Editorial

The following images will come up in a new Window - New Brunswick (flag and map), Nova Scotia (flag and map), (parts of Canada), Maine (flag and map), Massachusetts (flag and map), (parts of New England), New York (flag and map), (part of New France and Mid Atlantic), Illinois (flag and map), Wisconsin (flag and map), Minnesota (flag and map), Kansas (flag and map), (parts of the Midwest), Colorado (flag and map), (part of the Southern Mtn.), California (flag and map), and . . .  Could we ever settle down?  [the above images are from the Encyclopedia Britannica]

The westward movement was driven by politics and finance.  The effort to take from the Indian, the Spanish, the French, the English, and anyone else, sapped the resources and forced those who disagreed to move on to less disputed territory.  The offer of land grants (land that was taken from others) attracted our ancestors to move to and settle in the Midwest.  All of this made us stronger and instilled the will to survive.  We were farmers, not politicians, so we tilled and cropped the land, taught others, sailed the sea, created tools and equipment, raised families, and were compassionate to the land and its people.  We did not gain great wealth or notoriety from public image, but formed the basic value of the American people to be honest, religious, and true to our word.  Although not mentioned in the history books, that value made us noteworthy and impacted the nation.

We say "bag" rather than "sack", "pop" rather than "soda", "bubbler" rather than "fountain", and "Howdy" rather than "Hi", but we are what makes up America.  We are tied by our roots to the original ideals of those who fled oppression or sought adventure to get here.

Nova Scotia

In the 17th and 18th centuries Nova Scotia experienced instabilities of colonization, struggles for power originating in the rivalries between London and Paris, and migratory and military pressure from the colonies to the south that were to become the United States.  The territory passed back and forth between France and England until 1713, when the French, retaining Cape Breton Island and other areas, began construction of the powerful Louisbourg fortress.  Halifax was founded in 1749 as a counterbalance and populated with some 4,000 British settlers.   In the 1750s the French Acadians, who refused to swear allegiance to the British crown, were expelled.

Offers of free land attracted immigrants from the British Isles and New England; the latter group helped to secure the first elected assembly.  By the time of the American Revolution, New Englanders constituted roughly one-half of Nova Scotia's population; though they tried to remain neutral, four delegates attended the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. During the Revolution and after, some 35,000 loyalists immigrated to the province.  Meanwhile, Prince Edward Island had split off from Nova Scotia in 1769, and New Brunswick followed in 1784; Cape Breton Island was reunited with Nova Scotia in 1820.  In 1848 Nova Scotia became the first British colony to exercise the prerogative of government responsible to the people through their elected representatives.  Despite economic and political opposition, confederation with Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick was carried out in 1867.

As a separate British colony, Nova Scotia prospered from its forestry, fisheries, and shipbuilding for the first two-thirds of the 19th century.  Under the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854, the north-south flow of commerce and Nova Scotia's normal market and supply source in New England seemed secure.  Nova Scotia benefited further from the increased demand for duty-free natural products during the U.S. Civil War.  The Canadian tariffs on manufactured goods, the alleged pro-Confederate sentiments of Britain and Canada, and the protectionist pressures of some states in the victorious North led to the nonrenewal of reciprocity in 1866 and the levying of further protective tariffs by both nations.  Canada also lost the preferential treatment by Britain previously granted under colonial policy.  Railways, meanwhile, were changing continental traffic patterns, and Canada and the U.S. became rivals for the east-west inland trade.   Canada's tariffs, intended both to protect its own manufactures and to assist in financing its railways from coastal ports to Central Canada, did not assure the province of year-round commerce, because transportation costs to the distant population centres were so high.  Nova Scotia's prospects were further set back as iron steamers replaced the wooden sailing vessels that had been the pride and chief industry of the province.  The steamers usually bypassed Nova Scotian ports for those in the United States, and even the lucrative trade with the West Indies dwindled.  Also, the opening of the western provinces to settlement tended to drain the older regions of some vigorous elements of the population and to deprive them of investment capital and other resources.

By the last decade of the 20th century Nova Scotia's diversified economy and extensive natural resources had the potential to expand business and reduce unemployment.  The 1989 Canada-United States free-trade agreement was regarded as a benefit to the province's fisheries and to its shipping and energy sectors, and continuing federal assistance was a vital factor in the maintenance of social and economic programs.  There was, at the same time, a general agreement among the political and social institutions that Nova Scotia should continue to advance technologically but with a minimal sacrifice of traditional human values.

[more to come . . .]

Previous Page - - Next Page