Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is a Canadian maritime province set on a peninsula surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. It includes a number of islands. Cape Breton Island is the largest and a popular tourist destination both for its scenic beauty and interesting mix of Gaelic, French, and Mi’kmaq cultures. New Brunswick, once a part of Nova Scotia, forms the peninsula’s only land border. Prince Edward Island is to the north.

Its accessibility by sea led to the establishment of one of the first mainland European colonies in North America in 1605. During the nineteenth century, the area prospered as a shipbuilding center. Today, Nova Scotia relies on its natural resources of fish, lumber, and minerals as the foundation of its economy.

General Information

Name: Mi’kmaq place names are common in the province, and the original French settlers called it Acadia, which was their translation of a Mi’kmaq word meaning "piece of land." When the British took control from France in 1763, they renamed the land Nova Scotia (Latin for "New Scotland").

Provincial Symbols

• Bird: Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
• Flower: Mayflower, or trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens)
• Tree: Red spruce (Picea rubens)
• Motto: Munit Haec et Altera Vincit" (Latin, "One defends and the other conquers")

Capital: The capital city of Halifax is the major economic hub of the province. It features large rail and port facilities, which are used primarily by container ships. Cruise ships bring American tourists to the city from nearby New England states. In 2016, the population of the Halifax census metropolitan area (CMA) was 403,390.

People & Culture

Population: In 2021, Nova Scotia’s total population was estimated to be 992,055. Residents are not ethnically diverse. Most are White and of European descent. The vast majority are Scottish or British, with significant German and Dutch minorities and a small French population. French is a common second language in Nova Scotia and is spoken as a first language by an estimated 31,105 residents (2011).

Aboriginal Canadians (including those of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis origins) accounted for 74,040 residents in the province in 2016. There was also a small Black minority of 21,915. Many can trace their ancestry in part to the West Indian slave trade.

In addition to Halifax, which accounts for about 44 percent of the Nova Scotian population, Cape Breton is a major population center. Other significant centers include Truro, Sydney, New Glasgow, and Glace Bay. All other communities have populations of fewer than 20,000.

In 2011, about 75 percent of the province’s residents belonged to Christian denominations, with Roman Catholics accounting for about a third of those and Protestants making up the other two-thirds. No religious affiliation was reported by 21 percent of the population, while less than one percent each identified as Muslim, Buddhist, or Jewish.

In 1851, Nova Scotia was home to more than 11 percent of Canada’s population, thanks to its prominence as a shipping and shipbuilding center. As the province’s borders were redrawn for political ends, the shipbuilding industry declined and westward expansion grew, the population declined. By 1931, it had dropped to less than 5 percent of the national total.

Nova Scotia’s population grew by more than 100,000 between 1971 and 1991. However, the province’s rate of growth fell during that same period due to out-migration and an aging population.

Indigenous People: In 2015, there were thirteen Mi’kmaq nations in Nova Scotia with 16,268 officially registered members, many of whom are of mixed French and Aboriginal ancestry. This number is close to estimates of the population when the first European settlers arrived in the area in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. European diseases quickly reduced the population to about four thousand by 1620.

Having allied themselves closely with the original French settlers, the seminomadic Mi’kmaq were treated as enemies by association when the British forcibly took control from the French in the late eighteenth century. The decline in the Mi’kmaq population continued into the nineteenth century. As with the First Nations in general across much of Canada, the population saw growth in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

The original Mi’kmaq people may have been descended from Cree tribes, based on similarities in language. They also share much in common with the Abenaki tribes of northern New England. But Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaq population is unique in that they placed heavy emphasis on fishing rather than farming. When European settlers arrived, the Mi’kmaqs had perfected the design of lightweight but extremely sturdy canoes made of birch bark.

Many place names in Nova Scotia are derived from Mi’kmaq names, including Malagash, Merigomish, Musquodoboit, Pugwash, Shubenacadie, and Whycocomagh.

Arts and Entertainment: Nova Scotia retains a blend of French, Scottish, and Mi’kmaq culture. St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish (founded in 1853) and the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts in Cape Breton (1938) offer Celtic studies. Scottish festivals are commonplace during the summer months in Nova Scotia.

Halifax is home to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which includes items from the Titanic. Other museums in Nova Scotia include the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History in Halifax, the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic in Lunenburg, and the DesBrisay Museum in Bridgewater.

The Halifax Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1897 and reborn as the Symphony Nova Scotia in 1983, performs at the Dalhousie Arts Centre. This arts complex also houses one of more than twenty Halifax art galleries. Others include the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS), which was founded in the historic downtown Dominion Building (built in 1865) in 1988. Its collection of more than nine thousand works features Canadian and Mi’kmaq art.

In keep with the maritime theme, Halifax’s Neptune Theatre, opened in 1963, has a main stage that can accommodate an audience of nearly five hundred. It is also home to a theatre school. The Halifax Metro Centre seats around ten thousand for concerts and sporting events.

Saint Mary’s University, founded in 1802, is one of the oldest colleges in Canada. One of six universities in Halifax, it is known for its programs in forensics and criminology, environmental studies, and international studies. Dalhousie University was founded in 1818, and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design was founded in 1887 by adventurer Anna Leonowens.

Other schools include Cape Breton University in Sydney and Acadia University in Wolfville. Both schools are highly ranked for student satisfaction among all Canadian universities.

Environment & Geography

Nova Scotia is only about 604 meters (375 miles) long by 161 meters (100 miles) wide, with a total area of 55,490 square kilometers (21,425 square miles). No part of the province is more than 56 meters (35 miles) from the Atlantic Ocean. Its jagged coastline runs for 7,578 kilometers (4,709 miles).

Inland water area, at 2,650 square kilometers (1,023 square miles), makes up about 5 percent of the province’s total area. Elevation ranges from sea level up to 532 meters (1,745 feet) in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, part of the Appalachian mountain chain.

Topography: Most of the upland regions consist of rocky glacial deposits, often resting upon granite. While the smaller Annapolis and Maritime Plain lowland areas contain fertile soil, about 90 percent of the province’s land is unsuited for agriculture.

Nova Scotia contains hundreds of lakes. The saltwater Bras d’Or, on Cape Breton Island, is the largest, at 1,098 square kilometers (424 square miles). Lake Rossignol, the province’s largest freshwater body, drains from western Nova Scotia via the Mersey River into the Atlantic. Rivers in the rocky terrain are generally small, the longest being Saint Mary’s at 95 kilometers (59 miles).

The Bay of Fundy, which runs between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick down to Maine, lays claim to some of the highest tides in the world. The average height is 12 meters (39 feet), but they run as high as 15 meters (50 feet) in the Minas Basin (Wolfville-Truro area) at the eastern edge of the bay. These tides once fed thousands of acres of marshland but, beginning as early as the eighteenth century, were manipulated by systems of dams or dikes to benefit agriculture.

To the northeast, Cape Breton Island is the most famous of many islands that make up Nova Scotia. To the south, Sable Island is well known as the site of hundreds of shipwrecks. During the summer, the island is covered in fog for approximately 125 days.

Landmarks: Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, often spent his summers in Nova Scotia during the 1880s. His retreat at Baddeck on the lake Bras d’Or is now a Canadian national historic site.

The Halifax Public Gardens date back to 1866. Built on seventeen acres in a formal Victorian style, they include a large variety of floral plantings.

Natural Resources: Natural resources are the mainstay of Nova Scotia’s economy. Fish, lumber, and large deposits of coal and gypsum are particularly important.

About 78 percent of the peninsula remains forested. Common trees include evergreens (familiar to many Americans as classic Christmas trees) such as balsam fir and spruce as well as softwoods including hemlock and pine. Birch and maple trees make up the bulk of hardwood tracts.

Animals: Moose, white-tailed deer, and black bear range throughout Nova Scotia. The area was once a prolific source of traps of smaller mammals, including mink, beaver, rabbit, and fox.

Sable Island is a stop-off for more than three hundred species of birds, including ducks, sparrows, terns, petrels, and gulls. Harbor and grey seals also live on the island their home. Whales are found in the Bay of Fundy. Horses are common in Nova Scotia, including a unique wild population on Sable Island.

Climate: Given its northern latitude, Nova Scotia’s climate is moderate, tempered by the ocean. The average January temperature in Halifax is about −4.1 degrees Celsius (24.6 degrees Fahrenheit), with lows seldom below −8.2 degrees Celsius (17.2 degrees Fahrenheit). Average July temperature is near 18.8 degrees Celsius (65.8 degrees Fahrenheit), with average highs of 23.1 degrees Celsius (73.4 degrees Fahrenheit). Average annual snowfall there is approximately 154.2 centimeters (60.7 inches).

Rainfall averages 131.4 centimeters (51.7 inches) per year in the capital. Fog is common on the coastline. The warmth of Gulf Stream waters brings a prolonged fall season to the province. By January, the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Northumberland Strait both freeze over.

Economy

Once known for shipbuilding and fishing, modern-day Nova Scotia is more diverse economically. Traditional industries, reliant on harvesting natural resources, exist alongside manufacturing and service industries.

Service industries employed more than half of the workforce in Nova Scotia in the 2010s. Smaller economic sectors include manufacturing, mining and fishing, and agriculture. Dwindling fish stocks have contributed to the decline of the fishing industry, especially cod-fishing fleets. Consequently, aquaculture has gained importance, contributing tens of millions of dollars in gross domestic product (GDP) for the province.

The lumber industry is relatively stable, transforming the spruce crop via a handful of large paper mills and many sawmills. Mining receipts are principally for coal, which contributed to the province's early twentieth century economic growth but saw sharp industrial decline beginning in the 1950s. A new wave of coal production occurred in the 1990s in response to high foreign oil prices; offshore oil production began around this time as well. By tonnage, Nova Scotia has historically produced more gypsum than any other Canadian province; its gypsum mining suffered declines beginning in 2009, however.

Tourism: The province supports a thriving tourist trade, thanks to visitors who appreciate Nova Scotia’s generally unspoiled, relatively undeveloped coastline, particularly along Cape Breton Island. About 2.43 million tourists visited Nova Scotia in 2017, spending $2.7 billion locally. Most visitors travel from Atlantic Canada, Ontario, the western provinces, or the United States. Tourism rates, however, fell dramatically in Nova Scotia and elsewhere in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. In April 2021, for instance, 77.7 percent fewer tourists visited the province compared to the same period in 2019. As vaccination rates increased in 2021, the industry began to rebound, especially domestic tourism.

Agriculture: The province’s limited agricultural output includes dairy products and livestock along with potatoes and fruits such as apples, strawberries, and blueberries.

Transportation: Port Tupper is a destination for large oil tankers, while Halifax is a major eastern port for container cargo ships. Ferry service supports the tourist industry from Prince Edward Island and Maine.

The Canadian military has three bases in Nova Scotia. Halifax and Shearwater are both known for naval aviation operations from opposite shores of Halifax Harbour. Greenwood is the largest air base on Canada’s East Coast. Cornwallis Base closed in 1994 and is now a museum.

Government & History

Government: Nova Scotia’s parliamentary government is headed by an appointed lieutenant governor. This position is largely ceremonial. The head of the majority elected party becomes premier and leader of the province. The premier controls the executive council or cabinet, which includes an attorney general and ministers of finance and education.

The legislative assembly is a unicameral (one house) body. Its fifty-one members, including the premier and executive council members, are elected to five-year terms.

In the Canadian Parliament, Nova Scotia holds eight Senate seats and eleven in the House of Commons. Traditionally, the Liberal Party has controlled the province’s parliamentary seats, but after 1956 the Progressive Conservative party made significant gains. The New Democratic Party (NDP) also gained influence in the twenty-first century.

Nova Scotia’s Court of Appeal has eight justices, while the Nova Scotia Supreme Court may have no more than forty justices.

Local government is divided into eighteen counties, two regional and twenty-two rural municipalities, and thirty-two incorporated towns.

History: While Italian explorer John Cabot may have reached Nova Scotia as early as 1497, French settlers colonized the area in the early seventeenth century, naming it Acadia. However, the British declared the region part of New England in 1620. The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht formalized British rule, but the French countered by building a fortress at Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island.

French dominance of the Cape Breton area was challenged by the construction of a British naval base at Halifax in the mid-eighteenth century. The French and Indian War broke out in 1754, and British forces forcibly deported the French. Many fled as far away Louisiana. This Great Expulsion was chronicled by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his 1847 epic poem Evangeline.

King Charles I encouraged further (primarily Scottish) settlement of Nova Scotia. After the Treaty of Paris granted American independence in 1783, thousands of British Loyalists fled to the north, strengthening the British presence in Nova Scotia.

Beginning in 1769, the political boundaries of the area were repeatedly redrawn as British Loyalists squabbled for land rights and political control. St. John’s Island (now Prince Edward Island) split from Nova Scotia in 1769, New Brunswick in 1784. Cape Breton rejoined Nova Scotia in 1820.

The British government granted the colony autonomy in 1848. In 1867, despite the reluctance of the general populace, Nova Scotia joined New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario to form the Canadian Confederation.

Nova Scotia prospered during the nineteenth century, mainly due to its shipbuilding industry. However, the Industrial Revolution signaled the end of the era of the tall wooden ships that had been the province’s hallmark.

Shipbuilding returned to prominence in Halifax during World War I, but as the war ended, there was a substantial out-migration of Nova Scotians to more prosperous central or western provinces or to the United States. A brief surge in the economy during World War II was again followed by general economic decline during much of the rest of the twentieth century.

However, the fact that the province was spared some of the excesses of industry and urban sprawl led to a steady influx of tourism at the turn of the twenty-first century.

Trivia

• When the RMS Titanic sank in 1912, many of the dead were brought to Halifax. About 150 are buried at Fairview Lawn Cemetery.
• The majority of cut Christmas trees sold in the northeastern United States are from Nova Scotia.
• At 55,490 square kilometers (21,425 square miles), Nova Scotia is larger than Denmark but smaller than its namesake, Scotland.

Bibliography

Beck, J. Murray. "Nova Scotia." The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada, 30 Aug. 2021, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/nova-scotia/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2021.

"Census Profile, 2016 Census: Nova Scotia [Province] and Canada [Country]" Statistics Canada, Government of Canada, 24 Apr. 2018, www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/details/Page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=PR&Code1=12&Geo2=&Code2=&Data=Count&SearchText=Nova%20Scotia&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=All&GeoLevel=PR&GeoCode=12. Accessed 22 Aug. 2018.

"Finance." NovaScotia.ca Dept. of Finance, Province of Nova Scotia, 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2014.

Laxer, James. The Acadians: In Search of a Homeland. Toronto: Anchor Canada, 2007. Print.

Poliandri, Simone. First Nations, Identity, and Reserve Life: The Mikmaq of Nova Scotia. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2011. Print.

"Population Estimates, Quarterly." Statistics Canada, 8 Nov. 2021, www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710000901. Accessed 8 Nov. 2021.

Nova Scotia, Canada. Office of Aboriginal Affairs. "Population Statistics 2015: Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia Summary as of December 31, 2014." Aboriginal People in Nova Scotia. Province of Nova Scotia, 6 May 2015. Web. 29 Sept. 2015.

Statistics Canada. "NHS Profile, Nova Scotia, 2011." National Household Survey. Government of Canada, 4 Mar. 2014. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.

"Tourism Activity Tracker, August 2021." Government of Nova Scotia, 8 Nov. 2021, novascotia.ca/finance/statistics/news.asp?id=17272. Accessed 8 Nov. 2021.