Nova Scotia:Flag of Nova Scotia Nova Scotia:Coat of arms of Nova Scotia
Flag of Nova Scotia Coat of arms of Nova Scotia
Motto: Munit Haec et Altera Vincit (Latin: One defends and the other conquers)
Nova Scotia:Map of Canada with Nova Scotia highlighted
Official languages none
(English, French, Gaelic)
Flower Trailing arbutus
Tree Red Spruce
Bird Osprey
Capital Halifax
Largest city Halifax
Lieutenant-Governor Mayann E. Francis
Premier Rodney MacDonald (PC)
Parliamentary representation
 - House seats
 - Senate seats


11
10
Area
Total
 - Land
 - Water  (% of total) 
Ranked 12th
55,283 km²
53,338 km²
1,946 km² (3.5%)
Population
 - Total (2006)
 - Density
Ranked 7th
934,405
16.94/km²
GDP (2005)
 - Total
 - Per capita

$31.451 billion (7th)
$33,533 (11th)
ConfederationJuly 1, 1867 (1st)
Time zone UTC-4
Abbreviations
 - Postal
 - ISO 3166-2
 - Postal Code Prefix

NS
CA-NS
B
Website www.gov.ns.ca
All rankings include the territories

Nova Scotia (Latin for New Scotland, Nouvelle-Écosse in French) 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 934,405[1] 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; along with New Brunswick, Quebec, & Ontario.


Contents

History

See also: Category:History of Nova Scotia

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 claim is deeply disputed. The only authenticated Viking settlement in North America is L'Anse aux Meadows, which establishes the fact that Vikings explored North America 500 years before Christopher Columbus.

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. [1]. 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 (of England) & VI (of Scots) 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 (defined as all land between Newfoundland and New England) 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 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 (Prince Edward Island) and Île Royale (Cape Breton Island), on which it established a fortress at Louisbourg to guard the sea approaches to Quebec. This fortress was captured by American colonial forces then returned by the British to France, then ceded again after the French and Indian War of 1755.

Nova Scotia:Halifax, Nova Scotia skyline at night.
Enlarge
Halifax, Nova Scotia skyline at night.

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 (Annapolis Royal) in October 1710. British governing officials became increasingly concerned over the unwillingness of the French-speaking, Roman 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 (some French and Swiss but mostly German) 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 (now Prince Edward 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 became a separate colony in 1784 only to be returned to Nova Scotia in 1820.

Nova Scotia:During the colonial period, Nova Scotia issued its own postage stamps printed in England. This distinctive diamond shape (issued between 1851 and 1857) was also used by neighbouring New Brunswick.
Enlarge
During the colonial period, Nova Scotia issued its own postage stamps printed in England. This distinctive diamond shape (issued between 1851 and 1857) was also used by neighbouring New Brunswick.

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 (American Tories) settled in Nova Scotia (when it comprised present-day Maritime Canada) 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."

— from Address to the Crown by the Government (Journal of the House of Assembly, Province of Nova Scotia, 1868)

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 fifty-two 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.

Nova Scotia:A satellite photo of Nova Scotia.
Enlarge
A satellite photo of Nova Scotia.

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 (including forecasts of future liability, such as pensions and environmental cleanups), resulting in slightly over $897 million in debt servicing payments, or 12.67% of expenses.[2] 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 ⅓ 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 Premiers

Geography

See also: Category:Geography of Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia:Map of Nova Scotia
Enlarge
Map of Nova Scotia

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 (95 nm) from the province's southern coast. Nova Scotia is Canada's second smallest province in area (after Prince Edward Island).

Ten largest municipalities

Municipality20011996
Halifax Regional359,111342,851
Cape Breton105,968114,733
Lunenburg County47,59147,561
Kings County47,15947,486
Pictou County46,96522,671
Colchester County35,64135,161
Yarmouth County26,84325,467
East Hants20,82119,767
Annapolis County18,42918,937
Cumberland County16,18317,738

Demographics and statistics

Population of Nova Scotia since 1851

YearPopulationFive 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 -2.1 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 -0.1 0.9 7
2006* 934,405 2.9 2.8 7

*Preliminary 2006 census estimate.

[2][3]

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

As of September 2006, Nova Scotia unemployment has dipped below the national average for the first time in recent history to 6.9 per cent.

Per capita income

In 2005, per capita income was $28,114 (Can).

Gross Domestic Product

Nova Scotia GDP is presently approximately $33 billion (Can) 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 (dime) and current Nova Scotia licence 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.

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 (Nova Scotia). 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 11 2006, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended a ceremony in Halifax to honour and thank the residents of Halifax for helping stranded passengers.

At 2:00AM on Sunday, April 15, 1923 all drivers on Nova Scotia roads switched from driving on the left side to driving on the right.

In the popular Carly Simon song "You're so Vain", Nova Scotia is mentioned in the following verse: "Well, I hear you went up to Saratoga And your horse naturally won. Then you flew your Lear jet up to Nova Scotia To see the total eclipse of the sun".

Notes

Bibliography

Surveys

Since 1900

Pre 1900

See also

Nova Scotia:The lighthouse situated on Peggys Point, immediately south of Peggys Cove.
Enlarge
The lighthouse situated on Peggys Point, immediately south of Peggys Cove.
Nova Scotia:Flag of Nova Scotia Nova Scotia
CountiesAnnapolis - Antigonish - Cape Breton - Colchester - Cumberland - Digby - Guysborough - Halifax - Hants - Inverness - Kings - Lunenburg - Pictou - Queens - Richmond - Shelburne - Victoria - Yarmouth
Regional MunicipalitiesCape Breton - Halifax - Queens
Incorporated TownsAmherst - Annapolis Royal - Antigonish - Berwick - Bridgetown - Bridgewater - Canso - Clark's Harbour - Digby - Hantsport - Kentville - Lockeport - Lunenburg - Mahone Bay - Middleton - Mulgrave - New Glasgow - Oxford - Parrsboro - Pictou - Port Hawkesbury - Shelburne - Springhill - Stellarton - Stewiacke - Trenton - Truro - Westville - Windsor - Wolfville - Yarmouth
Other CommunitiesBedford - Bible Hill - Cole Harbour - Dartmouth - Dominion - Eastern Passage - Fall River - Glace Bay - Greenwood - Halifax (former city) - Liverpool - Louisbourg - Lower Sackville - New Minas - New Waterford - North Sydney - Sydney - Sydney Mines - Weymouth

Categories


Nova Scotia | Former British colonies | British North America | Former Scottish colonies

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