What is nova scotia

The capital city is Halifax and it is technically an island, or rather a series of over coastal islands, with a mixture of Continental and Maritime climates, which result in cold wet winters, and warm summers. Nova Scotia is the perfect location to set up your roots, with a high quality of life and low cost of living. This is almost half of what you would expect to pay in an area like Ontario or British Columbia. Today, the economy is supported by off-shore oil rigs and tourism with over , cruise ship passengers passing through the capital port of Halifax each year.

This offers immigrants interesting job opportunities in fields including trade and export, fishing, and tourism. Like most provinces in Canada, over half of the people in Nova Scotia follow the Protestant and Catholic faiths, with a large portion of the population choosing to declare no religious affiliation at all. Nova Scotia has long been recognized as a center for excellence in the Arts.

In the s, the Scots established two settlements, but both were unsuccessful. Meanwhile a small but steady stream of immigrants continued to arrive from France for a new life in Acadia.

Armed conflict ensued between the French and British, and throughout the 17th century Acadia was handed back and forth between the European powers. Aside from maintaining a small garrison at Port Royal, renamed Annapolis Royal, the British did little with Nova Scotia until , when Halifax was founded as a military town and naval base on the shores of what the Mi'kmaq called the "Great Harbour.

British military officials feared the colony's large Roman Catholic Acadian population — despite its expressions of neutrality — would side with the French during the war. The result, starting in , was the Acadian Expulsion, in which British forces rounded up more than 6, Acadian men, women and children, and dispersed them on ships to various American colonies.

In , as these traumatic deportations were still under way, Louisbourg fell to the British, precipitating the Conquest of Canada in , and the ceding to Britain of Cape Breton Island in the Treaty of Paris that ended the war in Loyalists, both white and black, as well as former black slaves, also arrived following the American Revolution.

During the early part of the 19th century the colony grew as a fish exporting, lumbering and shipbuilding centre, and Halifax emerged as an important merchant hub and a base for British privateering captains. Starting in the Confederation question left a mark on the province. Nova Scotia's economy was closely tied, as were many families, to the New England states. Despite these fears the colony became one of the four founding provinces of the new Dominion of Canada in ; however, a strong anti-Confederate movement existed for many years, with some Nova Scotians flying flags at half-mast on 1 July.

In the 20th century the First World War stimulated the provincial economy with an increased demand for iron, steel, fish and lumber. The war also brought disaster in the form of the Halifax Explosion ; and the war's end brought with it recession, which lasted for several years. Nova Scotia enjoyed good economic times again during the Second World War. Halifax became one of the major North American ports for the gathering of trans-Atlantic convoys, which carried munitions and other wartime supplies to Western Europe.

Since the mids Nova Scotia has struggled financially, and economic development has been one of the primary concerns for provincial politicians. The fishing industry — especially lobster and shellfish exports — has remained a mainstay of the economy, sustaining many coastal communities even through the collapse of cod and other groundfish stocks in the s.

As manufacturing began its steady decline in the s, coal mining and steel making continued in Cape Breton with the help of massive government subsidies, until the last coal mine was shut down in Its closure ended a way of life and left the Sydney Tar Ponds — the result of decades of coke oven effluent — as the steel mill's environmental legacy.

In an effort to contain the contaminants, the waste was eventually buried, and Open Hearth Park opened on the site of the ponds in Coal was also mined on the Nova Scotia mainland starting in the 19th century, and certain strip mining operations continue to this day.

The Springhill mine was the site of three deadly disasters, the most famous being the underground earthquake, which trapped miners and became an international news spectacle. Offshore oil and natural gas production began in , bringing new revenues and opportunities to the province, but was not the economic windfall many had hoped for. Economic uncertainty continues in the 21st century, with pulp and paper mills across the province closing down and many rural communities in decline as people move to the Halifax area for jobs primarily in government, universities, the burgeoning aerospace sector and the military.

Since , great hopes have been pinned on the opportunities that might arise from the awarding of a long-term contract to Irving Shipbuilding to construct 21 new combat ships for the Royal Canadian Navy. It is the largest military procurement in Canadian history. At the same time, the French were growing grain at Port-Royal and in they erected the first water-powered gristmill in North America. To secure salt for curing fish, they also built dykes along tidal marshes and later used them to begin dykeland agriculture.

Since the s, the Department of Agriculture has preserved, extended and rebuilt this system of dykes. The largest cultivated areas are found in the Annapolis Valley and in some parts of northern Nova Scotia. In , the average farm size was acres, compared to the national average of The county fair is an important institution, and the one at Windsor, established in , is the oldest of its type in North America.

Historically by far the most important mineral in Nova Scotia is coal. The rapid increase in coal production and the development of the steel industry were primarily responsible for the province's prosperity in the early 20th century. After the Second World War conditions in the coal areas were often troubled, and in the late s the market contracted greatly in the face of competition from petroleum and natural gas. Production declined from about 6.

Coal made a striking comeback in the s. Following large increases in petroleum prices the province was determined to reduce dependency on foreign oil by replacing it with thermal coal.

Production in amounted to over 1. While the last Cape Breton coal mine closed in , there are two coal strip mining operations in the province, one in Stellarton and the other Point Aconi. Other minerals mined in Nova Scotia include gypsum , salt , limestone and sand. See Coal Mining. Before the generation of electric energy was in the hands of the Nova Scotia Power Commission, a government agency established in , and the Nova Scotia Light and Power Company, a private utility.

In they were united in a crown corporation , the Nova Scotia Power Corp. The corporation was privatized in and is now an incorporated entity. In about 70 per cent of the province's energy needs were met by hydroelectric power and indigenous coal.

Convinced that cheap oil would continue to be available and that nuclear energy would be less expensive than that derived from coal , governments allowed a situation to develop in which, by , over 70 per cent of the electricity was produced from oil.

Nova Scotia had the most expensive energy in Canada because of major increases in oil costs, with the exception of PEI. In the Energy Planning Board was established under the new Department of Mines and Energy to devise an energy strategy.

This strategy aimed to develop the few remaining hydroelectric opportunities, to open new coal mines and expand existing ones so as to permit oil-fired generating plants to be phased out.

As a part of these efforts the Annapolis River tidal plant was completed in Nova Scotia is doing this gradually — in previous years the amount of energy produced from coal was as high as 80 per cent.

More discoveries led to the first offshore oil and gas legislation in In March of that year, Premier John Buchanan signed a year agreement with the federal government giving Nova Scotia the same benefits from its offshore resources that Alberta receives from its land-based oil and gas.

Nova Scotia has just over 4 million ha of forest, accounting for 79 per cent of its total land area. The most common softwood is spruce. Balsam fir is used for pulpwood and Christmas trees. The most important commercial hardwoods are red maple , sugar maple and yellow birch. Sugar maple also forms the basis of an industry for woodlot owners, especially in the north, through the production of maple syrup and allied products.

In terms of landed value i. Salt and dried fish for export to Latin America was once the staple of the market, but quick-frozen and filleted fish now dominate. Since the Second World War , schooners with dories have given way to draggers that fish the entire year.

More valuable than groundfish such as haddock and cod are molluscs and crustaceans such as scallops and lobsters. The groundfish are caught both by offshore trawlers and draggers, and by inshore boats including long-liners. Lobsters are taken largely inshore by Cape Island boats; scallops by both offshore and inshore draggers; herring by seiners. See History of Commercial Fisheries. Manufacturing industries do not have a large presence in Nova Scotia. What products the province does manufacture, however, are namely food, wood and plastics.

In early Nova Scotia the sea was the only highway. In the late s, road building began. Due to its ice-free, deep-water harbour located a full day closer to Europe than its major American East Coast competitors, the port of Halifax maintains its competitive edge in the international shipping business.

Halifax is one of the largest natural harbours in the world and has one of the largest container ports in Canada. Halifax International Airport, the seventh busiest in Canada and the Atlantic regional hub, enjoys service to major national and international points by major Canadian carriers.

Yet perhaps Nova Scotia's greatest contribution to Canadian democracy was the movement for Responsible Government , which got underway in earnest in when — mainly through the efforts of political reformer Joseph Howe and his newspaper The Novascotian — a majority of reform-minded assemblymen was elected to the legislature.

Their struggle was against a Halifax oligarchy that dominated the business, political and church life of the province in its own interest, much like the Family Compact in Upper Canada ; but what they wanted in practice was for the members of the Executive Council Cabinet to be responsible to the elected legislature, not to the appointed colonial governor.

The Reformers finally achieved success when, in the election of , they won a seven-seat majority. In February James B. Uniacke became premier, with Howe acting as provincial secretary, together forming the first ministry operating under responsible government in British North America. Howe eventually became premier and also a federal Cabinet minister, despite having also led the movement to oppose Nova Scotia's entry into Confederation.

See also Nova Scotia and Confederation. Legally, executive power in Nova Scotia is vested in the lieutenant-governor ; practically, however, it is exercised by the Executive Council or Cabinet, responsible to a member legislature. Universal suffrage for males and females over 21 came into effect in ; the voting age was reduced to 19 in and to 18 in The first genuine political parties appeared in the election of when the Tories Conservatives battled the Reformers Liberals , who had come into existence almost overnight under the guidance of Joseph Howe.

Until the parties contended fairly equally, but the Confederation issue upset the rough balance in favour of the anti-Confederates Liberals. Up until , the Conservatives won only four elections and were in office only 13 of the 89 years. Since the Second World War , however, a lessening in traditional voting within the Liberal Party and the influence of Conservative Premier Robert Stanfield combined to narrow differences in electoral strength and to make the parties genuinely competitive.

In the 21st century the New Democratic Party has also grown in popularity, forming a breakthrough majority government — the first NDP government east of Ontario — in It has been very difficult to supplant established Nova Scotian premiers.

Fielding premier —96 , George Murray — — an astonishing 27 years in power , Angus L. Macdonald —40 and —54 , Stanfield —67 and John Buchanan —90 maintained their political ascendency over lengthy periods. However, to describe Conservatives Stanfield and Buchanan as less liberal or more conservative than Liberals Fielding, Murray and Macdonald would be a deception, since the old-line parties pragmatically base their programs and platforms on electoral needs, not on ideology.

Nova Scotians have historically been moderate and largely "small-c" conservative voters. The party built its support incrementally over several decades, first in cosmopolitan Halifax and then among union-rich constituencies in rural Nova Scotia. Equally surprising was Dexter's defeat in at the hands of the Liberals under Stephen McNeil — and the sudden relegation of the NDP back to third-party status.

The NDP loss marked the first time in over years that an incumbent party hasn't won a second mandate. On 30 May , McNeil and the Liberals narrowly clung to a majority government, winning 27 seats 26 were required for a majority , 7 less than they held when the election was called.

In August , McNeil announced his retirement. Because of the COVID pandemic, and the public health measures surrounding it, the convention was held virtually see also Pandemics in Canada. Iain Rankin, whose campaign focused on environmentalism and social justice, won the leadership race. He was sworn in as premier later that month. Houston led his party to a majority victory, winning 31 seats.

Houston campaigned primarily on the promise of significant health care spending. See also Nova Scotia Premiers. In the early s it was divided into trial and appeal divisions the Court of Appeal is the highest court in the province. The Supreme Court also includes a Family Division. Most criminal business — although not the trial of the most serious offences — is dealt with in the Provincial Court, whose judges are appointed by the provincial government.

As constitutionally provided in , Nova Scotia's membership in the Senate is 10, but its representation in the House of Commons has fallen from 21 in the s to 11 currently, with a corresponding decrease in clout in federal politics. Until Confederation most government revenues came through import duties see Customs and Excise , which could readily be adjusted as circumstances warranted.

After transfer payments from Ottawa became one of the largest source of revenue.