Halifax

Halifax is the capital of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and its largest city. It is an important economic, educational, and military center and has developed around a busy port in one of the world’s deepest natural harbors. Known for an absorbing history that includes a role in the Titanic disaster, it has become a popular tourist destination.

Landscape

Located roughly halfway along the southeastern coast of Nova Scotia at a latitude of 44 degrees, Halifax faces the Atlantic Ocean and ranges in elevation from sea level to approximately 145 meters (475 feet). The main city has grown up on a peninsula that forms part of the western flank of the harbor.

Halifax is a city of rocky hills and plateaus, and its streets reflect the hilly contours of the land. The original center extended from the shore up to the fort on the hill, called the Citadel. Several suburbs became part of the city in 1969 through annexation, and in 1996, the Halifax Regional Municipality was born. It consists of two cities, Halifax and Dartmouth, the town of Bedford, and Halifax County. Dartmouth, lying across the harbor, is connected to Halifax by two bridges and a ferry service.

Chebucto, or "the great long harbor," was the name given to Halifax’s harbor by the indigenous Mi’kmaq people. Today, the harbor is known as Halifax Harbour, and the Chebucto Peninsula separates Halifax Harbour from the Atlantic Ocean and St. Margarets Bay. Halifax Harbour is ice-free throughout the winter. This body of water measures approximately four miles in length and one mile across. It is at least 50 feet deep at every point, and deeper yet at the entrance. The inner harbor, around which the town of Bedford developed, is called Bedford Basin. It encompasses an area of ten square miles in which ships can anchor.

The maritime climate of Halifax is notoriously variable, with a mixture of oceanic and continental weather patterns. The average winter temperatures range from about –10 to –1 degrees Celsius (14 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit), and the season is characterized by cycles of falling and melting snow and approximately nine hours of daylight. Fog is common throughout the cool springs and falls. The average summer temperatures range from about 14 to 24 degrees Celsius (57 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit); the season can be cool and rainy or hot and dry.

People

Based on estimates from Statistics Canada, the Halifax Regional Municipality had an estimated population of 431,701 in 2017, approximately 40 percent of the total population of Nova Scotia. The people refer to themselves as Haligonians, though those who live in Dartmouth resist this title.

Unlike many other Canadian cities, Halifax is not home to a diverse ethnic population, nor did it welcome significant numbers of immigrants during the latter decades of the twentieth century. Between 1928 and 1971, with a lull in the 1930s and 1940s, thousands upon thousands of immigrants came through Halifax, for the most part en route to other points in Canada; only about 5 percent of the immigrants remained in Nova Scotia. Nearly all of these immigrants were of European descent, reflecting the majority of the Halifax population today.

Small non-European groups do reside in Halifax, Aboriginal peoples among them. People of African descent arrived from various places; many of them were former slaves who had escaped from the United States in the early nineteenth century, but in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries an influx of immigrants from the Caribbean settled in Halifax.

Brewing beer is a proud tradition in Halifax. The city’s most famous brew, an India Pale Ale, is a widely exported beer first produced by Alexander Keith, a Scottish immigrant who served as mayor in Halifax’s early days. There are several other well-respected beers made locally, including Propeller Extra Special Bitter and Garrison’s Nut Brown, as well as other renowned breweries such as the Old Halifax Alehouse. It is estimated that Halifax is home to more pubs per capita than any other Canadian city.

In addition to the holidays and festivals celebrated across Canada, Halifax hosts several boat races: the Marblehead Yacht Race between Halifax and Marblehead, Massachusetts, and the Route Halifax-SPM between Halifax and St. Pierre. Among the other festivals are DuMaurier Atlantic Jazz Festival, the Atlantic Film Festival, the Atlantic Fringe Festival, and the Halifax Natal Day, which entails street parties and a parade. These events are held during the summer months.

Economy

Halifax earns a large percentage of its annual revenue from harbor services. The depth and size of the harbor combined with its position on the Great Circle Route and its protected, ice-free waterway make it a busy port for international trade.

Exports leave Halifax for points around the world; the United Kingdom and the European continent have tended to receive the most, followed by India and China. Primary exports include paper, machinery, wood, and vegetables. Chemicals and manufactured goods are among the city’s other imports.

The Halifax port is not only used for cargo shipping. The Canadian Navy also maintains the country’s largest military base there, and it is the home port of the Atlantic Fleet, which counts modernized frigates and submarines among its vessels.

The port helps generate tourist revenue, as well. In 2017, a total of about 292,222 tourists reached Halifax by cruise ships, and the city hosts as many as ten thousand daily visitors during peak season. In 2017, more than 2.4 million tourists visited Nova Scotia, with Halifax a leading destination. In 2017 tourism brought in about $2.7 billion in revenue to the province. Halifax tourism to a hit in 2020, when the Canadian government placed a ban on cruises entering the country due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Other economic ventures important to Halifax include offshore natural gas production, oil refining, shipbuilding, television and radio broadcasting, and film production. Its low production costs, in addition to its harbor and quaint streets and buildings, have made Halifax a favorite place among Canadian and American producers to shoot films.

Halifax is linked to the rest of Canada by two major railways and the country’s transcontinental highway. The busy Halifax Stanfield International Airport serves as an important hub for points in North America and Europe, and the airport generates an increasing amount of revenue for the city and province. In 2020, it was the eighth busiest airport in Canada by passenger traffic. Within the city there is an extensive bus system and a reliable network of roads.

Landmarks

Many of Halifax’s most famous landmarks have a connection to the ocean. Pier 21, where immigrants disembarked until the early 1970s, is now a museum with exhibits detailing the immigrant experience. Two museums that demonstrate the richness of Halifax’s maritime culture are the Maritime Command Museum and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. The latter has a popular exhibit about the Titanic disaster. More than one hundred victims of the sinking are buried in three of the city’s cemeteries.

Important buildings in Halifax include Saint Paul’s Church, which was built in 1750, making it Canada’s oldest Anglican Church. St. George’s Church (1800), a drum-shaped wooden church, was seriously burned in 1994 but eventually restored. Other surviving buildings are the Little Dutch Church (1756), the Carleton Hotel (1760), Province House (1811), and the National School (1818).

The Citadel, a star-shaped fort located on the hill above the city, is Halifax’s single most visited architectural structure and a national historic site. It has an internal courtyard, ramparts, and cannons and features a beautiful view of the harbor. The structure has been rebuilt four times, the last time in 1856, and now houses a museum and art gallery. Actors in full costume are used to interpret the Citadel’s history.

Halifax’s two most popular parks are the Public Gardens, opened in 1867, and Point Pleasant Park, the site of annual performances of Shakespeare plays. Point Pleasant Park was closed for a year after a severe hurricane in 2003, which uprooted nearly three-quarters of its trees. Other attractions include the ruins of an eighteenth-century tower and miles of walking trails.

The many universities and colleges located in Halifax play an important role in the educational life of Nova Scotia. The University of King’s College, founded in 1789, is the oldest in Canada, while Dalhousie University is the largest in the province.

History

The original inhabitants of Nova Scotia were indigenous people called the Mi’kmaq, who are related to the Algonquian people. They had small settlements around the region and relied on hunting and fishing to sustain themselves. They were skilled at building and using canoes, and fished in Chebucto, the former name of Halifax Harbor.

In the seventeenth century, French settlers of Nova Scotia encountered the Mi’kmaq and eventually formed an alliance with them. Before the arrival of the British, the French had also established a fishing station in the harbor.

Halifax was founded in 1749 by General Edward Cornwallis, the British governor of Nova Scotia. Its name was derived from the president of the Board of Trade, Lord Halifax. From the outset, the settlement was conceived as a military base to defend British interests in the region against those of the French, who had established the town of Louisbourg in northern Nova Scotia. Their conflicts were part of the larger struggle for control of North America.

The original settlement was inhabited by a few thousand soldiers and farmers, and was enclosed by a palisade to protect the population from incursions by the French and Mi’kmaqs. The first Citadel, commanding a view of town and harbor, dates from 1761. It was not long before towns such as Dartmouth, across the harbor, began to develop.

British forces defeated the French in the French and Indian War of 1763, and many French settlers known as Acadians were expelled from Nova Scotia at the time. German, Irish, and Scottish immigrants then began swelling the population of Halifax. Following the American Revolution, many of those who remained loyal to the British crown also came to Halifax. The population numbered five thousand inhabitants by 1784, a figure that quadrupled in less than a century, as mostly European immigrants continued to arrive in waves. The city was incorporated into Canada in 1842.

During the nineteenth century, the harbor and ocean lured immigrants to Halifax and played a vital role in the development of the city, though in the latter half of the century it failed to compete with United States ports for a variety of reasons. The city managed to advance materially and politically nonetheless. In 1906, the British navy gave up Halifax as its primary Atlantic base, and the Canadian government assumed control of it.

It was from Halifax that rescue and recovery efforts were made when the Titanic sunk in 1912. More than half of the bodies recovered from the accident were buried in Halifax.

Halifax has a history as a strategic location during times of war. It served as an important naval base during both world wars. Convoys with Allied troops and supplies waited in its port until they could safely cross the Atlantic. Tragedy struck in 1917 when two ships, one of them bearing munitions, collided in the narrows. The ensuing Halifax explosion devastated part of the city, particularly the northern side, killing more than two thousand people, injuring thousands more, and causing widespread damages to buildings and other structures throughout the city. At the time it was the largest man-made explosion in history.

Halifax’s urban landscape underwent a number of changes during the latter half of the twentieth century. Redevelopment of former industrial or decrepit areas such as the waterfront and a few neighborhoods led to gentrification. The historic community of Africville, seen as prime real estate, was demolished to make way for new growth and the community’s predominantly black residents were evicted from their homes in the late 1960s.

The changes to the city for the most part occurred in a relatively small area, since the local government implemented policies to prevent urban sprawl. In 1996 all the municipalities in Halifax Country were amalgamated under the Halifax Regional Municipality in an effort to create a more cost-effective and efficient government. The city hosted the Canada Winter Games in 2011.

Trivia

• "Warden of the North" is one of the nicknames bestowed on Halifax for its military role throughout history.
• The ferry between Halifax and Dartmouth is the oldest North American saltwater ferry still in use.
• The wrecks of more than fifty ships lie at the bottom of the Halifax harbor.

Bibliography

"Annual Demographic Estimates by Census Metropolitan Area, Age and Sex, Based on the Standard Geographical Classification." Statistics Canada, 13 Feb. 2018, www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710007801&pickMembers%5B0%5D=1.2. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.

Barber, Lachlan B. "Making Meaning of Heritage Landscapes: The Politics of Redevelopment in Halifax, Nova Scotia." Canadian Geographer, vol. 57, no. 1, 2013, pp. 90–112.

"Canada's Leading Airports in 2020, by Number of Passengers Handled (in Millions)." Statistics Canada, Gov. of Canada, 21 July 2021, www.statista.com/statistics/544051/canadian-airports-passenger-traffic/. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.

Grant, Jill L., and Karin Kronstal. "Old Boys Down Home: Immigration and Social Integration in Halifax." International Planning Studies, vol. 18, no. 2, 2013, pp. 204–20.

McCann, L. D., and Elaine Young. "Halifax." The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada, 17 Mar. 2017, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/halifax/. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.

Walker, Sally M. Blizzard of Glass: The Halifax Explosion of 1917. Henry Holt, 2011.