CANADA MILITARY NEWS; bits and pieces- Cool stuff that happens in Nova Scotia , Canada - everyday folk living in a world that works for us - getting by, living nature and loving what we have- rich folks need not apply- come visit and bring your aged and kids - u'll love it /some of that crazy no sheeeeeet sherlock Canada stuff if ur interested/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CANADA ROCKIES 1911
GOD BLESS THE CHILD WHO SUFFERS...... we are doing better and better.. ....but we must do more.... #WeSeeYou - we protect our policing and we are watching out for ur children in our Canada.... and we have our beloved Anonymous on our side..
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onny Harris visits Valley for CBC’s Still Standing — and a taste of the local apples
Farmer Peter Woodyer chats with Jonny Harris at Alpaca House Farm. (Contributed)
TIMES ARE TOUGH, but there’s still a lot to laugh about in small-town Canada.
Businesses are closing, economies are shrinking, and young people are
moving away. For rural Canadians, this is pretty normal. So why not
laugh about it?
Jonny Harris, a Canadian comedy legend and star of CBC’s Murdoch
Mysteries, knows all too well the quirks of small-town life. After
growing up in Pouch Cove, N.L., he’s learned to find the humour in some
of Canada’s least likely places.
“I remember when I was a kid, I would ask my mom why people make Newfie jokes,” said Harris.
“She would tell me it’s about pride, and that Newfoundlanders are
comfortable enough to have a laugh at themselves. I’m finding that to be
true in a lot of rural Canada.”
This summer, Harris is starring in CBC’s Still Standing, a hilarious reality show about Canada’s struggling rural communities.
Every week, he visits a town that is “still standing” after years of economic hardship.
With his usual comic charm, Harris tells the town’s story and
interviews people who live there, wrapping up his visit with some
light-hearted standup.
Even in Canada’s poorest places, Harris has discovered the people are
full of life and always happy to shake off their struggles with a laugh.
“When I go to these places, I’m not looking to roast people or make anyone look foolish,” he said.
“I’ve found people are pretty laid back and are certainly up for some
laughs. Everyone has been so welcoming and excited about the show.
People are proud.”
Most Canadians probably haven’t even heard of the towns featured on
Still Standing. The show’s first episode was in Bamfield, B.C., a tiny
fishing village only accessible by boat. Last week’s episode was in
Willow Bunch, Sask., where Harris uncovered some interesting aboriginal
history.
This week’s episode is all about Nova Scotia. Excited to be back in the
Maritimes, Harris travelled to Berwick and learned what life is all
about in the heart of the Annapolis Valley.
“There’s a spirit of reinvention in Berwick. If a business closed down
in a building, someone always opened up another one in it very quickly,”
he said. “We even spoke to a guy who runs an alpaca farm. They’re
really all over the map there in Berwick.”
Once regarded as the apple capital of Canada, Berwick has seen some
tough times. Nowadays, the apple industry can barely keep the town
afloat.
“But the people there are so proud, and so invested in the town,” said
Harris. “Nobody likes to see a building close on the main drag, so
everyone works together to invest in businesses there. There’s so much
spirit.”
During his time in Berwick, Harris visited a farm where tourists work
for fun, shopped at the legendary Bargain Harley’s, and assisted with
the birth of a baby goat. But the best thing about Berwick, he said, was
the interesting characters he met.
“It’s a beautiful part of the province, and the people I encountered
were something else,” he said. “Pretty much everyone I met was so
friendly, so welcoming, and seemed genuinely happy to be alive.
Small-town Nova Scotia sure has a lot of charm.”
And of course, Harris couldn’t visit Berwick without eating a few local apples.
“It was a really fun episode,” he said. “I was eating apples the whole
time. These ladies gave me a 20-pound bag of apples when I got there,
and I promised them I would finish it by the time I left. And I did, but
I was on the toilet for about a week and a half.” Still Standing airs on CBC at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesdays.
Rescue crews have saved a pod of 14 pilot whales that had beached themselves off Bayfield near Antigonish, N.S., on Thursday morning. Vernon Boudreau, chief of the ...
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OH NOVA SCOTIA FOR OUR OLD FOLKS....
A paw to hold when end is near
Jalifornia vet, author describes dogs' uncanny abilities to deal with process of dying
SUE MAll:lG 0aE ASS9N:A0EP t2ESS
e4# A.YNeN# -For those who are dying, it's clear why all dogs go to heaven.
They provide comfort not just in death, but in other difficult times,
whether it's depression, job loss or a move across country.
Dogs
know when people are dying or grieving through body language cues,
smells only they can detect and other ways not yet known, experts say.
As a hospice veterinarian, Jessica Vogelsang knows how much ‟being
there" can mean to struggling people or pets. She's director of Paws
Into Grace in Southern California, a group of vets who provide
end-of-life care and euthanasia for pets at home.
The San
Diego vet .nished her .rst book, All Dogs Go to Kevin: Everything Three
Dogs Taught Me (That I Didn't Learn in Veterinary School), just before
learning her mom, Patricia Marzec, had an inoperable brain tumour. The
title of the memoir published last month refers to what Vogelsang's
toddler heard when he was told all dogs go to heaven.
Her
parents moved in so Marzec could enjoy her last months with family, and
Vogelsang's golden retriever, Brody, picked up on the changes. He always
jumped on her parents but stopped when they arrived in April.
‟He knew Mom was sick. He was with her 24-7," Vogelsang said. ‟He was
trying not to be too obvious, but Dad was on one side and he was on the
other." Brody would lay by Marzec'sfeet or
rest his head on her lap when he sensed she was sad. He wedged in next
to her when hospice workers came by, ignoring her shaking hand as she
patted his head, Vogelsang said.
‟He is still my dog, but he knew when they came they needed him more than I did," she said.
Dogs know to comfort people by sniffing out some cancers, such as on
the breath of a lung cancer patient, said Dr. Bonnie Beaver, professor
at Texas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine and
executive director of the American College of Veterinary Behaviourists.But most often, it's about body language.
‟They recognize fragile, slumped over, not moving as well," Beaver
said. ‟That's how they read each other. . . . They are great at it, and
we are not." Some rest homes and hospices that have live-in dogs to
comfort patients, even use a dog's behaviour - such as who the animal
chooses to sleep with - as a sign to tell relatives to come say their
goodbyes.
‟A lot of resident dogs know those people and know something is different, whether the smell changes or they are moving less,"Beaver said.
Dogs also can help those dealing with other challenges.
In the book, Vogelsang introduces pets that got her through some life
changes. As a little girl, her Lhasa Apso named Taffy helped her adjust
to an unwanted cross-country move.
Just after the birth of her
.rst child, her golden retriever Emmett wouldn't leave her alone as she
struggled with postpartum depression and a new career as a
veterinarian. He gave her love, as well as looks that led to some
soul-searching to get the help she needed, Vogelsang said.Later,
an older retriever named Kekoa taught her to let go of unrealistic
expectations as she balanced career and motherhood. When the dog got
cancer, Vogelsang didn't push endless procedures and medications,
because it wasn't right for Kekoa. That led her into the hospice-care
.eld.
After Vogelsang's mother moved in, the family spent two
months watching movies, eating cookies and watching butter.ies .it
across the yard. Pat Marzec even read her daughter's book, giving her
approval.
She died June 3, about a month before it went to print. 0hey recognize fragile, slumped over, not moving as well. 0hat's how they read each other. . . .
0hey are great at it, and we are not.
Dr. Ponnie Peaver Professor at vexas A&M University's College of Veterinary Medicine
Mr.
dessica Vogelsang, a hospice veterinarian for maws @nto Yrace in #an
Miego, Jalif., and the author of All Mogs Yo 1o $evin: Nverything 1hree
Mogs 1aught fe, plays with 9amone. Mogs provide comfort in difficult
times and experts say they know when people are dying or grieving
through body language cues, smells only they can detect and other ways
not yet known.lW99Y !e9WlZ!AP
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N.S. fishermen hail Ottawa plan Region's inshore fishery policy to be tightened
ERIN POTTIE CAPE BRETON BUREAU
epottie@herald.ca @cbnewsreporter SYDNEY -Nova
Scotia fishermen say a move by federal regulators has them feeling
buoyant about the future of Atlantic Canada's inshore fishery.
Members of the Maritime Fishermen's Union are pleased that Fisheries
and Oceans Canada will begin enforcing a policy that would prevent a
corporate takeover of inshore fishing licences.
Graeme Gawn,
union president for Local 9 in southwestern Nova Scotia, said the
federal department announced in late July a tightening of its policy to
preserve independence of the inshore fleet in Atlantic Canada's
fisheries.
‟In our area is where it's the biggest issue," Gawn
said Tuesday. ‟We're facing companies buying up lobster licences, in
particular, under questionable agreements." Over the past decade, he
said, there have been loopholes to allow inshore operators to hold a
licence in trust for large corporations that have the potential to be
sold to foreign businesses.
Gawn said operators will now be forced to disclose financial agreements regarding licences or be charged with a criminal offence if false information is filed.
‟It's the same as vertical integration has done on the offshore," he said.
‟It's still the same number of jobs on the boats, but generally when
(a large) company gets a hold of the licence, the crew's shares are
reduced and the pricepaid for the product is
reduced. The profits from the fishery are taken out of the community,
and the opportunity for new entrances are removed." A lobster fisherman
out of Cape St. Marys, Digby County, Gawn expects the federal fisheries
department to provide improvedauditing and stricter requirements for issuing lobster licences.
These changes should translate into the rejection of lobster licence applicants by as early as this fall, he said.
Cape Breton union representative Kevin Squires said if the policy is adhered to, fishermen in hisregion will be able to ward off these unwanted practices.
‟It really means the future of our fishing communities," Squires said.
‟By doing this, we make sure that the licences stay in the hands of
individual owner-operators, so in the long term, it's better for us."
Nova Scotia fishermen say they're happy Ottawa will crack down on corporations trying to buy out inshore fishing licences.
HitchBOT's
co-creators said they've been overwhelmed with support since it was
vandalized beyond repair and left on a street in Philadelphia.
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NOVA SCOTIA- CANADA -
QUILTS — NOT JUST FOR YOUR BED ANYMORE
Isabell Burgess (from left), Celeste Thibodeau-Stacey and Joan Bryant against the backdrop of the Paradise District Quilters’ 30th Anniversary Show at the MacDonald Museum in Middleton. The show runs until the end of August. (Lynn Moar photos)
Every five years, the MacDonald Museum in Middleton exhibits a very special show of quilts. 2015 is the 30th Anniversary Quilt Show of the Paradise District Quilters and the exhibit will run until the end of August.
In the early days of North America, quilts were made from scraps of fabric and had a practical use — warmth in our climate of long and cold winters. Every woman learned to sew and to quilt.
Quilting is a learned skill, the stitching must be precise and flawless. Although each quilter is different in their methods and results, they all strive for the ultimate — 10 stitches to the inch. Quilting is like a signature — you can often tell who quilted a piece by looking at the stitches. You can tell the quilters by calloused fingers wrapped in bandages to stop the bleeding.
While many still quilt by hand, now there are computerized machines that, once programmed, quilt the piece in patterns limited only by the quilters’ imagination. “We can all hand quilt if we’re up against it,” said Isabell Burgess, a member of the Paradise District Quilters, or PDQs as they like to be called. But she added that she prefers to use a machine to finish her work. It saves time and allows a quilter to achieve more in a time period, although wielding the machine accurately and achieving perfect results requires a great deal of expertise on its own.
In today’s world of central heating and wicking materials in bedding that keep you warm in winter and cool in summer, quilts have graduated from necessity to art form. Patterns range from the traditional to contemporary. The PDQs began 30 years ago after quilting classes were offered at the Paradise School. “I think this developed from that as Barbara Tratt, Dianne Cottondon and Shirley Bent attended those and decided to start a group,” explained Burgess.
The group gets together once a week to work on their projects. They don’t usually do a group project, but rather share information and techniques during their sessions while working away on their individual projects. From time to time, they travel to regional and national quilt shows together.
As you take in the exhibit you can easily pick out the style of each woman. Burgess’ recent work tends to lean toward quilts for children, influenced by her grandchildren, or games. Burgess, an avid Sudoku player, designed a 16 by 16 Sudoku game in a quilt. “I can’t solve a 16 by 16, so I found an answer key in a book, assigned a colour to each number,” explained Burgess. “Every row has a different fabric, vertically, horizontally and each square. There are no repeats.”
Celeste Thibodeau-Stacey designs and draws her quilt as would a water colourist or painter, then transforms it into a quilt. Her ‘Nurturing Loon’ was a gift for her husband, a Department of Natural Resources employee. Storm at Sea and Rooted on the Rock were remembrances of Newfoundland. Thibodeau-Stacy even transformed Emily Carr’s Swirl into a quilt. It took her about a month to complete. “I was just playing with her colours, trying to learn more about her colours,” said Thibodeau-Stacey. “I had to translate it to fabric, and paint the fabric.” Many quilters dye their own fabric to achieve the results they want.
Quilting, another art form that has evolved from a practice that was once a necessity. Although women no longer routinely learn to quilt under the tutelage of their mothers and grandmothers, quilting remains alive and thriving in the Annapolis Valley thanks to groups like the PDQs.
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Canada's 50 Places of a Lifetime
From Keith Bellows, Editor in Chief, National Geographic Travel
In the early '70s, a Canadian living in Montreal, I worked on a book called Scenic Wonders of Canada. It went on to become a best seller in a country that then had about 22 million inhabitants. I would go on to write The Canuck Book, which celebrated the countless Canadian achievements and discoveries that the country’s citizens were reluctant to accept as their own. What amazed me at the time was how little Canadians themselves knew about a country that is the world’s second biggest. I would make phone calls to check out details on Dinosaur Provincial Park, one of the world’s great dinosaur graveyards, and had to resort to a satellite phone call to an elite paleontologist at 4 a.m. to find out what was actually there. I’d fruitlessly try to locate someone who had actually been to Nahanni National Park Reserve (founded in 1976, virtually unknown to travelers, and a movie set waiting to happen—the headless corpses of Métis prospectors Willie and Frank McLeod were found there).
That was then—and this is now. Canada has 33 million inhabitants and is known for more than Neil Young, Arcade Fire, and Margaret Atwood. It is a world-class country that offers a captivating array of scenic, cultural, urban, and intellectual wonders (including Dinosaur and Nahanni, which these days, are both quite accessible). Canadians acknowledge that Mounties, the maple leaf, hockey, and pancake syrup are durable national images. But what is truly remarkable is that the 50 Places of a Lifetime—Canada’s Places of a Lifetime—you’ll find here reveal a country more nuanced and inviting discovery than even Canadians themselves realize. Forget the clichés. You’ll discover a country as original and unique as any in the world. See Keith's Favorite Places in Canada >>
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CBC’s Still Standing visits Berwick
BERWICK - A visit from a CBC television crew from Still
Standing last spring helped the Town of Berwick to “reflect on who we
are,” said development director Julie Glaser.
The many stars of the Berwick episode of Still
Standing pose outside of town hall, by the big apple, prior to the
screening last week.
Not to stand on the past, last week
prior to a special screening in town hall, Mayor Don Clarke spoke of
three new projects the community can get behind: the town’s part
ownership in a wind farm, a new library that will become the home for
the regional library system and a splash pad at Rainforth Park.
Glaser said Berwick has porous boundries and spills out of its
borders. That fact was evident in its episode of Still Standing, she
said.
“We’re decidedly rural and welcome wacky ideas,” she said.
The audience, enjoying popcorn and lemonade, clapped frequently.
Listening as Rod Reeves explained the rebound after the Larsen’s
plant closed, CBC host Jonny Harris characterized Berwick as an area
transformed by local entrepreneurship, like that demonstrated by Harley
and George Moody. In tough times, Harris said, people from Berwick stay
and make it work.
Harris was challenged to eat a 20-pound bag of apples, had a run-in
with a fiesty alpaca, took high tea with a bona fide princess and
watched his first live lamb being born. Growing up in Pouch Cove, N.L.
was not like that, he said, but he got to stop in the town’s
Newfoundland eatery, Jonny’s Cookhouse.
A comedian by nature, Harris looks for humour in some of Canada’s
least likely places, like struggling rural communities. In May 2014,
Harris travelled to Berwick for a week and learned how an agricultural
community can re-invent itself. He saw how proud residents are of their
hometown.
Harris visited former Acadia University biology professor Colin
Bell’s farm, where tourists can do home stays. He shopped at Bargain
Harley’s amid multiple hunting trophies and met Harley, a Berwick legend
for 40 years.
At the end of the week, Harris and his team of writers delivered a
stand-up comedy show to the town, which was taped live and recorded for
the episode.
Some of the other local characters that Harris encountered on the
episode include Margie and Jimmy Lamb of the Meadowbrook Meat Market in
Somerset and Peter Woodyer of The Alpaca House outside Berwick.
Woodyer said following the screening that the team spent a whole
morning on his farm, shot some wonderful drone footage and then managed
to edit it all down to a few minutes.
Weblink http://www.cbc.ca/stillstanding/
Five Facts About Berwick
• Population: 2,454.
• Berwick is known as “The Apple Capital of Nova Scotia.”
• At the beginning of World War II, Britain announced a ban on
imported fruit and Berwick’s apple industry was described as a “war
casualty.”
• The town’s recreation centre is nicknamed “The Apple Dome.”
• International Best-Selling author Margaret Marshall Saunders (Beautiful Joe) grew up in Berwick.
oldorchardinn.com/nova-scotia-valley-tourism-map/ - Cached
- Similar
Fine dining room in Wolfville,
Nova Scotia, seafood restaurant, lobsters, wine ... Our Greenhouses and Woodland Trails
are always open and also free to the public. ... 1950's style single
screen drive in theatre located in Cambridge NS Canada. ..... buildings
representing the former colony of the French who settled for a time
13 Aug 2015 ... “I'm not
touching that!” a child was overheard to say as Lacey Lescaudron, an outreach educator and zookeeper
with Little Ray's Reptile Zoo, ...
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Charles Walcott
The name most commonly associated with the Burgess Shale is probably Charles Doolittle Walcott (1850-1927). A specialist on Cambrian trilobites and brachiopods, he published hundreds of papers during his long and successful career. One of his greatest contributions to science came with his discovery of the Burgess Shale in 1909.
Charles Doolittle Walcott was a towering figure in the history of American science at the turn of the 20th century. He was director of the United States Geological Survey (1894-1907), Secretary of the Carnegie Institution of Washington (1902-1905), Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1907-1927), president of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1923) and the National Academy of Science (1917-1922), and even acted as a science advisor to Theodore Roosevelt.
Smithsonian Institution Secretary Charles Walcott (1850-1927) in 1908.
Despite his many duties, Walcott remained an active field geologist and paleontologist until his death in 1927. He spent every field season from 1907 to 1925 working at least part of each summer in the Canadian Rockies - often accompanied by his family, including his second wife Helena (from 1907 to 1910), his third wife Mary (from 1914 to 1925), and one or more of his four children (until 1918).
Walcott's family at Wapta Falls (Yoho National Park), July 1910 (left to right: Stuart, Helena, Sidney, Charles, Helen).
Walcott's interest in the Canadian Rockies began as early as 1886, when fossils were discovered on Mount Stephen in the Fossil Beds (now called the Trilobite Beds). He published two papers (in 1887 and 1888) based on fossils from this locality that had been sent to him by colleagues.
Charles Walcott's response (published in 1888) to an article on the Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds published a year earlier by Rominger.
First Visit to the Trilobite Beds on Mount Stephen: 1907
Walcott finally managed to visit the Trilobite Beds in the summer of 1907, but only for a short time. His main aim during the five-week field season was geological: to study the broader stratigraphy of various Cambrian sections in the area, including on Mount Stephen. Walcott spent only one day (Sept. 4th) at the Fossil Beds. Part of his research for that year was published in the scientific section of the Canadian Alpine Journal in 1908 (a publication of the newly-established Alpine Club of Canada).
This publication was the first illustrated account of most of the fossils found at the locality. In it, Walcott proposed the term "Ogygopsis shale" after the dominant form of trilobites found there. (The term is still sometimes used today in the technical literature to refer to the Trilobite Beds.)
Plates 1-4 from Walcott (1908) illustrating some fossils from the Trilobite Beds on Mount Stephen discovered the previous year. The trilobite Ogygospis is represented plate 4 fig. 4. Canadian Alpine Journal
Walcott wrote: "The best way to make a collection from the 'fossil bed' is to ride up the trail on a pony to about 2000 feet [about 600 m] above the railroad, collect specimens, securely wrap them in paper, place them in a bag, tie the bag to the saddle, and lead the pony down the mountain. A fine lot can be secured in a long day's trip, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m."
At the time, this article would have been widely read by tourists visiting the area, probably encouraging private collectors and visits to the site. (Note: Do not attempt to follow Walcott's advice today! Collecting fossils from the area is not allowed without a research and collecting permit).
Tourists arriving by train would have stayed at the comfortable Mount Stephen House in Field, just below the fossil locality. "All enjoyed the home-like Mount Stephen House" Walcott wrote on Aug 25th 1907. Walcott and his family continued to stay at the hotel in the following years when they did not camp closer to the fossils.
Mount Stephen House with the CPR line and the "Trilobite Beds" (top right) along the flanks of Mount Stephen, 1904.
Walcott also introduced the term "Stephen Formation" (in a different publication, also published in 1908) as a unit of Cambrian rock which included what he had defined as the "Ogygopsis shale." Back to top
The Great Discovery: 1909
The Walcott family returned to the Canadian Rockies in 1909 to continue exploring the Stephen Formation and to search for more of the "Ogygopsis shale" on nearby mountains.
On Aug. 30th, almost at the end of his field season, Walcott was riding alone between Wapta Mountain and Mount Field, just a few kilometers north of Mount Stephen, on a trail still used to reach the area, when he stumbled on "many interesting fossils". This was a day after he had discovered more "Ogygopsis shale" nearby, according to his field notebook (though not a single specimen of Ogygopsis would ever be found there).
This panorama by Walcott (probably taken in 1910 from Burgess Pass) shows the location of the Burgess Shale site near the centre of the image. The trail used by Walcott when he discovered the first fossils can be seen between Wapta Mountain and Mount Field.
He returned the next day accompanied by his wife Helena and his son Stuart. Together they found several other remarkable fossils that Walcott immediately sketched in his field notebook. Obviously impressed by this discovery, Walcott's entry for Aug. 31st – Sept 1st reads: "Out with Helena, Stuart collecting fossils from the Stephen Formation. We found a remarkable group of Phyllopod crustaceans – Took a large number of fine specimens to camp." The next day: "We continued collecting found a fine group of sponges on slope (in-situ) – Beautiful warm days"
Walcott's 1909 field notebook opened to Aug. 31-Sept. 3. The entry mentions the discovery of soft-bodied fossils from the "Stephen Formation" (today's Burgess Shale). Sketches of fossils depicting three arthropods and one sponge found on Aug 31st and Sept 1st 1909 respectively that would later be known as Marrella splendens (top left), Waptia fieldensis (top right), Naraoia compacta (bottom left), Vauxia gracilenta (bottom left). The latter was found in-situ in layers now equivalent to the Raymond Quarry about 22 metres (72 feet) above the Walcott Quarry.
The fossils discovered by the Walcotts represented types of animals that had never been seen before.
The Walcotts spent a total of five days that year collecting fossils in the area, mostly from loose slabs of rock found near the trail and on slopes.
Walcott quickly realized the importance of his finds. In a letter sent later that year to William Arthur Parks (his colleague and long-term correspondent at the University of Toronto) Walcott wrote: "…I had a few days collecting in the Stephen Formation [today's Burgess Shale] in the vicinity of Field in September, and found some very interesting things."
Charles, Helena and three of their children (Helen, Stuart and Sidney), as well as Walcott's long term field camp cook, Arthur Brown, returned to the area the following year (1910). They all camped below Burgess Pass near the 1909 discovery site, a site which they would use year after year. Travelling by railroad and horse, as well as living in the camp and collecting Burgess Shale fossils would become a familiar summer occupation for the Walcotts in the coming years.
Walcott's family arriving at Field, 1910 (left to right: Helena, Helen, Charles).
On Aug. 2nd he wrote: "Out collecting with Helena, Stuart and Sidney. We found a fine bed of 'Lace crab' [Marrella] plus various odd kinds of things." They had finally located the source of the fossils in its proper stratigraphic context - i.e., within the rock beds rather than scattered about in loose rocks that had slid down onto the trail.
Charles and Stuart Walcott at the fossil bed, August 1910.
From that day on, most fossils would be quarried from several layers within a section two metres (six feet) thick that Walcott subsequently referred to as the "Phyllopod bed." (The name came from the presence of arthropod fossils with finely preserved leaf-like appendages, like Waptia.
Walcott and his team initially dug a small quarry, which would grow much larger over the coming years. (The location is now known as the Walcott Quarry, and the area separating Wapta Mountain from Mount Field is informally known as Fossil Ridge.)
Excavated blocks of shale had to be slid down the side of the mountain and then transported by horse to camp, where the shale was split, trimmed, and packed. Fossils were then sent to Field and shipped by train to Washington, D.C.
Sliding blocks of shale down the slope from the fossil quarry, Charles Walcott holding hammer to the left, August 1910.
1911 marked the first time Walcott had a chance to publish his findings from the "Burgess Shale". In a paper on holothurians and medusae Walcott proposed the name Burgess Shale as "a geographic name for a shale to which the term of Ogygopsis shale [=Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds] was given in 1908. It is proposed to call it the Burgess shale of the Stephen formation".
Walcott named one of the most spectacular fossils Sidneyia inexpectans, meaning "Sidney's discovery", as it was discovered in 1910 by his son Sidney. This became one of the first animals from the Burgess Shale to be described and illustrated. The first reconstruction of this animal appeared in The Ottawa Naturalist in 1917, but proved to be misleading.
Sidneyia inexpectans, one of the first fossils from the Burgess Shale illustrated and described by Walcott (Figure 1).
First restoration of Sidneyia published by Lancaster Burling in The Ottawa Naturalist in 1917 based on a liberal interpretation of Walcott's publications and illustrations of this species (see above). Burling attached two claws that were not connected to the fossils, but were illustrated on a different plate and thought by Walcott to belong to the same animal. (We now know the claws belong to a different group of animals which includes Anomalocaris.
In addition to his technical accounts, Walcott also wrote a popular article for National Geographic in June 1911 called "A Geologist's Paradise", describing the scenic beauty of the region. The Burgess Shale became an instant sensation, quickly spreading beyond conventional scientific circles.
1911 also marked the tragic death of Walcott's wife Helena in a train crash on July 11th. (Walcott would later marry the prominent naturalist Mary Vaux in 1914.) Despite his loss, and perhaps to bury his grief in work, Walcott returned to the site with his family in August.
Charles and Helen Walcott working at the quarry, August, 1911.
His team spent five weeks digging for fossils, occasionally using explosives to blast through the rock. At the end of the season the quarry was about 20 m (66 feet) wide and 3 m (10 feet) deep with a back wall about 3.5 m (11 feet) tall. As in 1910, huge blocks of shale were brought to camp to be split, trimmed, and packed.
Walcott returned again in 1912, 1913, and 1917, collecting more specimens and further extending the quarry, but fewer and fewer new species were found.
Walcott had suggested as early as 1912 that the base of his quarry was unsuitable for fossils, writing "The layers of shale are arenaceous, irregular, and not favorable for preserving fossils." In a report published in 1918 he reflected on his 1917 quarrying activities: "this practically exhausts a quarry which has given the finest and largest series of Middle Cambrian fossils yet discovered and the finest invertebrate fossils yet found in any formation in any country."
Charles Walcott posing with a pry-bar at the Burgess quarry 1912 (?)
Walcott made only short collecting trips after 1917, returning in 1919, 1921, and 1924, collecting fossils from loose material below the quarry on talus slope. The day of his last visit to the quarry (July 11th, 1924) he wrote: "We went up to my old fossil quarry and collected 2 packages of fossils from rock quarried in 1919. Nothing new but all good for exchange."
The Walcott Quarry in 2006. Solid line represents approximate location of the original quarry. Dashed lines represent current excavation limits. The quarry was extended by Harvard University, GSC, and ROM crews.
During Walcott's last summer at the quarry (1924), Percy Raymond of Harvard University made his first visit to the site while leading a summer school course in field geology. Raymond never met Walcott in the field but would soon return to the quarry with more ambitious goals. Back to top
Enduring Legacy: Walcott's Collection at the Smithsonian Institution
Over the course of his many visits to the area, Walcott collected some 65,000 fossils. This collection became one of the jewels of the Smithsonian Institution's permanent collections at the US National Museum (now the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.).
National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. 2010.
Specimens received from the field after each of Walcott's collecting seasons were trimmed at the Smithsonian Institution using a rocksaw to remove as much of the surrounding shale as possible. This would have minimized the weight and volume of rock that had to be stored. Catalogue numbers and small, green, diamond-shaped labels were applied to the specimens (35k for the Walcott Quarry specimens and 35k/10 for specimens collected above it – probably representing the level of the Raymond Quarry).
Example of an original label associated with a Burgess Shale fossil, Carnarvonia venosa in the Walcott collection.
Specimens were then neatly arranged in trays and organized in successive drawers according to their taxonomic group. Species would be arranged in alphabetical order within phyla, so a specimen of Marrella splendens, for example, would have been placed in alphabetical sequence with other arthropods.
Walcott's collection at the Smithsonian Institution organized in small cabinets. Desmond Collins observing Burgess Shale specimens.
When a single slab of rock was collected with several species visible, each specimen would have been cut out of the larger slab, and the various individual fossils separated and organized in different drawers by species. During this process, parts and counterparts of the same specimens were not kept together and were often dispersed through various areas of the collections.
Example of a drawer with Burgess Shale fossils at the Smithsonian Institution.
Walcott also sent duplicates of some of his fossils to other museums (often the counterparts) as exchange material, so parts and counterparts of the same specimens (including figured specimens) sometimes ended up in different collections.
Specimens of Marrella splendens sent by Walcott to the University of Michigan.
After Walcott's death in 1927, his fossils would be largely ignored for nearly 40 years. It was not until 1962 that Alberto Simonetta and Laura Delle Cave published several scientific papers presenting a number of reconstructions of the fossil arthropods. (With a few exceptions, Walcott did not include re-creations of his fossils.) These studies were preliminary and the Walcott collection remained unused until Harry Whittington and his team re-investigated Walcott's collection, along with collections subsequently made by Raymond, and the Geological Survey of Canada.
Even though Walcott observed in the field that some specimens came from particular layers within the Phyllopod Bed, he never recorded the exact stratigraphic origin of his specimens. For this reason, the Smithsonian collection represents a mix of fossils from different layers representing different time periods. The lack of detailed stratigraphic information was one justification for subsequent Geological Survey of Canada and Royal Ontario Museum expeditions. Back to top
The Collection as Basis for Ongoing Research
Today the Walcott collection at the National Museum of Natural History remains a critical reference for the Burgess Shale because it hosts most of the type specimens that were used to describe the majority of species recovered from this site.
Type specimen of the arthropod Helmetia expansa in the Walcott collection.
The collection also continues to provide important new discoveries, mainly from the non-type and non-figured specimens (those specimens that have not been described in print, representing the vast majority of the collection).
For example, two specimens which had clearly been set aside and photographed by Walcott for publication (but for some reason were never included in any of his papers) turned out to belong to a new species. In 2007 the two specimens were used in a publication - together with newly-collected specimens from the Royal Ontario Museum - and the species was named Orthrozanclus reburrus. This suggests more new species could still be awaiting discovery in Walcott's collection, decades after they were unearthed!
The two specimens of Orthrozanclus reburrus originally collected by Walcott.
Campsite objects from Walcott's Expedition
The following objects were discovered by the Royal Ontario Museum during various expeditions to the Burgess Shale starting in 1975. They were found in Walcott's camp below Burgess Pass, about one kilometre (0.6 miles) south from the main Burgess Shale quarry. Rusty cans and tinware are still visible today in several areas of his camp, as well as beds made of now rotting cedar boughs and piles of leftover pieces of shale (from blocks that were brought to the camp to be split and checked for fossils). Many fossils, including Marrella splendens, were found by ROM crews in these debris piles.
Camp Stove Door from Walcott's Campsite Made by the McClary manufacturing company, early 20th century. marked: 'Camp Stove, BC, McClary M'F'G Co, London, Canada'.
The McClary Company of London, Ontario offered a range of camping supplies. Walcott may have purchased field equipment from either the Toronto or Winnipeg outlets when he travelled to the Burgess Shale across Canada by train. Practical Items from Walcott's 1910 Campsite – all manufactured in the early 20th century
Medicine bottle (original contents unknown) from Washington, D.C.. marked: "F.H. Ridgway Pharmacy Washington, D.C." White enameled steel water jug and white enameled steel tea cup.
These objects were found by ROM crews in 1994 and 1995 when they were removing the piles of debris that had accumulated since Walcott last worked the quarry in 1917. These objects provide important clues to early 20th-century techniques employed by Walcott for extracting large blocks of shale and fossils.
Bundle of newspapers from Washington, D.C. dating from 1913-1916.
These newspapers were found frozen in a block of ice in 1995 by a ROM crew digging at the debris that had fallen into the Walcott Quarry. Newspapers were used to pack fossil specimens, and these were left behind after Walcott's 1917 field season. (The cartoon on the front page represents Theodore Roosevelt.)
Large metal wedge likely used for breaking rocks or to make holes for dynamite sticks.
Hitting the wedge with heavy hammers and rotating it regularly would have had the same effect as a pneumatic or gasoline rock drill. But it would have required a great deal of effort to make a hole large enough for a stick of dynamite. (Some pitting from dynamite explosions is still visible in the back wall of the quarry.)
Broken splitting chisel found in 1994 in the Walcott Quarry.
Chisels like this were used to carefully split shale in the search for fossils. This one was probably left behind because the flat tip had broken against the hard shale.
Such triple-digit gloves provided warmth and a comfortable grip in all seasons. The leather is thick and was probably sufficient for protection against the sharp edges of the shale during quarrying and collecting operations.
Faced with the huge task of describing the many new animal and algal forms he collected during his excavations, Walcott opted to publish short descriptions of many fossils in a series of monographs that he himself considered preliminary works.
He published his work in various volumes of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections series (not surprisingly, as Walcott was Secretary of the Smithsonian at the time). These monographs remain invaluable reference works and are still the only source of information for some taxa.
It is worth emphasizing that most of Walcott's publications were based on material that had been collected in his earlier expeditions, especially during his 1910 and 1911 field seasons. With a few notable exceptions, fossils discovered in later years were not described in print.
In 1911 he published three monographs, based mostly on material he collected during his 1910 field season. These described arthropods ("Merostomata" including Sidneyia), holothurians and medusae, and annelid worms.
Walcott's 1911 studies on the Burgess Shale published in three separate volumes of the Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections.
Walcott published a larger study on the arthropods in 1912, including Marrella, Waptia, and Naraoia (the first fossils he discovered in 1909). This was followed by monographs on trilobites (1918), algae (1919), and sponges (1920). Many more specimens were described in a final, posthumous monograph (edited by Charles Resser) published in 1931.
Walcott named more than 60 new genera and many new families that he placed within established orders and classes. In addition to these named specimens, Walcott recognized many other new forms which were neatly organized in his collections (sometimes with suggested new names on small note cards), but he did not have time to describe all of them during his lifetime.
Examples of plates published by Walcott, including the animals Marrella (left plate) Waptia (Middle plate fig. 4 and 5) and Naraoia (Right plate fig. 3 and 4) described and illustrated by Charles Walcott. (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 1912)
Walcott had to provide new names for both the genus and the species of his many fossil discoveries. He would often turn to the natural features in the area (mountains, peaks, glaciers, valleys, waterfalls, lakes, passes, creeks) for the name of a new genus. Most of these features had been named during the late 19th century by explorers and early surveyors. (Otto Klotz, for example, named Mount Burgess in 1886 after the Deputy Minister of the Interior Alexander Burgess.)
Some of the local names Walcott chose were based on Stony or Cree Indian words, such as Waptia (from "Wapta" meaning river), Takakkawia (from "Takakkawa" meaning magnificent), and Yohoia (from "Yoho" representing a cry of astonishment).
Takakkaw falls (Left) and the sponge Takakkawia (right).
Names of other genera were chosen from personal names (Sidneyia for his son Sidney, Marrella for his friend John Edmund Marr from Cambridge University), general geographic names (Canadia and Canadaspis), towns (Banffia and Laggania – after the hamlet of Laggan, now Lake Louise) or railway points (Eldonia and Leanchoilia). Species names were mostly based on descriptive terms such as compacta, elongata, perfecta, or triangulata.
Walcott used photography to document his scientific work.
In the field he used various cameras including a Cirkut Camera to produce stunning panoramic images. Many of these images were then published in scientific or popular accounts.
Walcott taking pictures using a Cirkut camera (undated).
Walcott's 1911 article in National Geographic called "A Geologist's Paradise" included a supplement featuring several images including one of his panoramic images of the area. The image folded out to a size of 2.5m (8 feet), making it the single largest photograph ever included in the magazine. (See cover of the 1911 article in the section “Triumph & Tragedy: 1911” and Walcott’s panorama in the section “The Great Discovery: 1909”)
Walcott used a series of photographs to illustrate his work back in Washington, but because it was difficult to obtain good images of the fossils, he modified many photos for publication (see Orthrozanclus below).
Such modifications were a common practice at the time to enhance features that were difficult to show using contemporary photographic techniques. But they would not be acceptable for scientific publication today because they can sometimes add subjective features that are not present on the specimens.
Left Orthrozanclus reburrus in the Walcott collection. Right, same specimen photographed by Walcott with some features enhanced using a pencil.
Located at the Valley Drive-in in Cambridge. Every Tuesday Night Gates Open at 6pm, Play beings at 6:45PM You tune your radio to 99.9 FM. If you get a bingo you honk your horn.
How to Play
As you enter the drive in driveway Lions members will be waiting to sell you the cards you need to play. As you advance down the line you will be able to purchase Main Gate cards (including jackpot), Specials, Triple Win’s, Mini Games, Double Action games, as well as dobbers.
Each player receives a list of the games and their order of play. You then enter the drive in and park. We recommend you bring a piece of cardboard or TV tray to rest your cards on during play.
Bingo beings at 6:45 sharp. You tune your radio to 99.9 FM. The announcer reads down through the bingo rules, which highlights our call back process. The announcer tells everyone the color of the card being played and the type of bingo (2 lines or all around the free etc) and the amount of the prize. Then play begins
If you get a bingo you honk your horn. A Lions Member comes to your car and reads back the bingo via two-way radio to the announcer. The call back/verification can be heard over your radio. Once the bingo is verified then the game closes and we move on to the next game.
We have a 15min intermission at about 8:00pm. Our canteen and washrooms are open.
Prices
Main Gate Booklet (12 games + jackpot card) - 3 up - $5.00 9 up - $15.00
Mini Games Booklet (4 games) – 6 up - $4.00
Special Booklet (5 games) – 6 up - $5.00
Triple Win (1 game) – 6 up $1.00
Double Action(1 game) – 1 up $1.00
Dobbers – $1.00
Prizes
Main Gate Booklets - $100 per game
Specials – 2 games are 50/50 of the take - 1 game is 75% of the take - 1 game is $175.00 in 7 numbers or less (or 50% of the take)
Triple Win – 100% of the take on one card - 75% of the take on 2 cards - 50% of the take on 3 cards
Double Action – 50% of the take
Jackpot – $1000 in 51 number or less - $500 in 52 numbers - $200 in 53 number or more
Unique whale sings lonely songs in this high-pitched melody
Zack Metcalfe | The Endangered Perspective
This week we’re going to look beyond the ecological confines of Atlantic Canada to a story with both international and human appeal, one involving unanswered love songs, a mysterious sea creature and Leonardo DiCaprio.
In 1989, an array of hydrophones in the Pacific Ocean picked up something strange on the west coast of North America. It was a whale song, certainly, but unlike that of any known species. Although similar in structure to those of the fin and blue whales, this mysterious vocalist was singing at a frequence of 52 hertz, much louder than the 10-40 hertz of the blue whale and the 20 hertz of the fin.
This bizarre song was analyzed consistently for 12 years until the project’s lead researcher, Bill Watkins, passed away in 2004. In all that time, this song seemed to be coming from a single source, presumably the same individual for those 12 years. Unfortunately for this lone baritone, its calls were never answered.
52 Hertz, we came to call her. To be clear, we don’t know this animal’s sex, but for the duration of this column I can be forgiven for picturing 52 Hertz as female.
We have never seen this whale. Her calls have been monitored passively since the death of Watkins, but no ship has ever set sail to intercept her. The mystery lives on and for better or worse, her apparent isolation has turned 52 Hertz into a beacon for all lonely hearts. Some imagine that her unanswered cries are love songs, thrown into a vast and empty ocean in hopes that she might not be alone.
Empathy aside, 52 Hertz’s loneliness is a fascinating question. Just how alone is she? Unique as her songs are, researchers don’t think they’re different enough to suggest she’s a whole new species. More likely she is a malformed blue whale, or else a hybrid between a blue and a fin – different enough in form to produce this high-pitched melody but functional enough to have survived this long.
Hybrids between blue and fin whales have indeed been documented, but their songs have not, so it’s entirely possible 52 Hertz is just another of these poorly understood mules. But in 2010 this story became even more strange. Researchers in California picked up a sound which matched that of 52 Hertz…except it appeared to be coming from multiple sources. If our whale is indeed a hybrid, this symphony might have been an entire pod of them. Why we never heard them before or after this fateful day in 2010 is yet another mystery.
It feels overdue at this point that a documentary film crew is preparing to find 52 Hertz and hopefully capture her on camera. They attempted raising $300,000 earlier this year in order to make the documentary and just when it seemed they were going to tall short of this goal, Leonardo DiCaprio donated $50,000.
Leo is a longtime environmental activist and, as it happens, began his acting career around the same time 52 Hertz was discovered. The documentary crew plans to set sail this autumn and with luck, they’ll shed some light on the existence of 52 Hertz.
Regardless of what she turns out to be, whether a misshapen blue whale, a hybrid, perhaps something else entirely, she will contribute to our understanding of a vast and unexplored ocean. She’s living, singing proof that we’ve, quite literally, only scratched the surface. Zack Metcalfe is head campaigner for the Blue Whale Campaign, an initiative to raise public awareness of critically endangered species in the Gulf of St Lawrence. To learn more about the campaign, visit atlantic.sierraclub.ca/protectthegulf.
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Kentville museum exhibit to feature a ‘brief’ history of underwear
Kentville museum exhibit to feature a ‘brief’ history of underwear
OpenArms now owns a drop-in centre in Kentville. - Wendy Elliott. Other news. ... The OpenArms drop-in centre is going to have room to breathe soon.
https://www.facebook.com/OpenArms.ca?ref=stream
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Helping the neighborhood, world, planet and you.
Every donation of gently used clothing and items you make supports a nonprofit in your community. It also helps us keep 650 million pounds of stuff out of landfills each year and jumpstarts marketplaces in developing countries. Learn more
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Getting a car wash is something most people don't think twice about.
But for the Landry family, it's a new lease on life.
They run the Passage Car Wash on Cow Bay Road in Eastern Passage and
are embarking on a journey to create a sustainable and long-lasting
business with a unique labour force.
By expanding, Ian Landry is also hoping to create opportunity not only for his sons but for other people with unique needs.
Landry's two sons, Nicholas and Christopher, have faced challenges in their lives finding work.
‟Nic has a severe learning disability so he would have been stuck in
labour jobs for his entire life. This is providing him with an
opportunity," Ian Landry said.
Nic Landry operates the car wash, and his dad hopes to get him into a more managerial role once the staff numbers increase.
Christopher is autistic. Ian Landry wants to expand the detailing
serviced so he can gainfully employ Christopher and other people with
developmental disabilities.
‟We'd obviously pay a regular
salary and not the training allowance amount they usually get." When
the new and improved car wash opens, he hopes to employ three to four
people with disabilities.
But with the desire to expand the shop into a permanent, yearround fixture, it would make sense to own the land. Their current location is rented.
Ian Landry has been eyeing property at McKay Lane and Main Road in
Eastern Passage, but after some zoning issues the process was delayed
until the municipality OK'd the property for a standalone car wash.
He has a conditional offer on a house on McKay Lane, where Nic Landry would be able to live
independently, and is hoping to purchase the empty lot next door to
build the car wash. The dream is to have Nic live close enough to keep
an eye on the property once they start construction this fall, if all
goes according to plan.
Ian Landry, a clinical social worker,
has remortgaged his house in order to finance the project and expects to
see the total cost for properties and construction of the car wash be
around $350,000. He started a crowdfunding campaign on Go Fund Me, but in the four months it's been active has only received $150.
‟A hundred of that is from my sister," he laughed.
Despite all the obstacles - financial and bureaucratic - Ian Landry is
optimistic and excited about the future. From his professional life, as
well as his home life, he knows the positive influences of a steady
income for those with challenges.
‟It's really important, especially for Nic, to be able to do more admin
work. He has the time and space to learn, with my mentoring." Nic
Landry is proud of the work he carries out and is looking forward to a
permanent location.
‟We're getting more and more business each week. We bought the business about two years ago, and we've made all kinds of changes,” he said.
‟We now do detailing by hand using a hog-hair brush, which nobody else
does in the city, I don't think.” To those who have any fears about
handing over their cars to developmentally challenged people, Ian Landry
dispels any notions of uncertainty.
‟People with autism can do a job just as good as anybody else. They
can be really focused, and for those who are interested in cars, they'll
be much more in depth in the work, especially with detailing.”
Nic Landry washes a customer's car at the Passage Car Wash in Eastern
Passage on Monday. Nic operates the business that his father, Ian, owns.
Ian started a crowdfunding campaign a couple months ago to purchase a
new property that would allow the business to expand into a new
facility. TIM KROCHAK Staff -------------------
Adjusting to the new routine
Are you ready
to send your baby to school for the first time? BY HEIDI TATTRIE RUSHTON
The signs blazing Back To School
are everywhere I look these days - a constant reminder that I'm one
year away from sending my oldest off to ‟big kid school," which is a bit
scary (for both of us). Shad Bay mom Victoria Horne knows how I feel.
She's even closer to that big moment with her daughter, Violet, who
starts school this year. They attended the orientation, which she says
was very helpful, but there are still some worries.
‟I think
I'm most nervous about her adjusting to the new routine," Horne says,
‟Sometimes listening to new rules can be challenging when there are so
many exciting and new things going on around you." Horne has been
trying to help Violet get ready by visiting the school playground
regularly, working on self-sufficiency skills and increasing their
stranger danger talks.
‟[We've been] reminding her that she is
never to go home with someone she doesn't know, trust, and, most
importantly, that doesn't know our secret password," Horne says.
Katrina Johnston is a Primary teacher in Chester and has guided many
families through the transition. ‟Primary is a big step in a child's
life and parents worry if their child is going to feel safe at school,"
Johnston says, and shares some suggestions on what parents can do to help.
How parents can help
Explain to your child that the adults working at a school are safe adults.
Visit the school, especially if you missed orientation.
Go on practice rides on public transit if your child will be taking the bus.
Talk about making, and being, a good friend.
The other concern Johnston regularly sees from parents is how their
child will handle the many new skills and routines introduced at school.
‟They learn about language, what it means to be part of a group, how
to follow directions, and many more things," she explains.
Practice at home
Language skills can be enhanced through conversations and reading, and by extending discussions with ‟what if?" and ‟what do you think?" questions.
Social and sharing skills can be developed through attending a daycare or playgroup.
Following directions can be extended by adding tasks: ‟Practice having
your child follow simple directions, such as 'please get your shoes' and
then add another direction such as 'Please get your shoes and find your
teddy bear,'" she suggests. Johnston says the best tool a parent has is talking to their child.
‟I feel that the most important thing that parents can do over the
summer is have many conversations with their children about all of the
new things that are going to happen at school." Horne is pretty certain
Violet is ready for the big day. Violet knows she is, and has already
made her first recess plan.
‟I'm looking forward to playing with my friends outside on the big kids playground," she says.
As for me, I'm off to tweak my Prepare for School list - cross out
flash cards and workbooks, add language, safety and social skills.
We may be able to handle this after all.
Primary is a big step in a child's life and parents worry if their child is going to feel safe at school. CONTRIBUTED
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Getting organized for back to school
BY LISA MACDONALD
The lazy hazy days of summer are dwindling down and it is time to get ready for the beginning of a new school year.
This time of year is always hectic for parents and can be a source of stress for families.
There are proven ways to help smooth the transition into a successful and peaceful September for students.
1. Get on a schedule early
One
week before school starts, work towards the kids going to bed at a
reasonable time and waking up with enough time to get to school early. I
have worked with several families whose harried children were getting
to school 'just in time' for classes to begin. Aim higher.
Make
sure they arrive at school in time to socialize and feel calm before the
learning begins. During the last week of August, start reeling bedtime
back a half an hour a night until you get it right.
2. Take the time to go through your children's clothing now to determine what you need to purchase for the year
Organize
their closets and drawers. Pack away and/or hand-medown where
appropriate. In the process you might determine that your daughter has
nine pairs of pink leggings but no jeans that fit her well. From this
exercise, you can create your shopping list.
3. Start (and finish) your backto-school shopping early
Who
wants to be that harried parent buying school supplies on the Labour
Day Weekend? Take advantage of the advertised specials in August.
4. Make sure kids have an appropriate, quiet, well-appointed place to study and do homework
This
becomes especially true when they get into Junior High and beyond. Make
sure the area is well-lit and everything they need is within reach.
5. A good family calendar is essential to manage afterschool activities and a busy family's commitments
I
have seen families do it well with a paper wall calendar and some
techno-savvy parents use scheduling apps to keep everyone updated.
6. Do what you can the night before
This
includes getting items organized for the next day's activities, making
lunches, laying out breakast items, planning outfits, etc. if you have
never attempted this before, set some goals to make it happen this year.
Let your children develop important life skills by involving them in
the process.
My rule is to never do things for a child that they are physically able to do themselves.
The start of the school year can be challenging; after all, who
wouldn't find it hard to go back to work after a two-month vacation? By
staying on top of the process and getting organized behind the scenes,
your efforts will be rewarded with a more peaceful transition. One last tip:
Don't forget to snap a picture on the first day back. Whether it is the
first day of Primary or Grade 12, no one will regret having a keepsake
of those important milestones!
Make sure kids have an appropriate, quiet, well-appointed place to study and do homework.
From the time they were very young,
Rachel Aalders and her sister Eve Rowsell hated seeing good things go to
waste. ‟Especially used items that can find a good home or another
purpose," said Aalders. Together they now own and manage RE, a second
hand co-op store in the Village of New Minas.
‟We saw lots of
great items going to the landfill," said Rowsell. ‟The Salvation Army
[in Kentville] had closed and there was really nowhere else for people
to drop off things." ‟We thought we'd like to do something about it to
promote the idea of up-cycling, which we've always used to stretch our
dollars and to express our creativity by finding new purposes for old
stuff." With backgrounds in business studies and a yen to be
entrepreneurs, the duo first operated from their garages, posting used
items for sale online and holding large yard sales.
‟The
feedback was positive and the response was overwhelming," said Aalders.
‟We knew there was a need but didn't realize how many others would be
excited to have the service in the community." Yet their dream to open a
storefront to sell the donated second-hand goods, similar to what Value
Village does, kept getting kicked to the curb. ‟Our business model of a
social enterprise co-op didn't fit a typical business model to qualify
for funding," said Rowsell. ‟But we were determined not to give up."
The sisters thought it would be great to blend in their support of the
local community by providing donations of auction items for fundraisers
and projects. The new community bookshelf at Miner's Marsh in Kentville?
Donated by RE.
People using specific community supports - Chrysalis House, Public
Health, Open Arms and the Department of Community Services - can also
come in on referral to receive free items to help get them back on their
feet again.
Ginger MacPhee, acting executive director at
Chrysalis House, says RE has gone above and beyond for their
organization many times. ‟RE has been a great resource for the women
who we refer there," said MacPhee. ‟We're also not able to take
donations of material goods but people wanting to be supportive of us
can take them there," she said.
‟Dealing with stuff can become
a heavy burden to people," says Aalders. ‟especially if you are
down-sizing, moving or dealing with a departed loved one's belongings.
You want somewhere to put it other than the garbage, but finding places
for it can be timeconsuming and frustrating." ‟So we also wanted to be
a hassle-free ‟one-stop drop", says Aalders.
The sisters
opened their Commercial Street location five days a week in May to help
facilitate that. Now four months later, they have a burden they hope
will soon turn into a blessing.
Like any business, running the store is taking a lot more time away from their young families than they bargained for. Rent is a major overhead expense that must be met so they often work for next to nothing.
‟Without staff, we find we're constantly struggling to keep up. That
makes it difficult to sustain RE as the resource we want to be for the
Valley," says Rowsell.
Unless something changes soon to make
the operation more sustainable, it's frustrating for them to think that
their efforts toward a great idea for a needed service might go to
waste. But they are not throwing away their hopes and dreams just yet,
and they are trying to do what they do best: make the most of it.
‟Sometimes the positive feedback we get is the one thing that keeps us
going." Inventory donations can be overwhelming if they are not packed
and sorted efficiently. ‟Right now we need more volunteers to help with
general tasks like processing donations and we need more people to know
we're here." Items are posted to their Facebook page under ‟RE used
resale". The store is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays
and donations can be dropped off Fridays and Saturdays, or you can
contact them to make other arrangements. RE accepts outdoor and indoor
furniture, housewares, art, home decor, tools, fashion accessories,
clothing, sports gear, renovation materials, crafts and more. They are
located on 8759 Commercial St. in New Minas (past the exit 12
intersection toward Kentville, look for bright green store on the
right). www.REusedresale.com.
Rachel Aalders (left) and Eve Rowsell outside RE Used Resale Co-op Ltd. located at 8759 Commercial St. in New Minas. Heather Desveaux
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DR. JOHN ROSS: Reboot multi-tier, haphazard ‘disease
care’ system
DR. JOHN ROSS
Published August 7, 2015 - 4:57pm
Bill is sitting in a
wheelchair in the sun outside the main doors of the Halifax Infirmary having
another cigarette. The ground is littered with cigarette butts from many others
before him. There is a large bandage wrapped just below his knee. He is 61 and
is back for his third amputation on his left and now right legs from the
complications of diabetes and smoking.
Greta is screaming on the
ambulance stretcher in the hallway of the Emergency Department. She is 91 and
had a stroke almost two years ago that left her unable to speak, unable to
walk, and screaming for up to 18 hours every day. She has been to Emergency
countless times. Numerous specialists and home-care providers have been unable
to find a management solution. Her daughter is beyond exhaustion.
There are thousands of other
stories about our “health-care system” not meeting our needs or those of our
families and neighbours.
We read or hear about them in
newspaper columns, during political announcements, from experts and review
panel commissions and reports. Almost daily, we are redefining the problems and
offering recommendations. Most of them make complete sense.
Why are we still talking
about this? The answer is simple: Walt Kelly, the POGO cartoonist, used the
following line that explains our problem: “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
When we encounter one of
those thousands of situations similar to what I have illustrated above, we
blame the government. We are not sure what “the government” is, but we are sure
it is its responsibility. Often we blame the premier or the politicians of the
day. Opposition parties grab headlines while they try to score votes, pointing
out the health-care failures, and online bloggers who comment on news articles
quickly fall into finger-pointing politics, often missing the point of the
original article.
Why? Because change is
painful. It is scary. It could mean giving up something. We think someone other
than us should change. The government is failing to take care of us — “I paid
my taxes!” — but we have a major system design problem: government jobs are
generally secure and attract people who are often risk-averse. Considerable
time is consumed planning and analyzing, controlling messages, and protecting
politicians from the media. Big-system change, that requires trying new
methods, and taking risks, will not come from government.
Before I go on, what is
“health care” anyway? Yes, a stupid question — or is it? “Health care” is
doctors, nurses, hospitals, clinics, blood tests, CT scans, medications, right?
It is buildings, unions, bureaucracy, white coats, paperwork — most things
beyond our control, right?
What if someone said “health
improvement” and caring for health is happening every day in the public
library? How about on the skating oval? It happens in church, or community
fund-raisers, or at many other events where people meet and help.
What virtually everyone
thinks of as “health care” is actually reactive disease or injury care —
something has happened and we try to patch up the damage. There is absolutely a
need for this, but it is not “caring for health.”
Smoking, obesity and
inactivity — all preventable — are three main causes of disease that could be
eliminated. Getting more doctors and nurses, buying more CT scanners, inventing
new treatments are not long-term solutions for self-inflicted illness.
Poor education, poverty,
gender inequality, unsafe communities, lack of social supports are part of what
the World Health Organization and Health Canada call the “social determinants
of health.” Managing these should be the role for government. Micromanaging our
disease care is not a good fit for government.
Reactive disease care (what
we unfortunately call “health care”) —only one of the determinants, but by far
the most expensive — cannot possibly keep up with the damage caused by not
addressing the social determinants.
Some diseases are not
preventable. But many are. It is like building cars with faulty parts — when
the car company recognizes the problem, there is a massive recall to fix the
problem. In our reactive disease-care non-system, we just apply more duct tape
and put the person back on the road.
The current “health care
system” is specifically designed to react to disease and injury. Doctors get
paid — really well — to react. Why would they want to change?
Hospitals are not wellness
centres — why would they change?
Pharmaceutical companies make
enormous profits from reactive disease care — no initiatives will be coming
from them.
But our long wait times
contribute to lost productivity and hurt our competitiveness and economy.
Furthermore, people in pain move less. They gain weight and that contributes to
other health problems. They get depressed. Regular activity decreases the
incidence and progression of Alzheimer’s and dementia and therefore our wait
times may be increasing the burden of dementia in Canada.
In February 2014, the panel
led by Ray Ivany released the report Now or Never — An Urgent Call to Action
for Nova Scotians. It should be mandatory reading for every citizen in this
province. It clearly summarizes the current economic state of Nova Scotia and
makes clear recommendations.
It did not highlight the fact
that a healthy population is critical for success, so addressing our social
determinants of health combined with an effective reactive disease and
injury-care system are vital. Economic growth can only occur if the people are
fit and healthy. A call to action means, “Stop talking and do something.”
So what can we do?
All health-care providers in
Nova Scotia need to read a report from The Canadian Academy of Health Sciences,
2014: Optimizing Scopes of Practice — new models of care for a new health care
system.
It recommends, like many
reports before it, that we must change the way we pay “health care” (actually “disease
care”) workers. People need a go-to “first assessment care” (primary care)
experienced clinician (someone with broad “generalist” training) to assess
their needs. It does not have to be a doctor. Maybe the problem can be dealt
with on the spot. Maybe they require some more specialized knowledge and
skills. There should be minimal waiting and smooth handovers.
Individual doctors are
incorporated small businesses, paid through a special branch of the Department
of Health, negotiated by the union-like Doctors Nova Scotia, with unclear
accountability.
Nurses have their own unions
and are accountable to their employers. Other professions have other unions,
accountable to employers through different managers.
But there’s no overall “team”
framework or accountability. Where are the patients in all this? They are not a
player. But they should be. There could be a patient-managed health spending
account that covers the basics (reasonable standards regulated by government)
and patients could participate in directing their own care. In fact, patients
could be part of the governance of the clinic where they receive their care.
Imagine this:
The government sets quality
and performance standards only. The new Nova Scotia Health Authority and IWK
negotiate contracts and pay health- and disease-care workers. They pay
individuals or whole teams based on accountability and performance that reflect
quality of care and outcomes.
Patient and family feedback
would be a core value. The pay goes to the mixed team of physicians, nurses,
social workers, physio/OT, dieticians, pharmacists, addiction counsellors,
administrative support — from small clinics to hospital units. One pay
pipeline. All members hold one another accountable and are also accountable to
patients and the health authorities.
All this can be done — hold
your breath — through both public and private provider systems. The WCB, RCMP,
Department of National Defence and First Nations all have separate systems for
their members.
Dentistry, physiotherapy,
vision care, psychology, massage therapy, medications, etc. — up to 40 per cent
of total health care spending — is outside “medicare.”
Most doctor’s offices are
incorporated small businesses. Thousands of Canadians leave the country and
spend huge sums of money elsewhere. Why is that money not being spent in Canada
and put back into “the system?”
No one complains that Air
Canada has different fares for different privileges because everyone gets to
the same destination at the same time, either stretched out sipping champagne
or crammed into an economy seat. Multi-tier “disease care” is already happening
in a random fashion in Canada. Let’s wake up and organize it better.
Use one information system
that links patient information that can be securely accessed by all care teams.
Enable patients to interact with disease- and health-care providers through
text, email, portals, telemedicine. Do not pay for medical busy work; pay for
value and effective care. Help people stay at work or in their homes. Disease
and health care should be supporting people to promote their productivity, not
forcing them to fit provider-designed non-systems.
Furthermore, all disease-care
providers need to embrace Choosing Wisely Canada — a campaign to reduce
unnecessary medical tests and treatments. We waste a huge sum of desperately
needed money on useless tests. We also need to initiate difficult conversations
about end-of-life care, not recommend fruitless treatment options and stop
thinking that dying is a medical problem; it is the natural end of the life
cycle.
Governments and individuals
should know which care activities are safe, harmful, worthwhile, or a waste of
time or money.
There is another side to this
discussion: What can individuals do? There is a really simple list that
requires really difficult behaviour change and discipline:
• Talk to one another, in
person. Humans are social organisms. Look up the “social determinants of
health” and discover the importance of humans helping one another and the
relative futility of the “health-care system” that tries to repair preventable
damage and is spending all the money.
• Stop smoking.
• Eat well (generally less)
and move more. The human body is more than two eyes and two thumbs to operate
mobile devices. What you put in your mouth and do with your body play a big
role in your physical and mental health.
• Older people and those with
serious medical conditions need to sit down with their families and openly
discuss end-of-life plans. One hundred per cent of us are going to die. As a
physician, I have seen many hundreds of people suffer needlessly at the end of
their lives because there was no plan. Take a tour through a hospital intensive
care unit and see the results of not having a plan.
• Demand that we re-purpose
schools and community centres in rural and urban Nova Scotia and combine them
into one. Imagine opening at 6 a.m. for fitness and multi-purpose uses. At 8
a.m., community members work together with schoolchildren to prepare and eat
breakfast. At 9 a.m., school starts with assistance from community elders —
reading and tutoring. It gives them meaningful purpose and establishes respect.
There are at least two activity breaks. Lunch is prepared from local sources
together with the children — they learn that food is not all deep-fried,
frozen, or wrapped in plastic. At the end of the school day, the building is
used for multi-purpose community activities until 11 p.m., if needed. It is
used year-round. Education topics include learning self-discipline, healthy
habits, how to plan, and macro- and micro-economics from Grade Primary onward.
Regarding Bill, the man who
just lost more leg to diabetes — we co-own that problem. He needed to stop
smoking years ago — ideally, he would never have started. He needed to lose
weight — ideally, he never would have gained so much.
Now that he has diabetes, he
needs to take responsibility for managing it, but the team responsible for his
care also needs to identify his discipline challenges and develop a plan to
help him. They should monitor him more closely, using various small wearable
devices, coach him via home video-conferencing and arrange regular home visits.
His whole family and possibly even workmates can be involved. We all own Bill’s
problems, because we are all paying a lot for them.
Greta’s problem was not
predictable. She and her family needed a care plan from the hospital stroke
team and primary care team near her home that would be dynamic, based on her
signs and symptoms. The goals of care and expectations need to be discussed and
clarified early.
Her daughter needs one
capable go-to care co-ordinator. She should be able to communicate with that
care co-ordinator via email, text, or a portal and arrange a video conference
if needed. Her medical records should be readily available to all care
providers electronically because there is one provincial health authority and
the IWK. Greta and her daughter want to stay at home. Her end of life should be
dignified and supported.
Albert Einstein is credited
with observing that “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over
and over again, but expecting different results.” Are we insane? We all have
our work cut out for us. But no more talking — it’s time for action.
Dr. John Ross is a Capital
Health emergency room physician and a professor and residency program director
at Dalhousie University. He is also the author of the Ross report, tabled in
2010, on how to improve emergency services and many other aspects of what
should be patient-centred care.
READERS’ CORNER: Heed Dr. Ross’s
urgent call for health reform
Published
August 13, 2015 - 4:55pm
Last Updated August 13, 2015 - 5:00pm
Dr. John
Ross’s Aug. 8 opinion piece “should be mandatory reading for every Nova
Scotian,” writes Malcolm Macpherson. “The transition from ‘sickness’ care to
wellness is challenging and will require money, education, and most of all,
attitude change.” (TED PRITCHARD/File)
Dr. John
Ross once again presents an informed, balanced and poignant opinion piece (“Health system overload,”
Aug. 8). One more call to action.
Momentum is
building for change. Patients more than ever are demanding it. We have the
technology. We have community partners. The bureaucracy/system is the
bottleneck.
The theme of
the Ivany report, “A Call to Action,” comes to mind. Surely that was not just a
call to action to those outside the system?
We remain
hopeful that the premier and the minister of health will listen to the people
on the outside who are willing to be part of the solution — so that we don’t
have a “system overload” in the future.
Dianne
Kelderman, president and CEO, Healthconnex
Political will lacking
Dr. John Ross’s Aug. 8 opinion piece should be
mandatory reading for every Nova Scotian. The transition from “sickness” care
to wellness is challenging and will require money, education, and most of all,
attitude change.
Too many
citizens treat health care as if it is their privileged entitlement. They
present to physicians, arms folded, and say, “Fix me, but don’t ask me to pay
for anything extra or try to change my risk-laden lifestyle.” Many need genuine
help in changing, but too many feel that someone else needs to be responsible
for their health. This has to change.
Maybe the
incentive would come from hitting them in the wallet. The government must work
with health-care professionals to increase the accountability and link it to
altered payment plans. The political will to challenge the Canada Health Act is
absent, with no desire to charge user fees. So we have no choice but to
increase taxes and/or make significant cuts if current services are to survive.
If people only realized what a difference they could make by using some common
sense. However, common sense isn’t that common. We truly have met the enemy and
“he is us.”
Malcolm
Macpherson, Valley
Sickness-care system strained
We found Dr.
John Ross’s Aug. 8 opinion piece to be very important, and the lack of response
to it surprising.
His
assessment of the problems of our existing system, and suggestions for how we
can move forward, including taking more responsibility for our own health, were
well thought out and exactly what we need to hear — again and again!
If we
continue to elect governments that refuse to use a greater percentage of our
tax dollars to encourage and motivate everyone to become healthy and avoid
illness — especially chronic illness — our current “sick care” system will
surely fall apart under the strain.
Let’s all
get behind Dr. Ross, and in particular his recommendation for repurposing schools
and community centres and combining them into one facility — open from 7 a.m.
to 11 p.m. year-round, available for fitness and other multi-purpose uses,
including the preparation of food and teaching students nutrition, engaging
community elders as mentors/assistants, expanding learning to include
self-discipline, meditation and broad-based mandatory physical exercise, and
developing civic responsibility from grade Primary upward.
There is
much more needed in broad-based learning/education than simply preparing for
the job market and the demands of industry.
Cathy
Carmody, Dr. Norman Greenberg, Cheryl Munroe, Margaret Armour, Rod McCulloch,
Halifax, and Dr. Douglas Carmody, Summerside, P.E.I.
Gov’t too busy downloading
Dr. John
Ross’s excellent opinion piece on health-care reform (“Health system overload,”
Aug. 8) offers a plan of action that should be implemented.
Will our
government act? Probably not; it is still frittering around trying to find
government services to download to private companies.
Our
provincial government started out by threatening to contract out home care for
the aged and the disabled to private interests, arguing that it would save
money. How typical — trying to save money on the backs of two of the most
vulnerable groups in our society. Apparently, that ill-conceived venture has
been abandoned for now, while our politicians look for other government
services to download to private industry. And this in spite of evidence that
downloading does not work; in fact, it usually costs us more.
We have a
badly broken system that desperately needs reform. The federal government is
well on its way to legalizing voluntary euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide.
Sadly, many
of the sick, the old and the disabled may see that as the only option open to
them as the system continues to deteriorate. And remember, it is a short step
from voluntary euthanasia to compulsory euthanasia.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.... Dr. Ross got it right on..
Homegrown health fixes
In his critique of the Nova Scotia health-care system (“Health system
overload,” Aug. 8), Dr. John Ross proposes to “use one information system that
links patient information that can be securely accessed by all care teams.”
Health Department bureaucrats will be skeptical of many of Dr. Ross’s
prescriptions, but they’d wholeheartedly endorse implementing one patient
information system for everybody. However, the evidence shows this approach is
excessively expensive and generally does not work.
United Kingdom spent 12.7 billion pounds over six years to implement a
single master system, but caregivers did not trust the system and resisted its
use.
In Nova Scotia, CBC reports the province spent $37 million since 2004
on its preferred electronic medical record (EMR) system for physicians.
Meanwhile, a locally developed EMR system, which received no subsidy, is
achieving greater success than the Ontario system financed and promoted by
government.
Review of patient systems implemented around the world will show that
the Ivany approach delivers the best results technically, socially and
economically. Encourage local solutions to meet local requirements. The role of
government is to develop and promote integration standards so that all
health-care teams have secure access to necessary information in whichever
system it resides.
Bob Brown, Halifax
Health-care self-help
Dr. John Ross’s Aug. 8 opinion piece on how our health-care system is
not caring for health, rather providing reactive disease or injury care, was a
breath of fresh air. He is bang-on in stating much of our illnesses are
self-inflicted.
His reference to the World Health Organization’s “social determinants
of health” correctly identifies some things government should target.
Governments can take immediate steps to promote healthier eating habits
and increased physical activity. Impose higher taxes on unhealthy foods. Make
healthier foods more affordable. Make diet knowledge and physical activity a
mandatory part of the education system. Provide incentives to encourage fewer
hospital visits and for demonstrating physical activity. Control the
expectations of corporations to have employees connected 24-7. Consider “total
disconnected” times. Support people living in poverty, on the streets or
experiencing mental challenges.
Imagine the reduced demand on our overloaded health-care system from a
populace with healthier eating habits aligned with daily caloric requirements,
being physically active and experiencing less stress.
Dennis Coates, Lower Sackville
Home-care service sloppy
Re: John McNulty’s Aug. 14 letter about our government’s apathy toward
the health-care system and the services for our most vulnerable populations: I’m
sorry to inform him that home care has already been contracted to a private
company.
My mother is receiving home care and the treatment has been absolutely
disgraceful. Out of five visits, they’ve only shown up on time once. They have
arrived when not scheduled; staff have lied to accommodate their social
calendars vs. what was scheduled; they have falsified time sheets and reports
about what tasks they performed; and they have often failed to follow detailed
instructions.
And this company is charging a premium, significantly more than the
average charged by other companies. I have called the company and Capital
Health (who are investigating) almost daily about significant issues, yet the
extremely poor service continues.
My mother is convalescing following surgery and has no cognitive
issues, so she will only require home care for a short period, but I fear for
those who do not have someone to monitor and advocate for them. I’m horrified
to think of how many are being taken advantage of and what they are being
forced to endure. They deserve better.
Deb Kunkle, Fall River
------------------
CANADA THE GOOD STUFF- GET THOSE NEWSPAPERS DONE...
The world is getting tired of the destruction and mayhem of the same
ole same ole seek and destroy and party hardy after- the world's people are
tired of the war and hate over humanity, education and peace.... so tired... r
u surprised...we aren't .... Fascists have to cancel march in Liverpool after
barely anyone turns up
CANADA MILITARY NEWS: Send Up The Count-
PTSD/SUICIDE/WOUNDED/LOVED/MISSED- Help Lines/Videos/Blogs/Photos /Canada
suicide help lines - please don't give up... please we need u each and all
/www.MilitaryMinds.ca- heroes u are
Canadian son...hero.... look at that child.... KIA in the horrific part
of the world lawless baby killing monsters called the taliban who wipe/d their
arses on the Geneva Convention. Afghan women screamed in 2003- where are the
world's women....why aren't u helping your sisters of this planet. Corporal
Andrew James Eykelenboom.... hero- courageous and so honourable.... 2006. On
April 5, 2014- Afghan women and their mommas and grandmas dragged their kids in
the millions and voted in Afghanistan... creating incredible history and the
whole world watched in awe.... in the face of the taliban baby killers and
vicious cold sleeting rain.... stating... we wanted 2 show the world
that...'THE FOREIGN TROOPS AND OURS...DID...NOT...DIE...IN ...VAIN. History
will remember u Andrew... as we do... please know... and we will never 4get
September 11, 2001 and why u were in Afghanistan. My uncle said on WWII's
victory by Canada in the face of us kids crying in hunger and poverty....
remember u are free... and had we NOT won the war... and u did NOT have blonde
hair and blue eyes and white skin...u would not be here... Peace of Christ
son.... God is lucky.... from old momma nova.
NOVA SCOTIA's 2000 mile coastland and size is larger than
England but smaller than the UK...
Nova Scotia has over 2,000 miles of seacoast,.... The State
of Nova Scotia's Coast Report gives an overview of the condition of our coastal
areas and resources- 2009 (excellent read) http://novascotia.ca/coast/state-of-the-coast.asp
----------------
Fall foliage cruises: What to do in the most popular ports,
from Nova Scotia to Massachusetts
Fall is a wonderful season
for cruising. The cool, crisp autumn weather is an ideal time to take in the
eye-popping colors along the Atlantic shoreline and also to explore the
picturesque and historic seaside towns in New England and Canada. Prices
are generally lower in the fall, partly because the kids are back to school –
so if you want a "quieter" sailing at a good value – you found it.
It's also a great way to unwind before the hectic holiday season.
Popular New England ports
of call include Boston, Newport and Bar Harbor – while most Canadian stops
visit Quebec, Montreal, Nova Scotia and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A few fall foliage
sailings are repositioning cruises and might take you from New York to New
England into Canada and then south along the Eastern seaboard to Florida for
their regularly scheduled winter cruises to the Bahamas and Caribbean
Island. These longer cruises have more sea days, offer a great value and
have become very popular.
Most autumn cruises are
usually seven to twelve day sailings departing from NY/NJ, Baltimore, Boston
and Montreal.
Fall foliage cruising
represent all types of cruise styles. From the contemporary, mega ships
of Carnival, Royal Caribbean and NCL to the premium lines of Holland America,
Princess and Celebrity. If it's all-inclusive luxury you want – you won't
be disappointed with Seabourn or Crystal.
Having done (and
absolutely loved) the picture perfect New England and Canada sailings many
times, here are a few of my favorite things to do in port.
Halifax, Nova Scotia – Walk the historic waterfront city and spend time in the Maritime
Museum of the Atlantic, which has an excellent Titanic exhibit. Take in the
heartbreaking and true immigrant stories at Pier 21. The Halifax Citadel is
definitely worth a visit – and, although Peggy's Cove is considered a must-see,
if there are several cruise ships in port it is way too crazy-busy with people
and tour buses.
Quebec City
– Plan to stroll for hours throughout this beautiful French-influenced walled
city. Wear your comfy walking shoes and explore the cobblestone lanes,
quaint shops and head to the most photographed hotel in the world: Fairmont's
La Chateau Frontenac. Have a coffee or glass of wine there in one of the inside
or outdoor lounges and take it all in.
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia – A UNESCO World Heritage Site and undiscovered jewel.
Proclaimed the prettiest town in Canada – and I wholeheartedly agree.
Sydney, Nova Scotia – If you love Scotland and all things Scottish – you'll love Sydney.
Saint John, New Brunswick –The bay of Fundy is Mother Nature in her glory.
Boston, MA –
Once again, grab your walking shoes and trace America's independence on the
Freedom Trail.
Prince Edward Island - Best known as the "Garden of the Gulf" because of its
natural beauty and pastoral landscape and home to "Anne of Green
Gables" - and yes, the Haunted Wood and Lover's Lane still exist and you
can walk the paths.
Bar Harbor, Maine - The red and gold forests form a backdrop over the blue ocean waters
and a fantastic, nautical town you can explore by foot - after a lobster roll
lunch.
NOTE: There
is still time to book a fall foliage New England/Canada cruise. Be
sure to talk to a trusted travel agent and get all the special sales and
promotional offerings going on right now.
Sandy Fenton is a travel
expert and host of "Let's Talk Travel with AAA," which airs every
Saturday from 11 a.m. to noon on WHP 580 AM. For more information and to
listen live go to whp580.com and click on "Let's Talk
Travel."
MARY
ELLEN MacINTYRE STAFF REPORTER
Published August 10, 2015 - 6:59pm
Last Updated August 10, 2015 - 7:50pm
A multimillion-dollar
fibre optic cable link between Halifax and Cork, Ireland, is complete.
The final leg of the
$250-million project has been finished, and the project owner says it means it
can offer transmission speeds of up to 100 gigabits per second.
Hibernia Networks said the
cable is primed to meet increasing demands for secure, high-speed connectivity
driven by big data, cloud and media-rich applications. Financial companies,
media, traditional telecom service providers and web companies will be
especially interested in the high-speed capabilities, the company said in a
news release.
It announced the
completion of the 4,600-kilometre Hibernia Express on Monday. Billed as the
first trans-Atlantic cable to come ashore in 12 years, it is attached to North
America at a landing site in Herring Cove.
PETER
MOREIRA ENTREVESTOR
Published August 10, 2015 - 4:49pm
Last Updated August 10, 2015 - 7:50pm
One of Scotland’s leading
educators in entrepreneurship has developed a special affinity for New
Scotland.
Colin Mason, a professor
at the Adam Smith School of Business at the University of Glasgow, has already
been in Halifax and Sydney this year, one of many visits over the years. He
returns next month on a trip that includes the Atlantic Entrepreneurial
Ecosystem Conference at Saint Mary’s University on Sept. 17 and 18.
As an academic who teaches
entrepreneurship, Mason carries a messianic enthusiasm for his subject.
Entrepreneurship professors believe it is essential for 21st-century students
to understand how they can start their own businesses.
For Mason, the necessity
of learning entrepreneurship comes from the realities of the global market.
The reality is harsh. Most
industries are not offering long-term, full-time positions. Even if they do,
the evolution of technology could jeopardize the position in a decade or two.
The modern worker has to constantly bid for project work, or start a business that
revolutionizes a task.
“You’ve got to be
entrepreneurial to work in an environment where you’re constantly selling
yourself to a project manager,” Mason said over lunch in a Halifax restaurant
last month.
All industry is changing,
in the same way the movie industry evolved a few generations ago, Mason said.
Actors, directors, cinematographers and everyone else in the business was under
contract with a single studio. Then in the 1960s, all the players began to work
on a project-by-project basis. No star or director is identified exclusively
with a studio now.
The world of business
overall is moving that way, especially so in creative industries. More work is
being done on a contract basis, with companies bringing in specialists for
specific projects. To thrive in such a market, young people need an
entrepreneurial mindset so they can adjust to the demands of each contract.
While some decry
entrepreneurship as a risky way to make a living, Mason makes the point that
there are huge risks in planning a conventional career with a single employer.
Large businesses are constantly restructuring and changing their workforces.
The successful worker of the future will be one who can adjust, meaning he or
she will have to think like an entrepreneur.
Mason is a firm believer
in experiential learning and is impressed with the recent surge in courses at
universities in Atlantic Canada that encourage students to start their own
businesses.
His experience working
with students shows that many had entrepreneurial talents they didn’t know they
possessed. They realize they could lead a team or sell a product, and that it’s
really not that hard to start a business.
Mason said students are
better prepared for the modern economy if they learn entrepreneurship.
“I’d like to think a CV
that included running your own business would allow the student to stand out.”
These are the world's
most and least expensive countries for tourists http://i100.io/SfL4DWE
-----------------------
ok...Elizabeth
May 4given... let’s get the Greens..in...and yes May is a Canadian Citizen...
Democracy is too important to be left
to the politicians’: Elizabeth May has a small party but a big voice
SIDNEY, B.C. • In the late 1950s, just as The
Mouse That Roared took off, the satirical story of a tiny country that brings a
nuclear-armed U.S. to its knees, Elizabeth May was a toddler learning from her
peace-activist mother small voices can have powerful results.
Stephanie May joined 17 Nobel laureates,
including Linus Pauling and Bertrand Russell, in suing the U.S., Soviet and
British governments to stop atmospheric nuclear testing. She ended up on U.S.
president Richard Nixon’s “Enemies List.”
Her daughter learned to sit still in the face
of inequality or bad government is not an option.
Today, Elizabeth May, the Green Party leader,
may be Canada’s best-known version of the mouse that roared, an environmental
activist and politician with outsized ambition, unafraid to take on the mighty
and the influential, and who considers no issue too big or complicated to
tackle.
“What makes me believe that one person can
change the world? My mom. Because she did,” May said.
Canadians saw that chutzpah in July when she
said prescription drugs should be accessible to all by 2020.
“I aspire to be someone who makes a huge
difference in Canada the way (Saskatchewan premier) Tommy Douglas did,” said
May, who argued Pharmacare is a necessary but unfinished component of Douglas’s
universal health-care program.
She was elected Greens’ leader in 2006, but
failed to win a parliamentary seat until 2011, when she defeated veteran
Conservative MP and cabinet minister Gary Lunn in Saanich-Gulf Islands.
She was the first Green to become an MP.
Former NDP MP Bruce Hyer jumped to the party in 2013.
Because the Greens lack official party
status, May only gets one official question a week during question period. But
because she uses her Parliamentary desk as her office and is always in the
chamber, the Speaker frequently gives her more floor time.
In public opinion polls, the party hovers
around five per cent support. But May has not let this stand in her way as she
seeks out new ways to exert influence.
“She’s brilliant in that. She did prep work
even before she got elected,” said Adriane Carr, a former deputy Green Party
leader, now a Vancouver councillor. “She had people researching every single
way she could legally have effect as a single member of parliament.”
Her interns attend committees and take notes,
information she uses in the House. This was the case with Bill C-38, which the
Harper government used to gut the Environmental Assessment Act. By the time it
was passed, May had made more than 400 amendments.
In 2012, she finessed a private member’s bill
on Lyme disease through Parliament. These bills usually die on the order paper,
but the Federal Framework on Lyme disease Act became the Greens’ first
legislation to get unanimous support.
“Many people in politics told me I was making
a mistake, that I should never show up in parliament because it wasn’t
important, and that I should tour the country building the Green Party,” May
said.
“I did not think that voters the of
Saanich-Gulf Islands did something so brave as to unseat a sitting Conservative
cabinet minister… for me to forget my job was to work for them.”
An author, environmentalist and lawyer by trade
who started by battling insecticide spraying in Cape Breton, May ran the Sierra
Club of Canada for 15 years. In the 1980s, she was an environmental adviser in
Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government, but quit on principle
when it issued permits for dams in Saskatchewan without an environmental
assessment.
In 2003, just before her mother died, they
discussed her future.
“I said I don’t think I want to go back to
law, not the conventional practice, I’m certain I don’t want to go into politics,
and I can’t just go to another environmental group,” May said.
She took up theology: “I figured my future
would be in being a nice little old lady Anglican priest with a nice parish
somewhere.”
Although politics won out, but her
theological training left its mark. Former Liberal leader Bob Rae, who admires
May, told Walrus magazine, “Sometimes she’s a bit too self-righteous, but
that’s part of her theological makeup. She can’t help it.”
“She’s a workaholic, and it takes a toll on
her personal life,” says Carr. “She works unbelievably hard and it is a real
struggle for those around her to force her to take time off.”
May, who is divorced with an adult daughter,
notes she is following in the footsteps of many Canadian women leaders who have
been unable to sustain marriages because of work.
“I am happy, and happily single… but I work
darn hard, and I don’t think there is a man on the planet who would put up with
it,” said May, who estimates she works 16 hours a day, seven days a week. “You
can’t do that and take care of family.”
But she can sometimes go too far in trying to
attract attention, leading to embarrassing gaffes. These include her ill-timed
support for former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi and her vulgarity-laden attempt at
humour at the Parliamentary Press Gallery dinner in May when she turned the air
blue.
“I don’t think seven minutes of bad comedy is
anything like the track record of four years of working hard,” she said,
adding, “I think I was elected to be a parliamentarian and not a comedian, and
I am going to stick to that.”
She wrestles to explain why she continues and
why she believes the Greens could hold the balance of power after Oct. 19.
“I don’t like politics. It is hard. But
democracy is worth fighting for. When they said war is too important to be left
to the generals, democracy is too important to be left to the politicians,” she
said.
Then she laughed self-deprecatingly. “Actually, I haven’t
said that before. That’s quite good… must say it again.”
yes...
Elizabeth May is a Canadian Citizen... AND YES WE ARE SICK OF LAZY PROTEST PARTY OLD AGE HIPPIE CROWD.... but hopefully the new breed of green party hopefuls.... TRULY GIVE A SHEEET AND WILL WORK HARD FOR CANADA.... AND MAKING OUR COUNTRY GREEN WITH GREEN PRIMEMINISTER.... look at California.... look at Texas.... look at the environment disaster the USA has become whilst Canada is pristine is beautiful..... perhaps instead of joyriding around the world as envion/peacenicks.... they coulda /should been actually working on saving their own USA..... the green party has some truly inspiring folks.... it's time..... Canada
Elizabeth May born into activist family
But
Green leader must combine political ancestry with pressing efforts to boost
seats
JIM
BRONSKILL THE CANADIAN PRESS
Published August 6, 2015 - 6:44pm
Green
Party Leader Elizabeth May prepares for the first formal debate of the federal
election, in Toronto. (CP)
OTTAWA —
Three of Elizabeth May’s ancestors signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence.
As a girl growing up in Connecticut, she donated her savings to help promising
candidates get elected to Congress. And future U.S. president Bill Clinton wrote
a recommendation letter that helped her get into law school.
So perhaps
it was inevitable that May would one day find herself in the thick of party
politics — albeit in her adopted homeland north of the border.
Since
becoming Green party leader nine years ago, May, 61, has won a seat in the
House of Commons and — sometimes through sheer force of personality — a voice
in the national conversation.
She now
faces her toughest test: gaining the support of enough voters to parlay a
parliamentary foothold of two seats — Ontario MP Bruce Hyer is the only other
Green member — into a more influential presence.
The party
has set a goal of about 16 seats — hoping to build in British Columbia on the
strength of May’s 2011 Vancouver Island breakthrough as well as in other
pockets around the country.
Twelve seats
in the Oct. 19 election would confer official party status and the additional
resources that go with it.
The party’s
overriding goal, though, is to have enough MPs to sway decision-making in what
many expect to be a minority Parliament.
The Greens
have made it clear they’re willing to work with any party that will pursue
their policies on issues including climate change, pharmacare and electoral
reform.
Collaboration
is fundamental to May’s approach.
“My vision
comes from an unusually political childhood, an activist upbringing, and a deep
love of democracy,” she wrote in her 2014 book, Who We Are: Reflections on My
Life and Canada.
“It comes
from knowing that working together changes the world.”
May was born
in the United States and spent her formative years there. Her mother was active
in the peace and civil rights movements as well as political campaigning —
efforts that left an indelible mark on the young Elizabeth growing up in rural
Connecticut.
One day the
family’s beloved lamb died mysteriously. In junior high school years later, May
read about pesticide poisoning of sheep in Arizona. Her inquiry to the town of
Bloomfield, Conn., revealed that pesticides had indeed been sprayed along the
roads where the lamb liked to walk.
An
environmentalist was born, and the experience would lead May to an instrumental
role in the movement against planned aerial insecticide spraying on Nova Scotia
forests.
May came to
Canada as a teenager in 1972 when her family — struck with the beauty of Cape
Breton — opened a restaurant on the Cabot Trail.
The family’s
meagre finances prevented May from doing undergraduate studies, but she later
won special admission to Dalhousie University in Halifax, where she earned a
law degree.
In 1986 she
became a senior policy adviser to Tom McMillan, environment minister at the
time in the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney. May was
hired despite her lack of party credentials precisely because she was the sort
of person who would quit on principle — which she did after two years.
While there,
however, she helped create several national parks and was involved in
negotiating the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer.
Work on many
environmental, consumer and aboriginal causes followed. May left her job as
executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada in 2006 to successfully run for
the Green party leadership.
She is an
active parliamentarian and passionate speaker who relishes the opportunity to
participate in question period. May is a stickler for decorum who will sit down
if heckled, waiting for the Speaker to restore order.
That respect
for tradition made May’s much-publicized rant at this year’s press gallery
dinner seem out of character. Tired and appearing over-refreshed, she profanely
admonished the Harper cabinet before being whisked off stage and later
apologizing.
Being leader
of a party of just two MPs means she must stay apprised of all key issues. With
no public safety critic in her tiny caucus, she spent hours in committee last
spring proposing amendments to the government’s omnibus security bill.
May’s depth
of knowledge “is unlike any politician I’ve ever met,” said Mark Neufeld, a
Victoria high-school teacher who has invited her to speak several times.
He recalls
one bright student asking her to explain in five minutes or less how to tackle
climate change at a national level.
“And I
watched her do it on the whiteboard,” Neufeld said. “And I’d never seen
anything like that. I was just so impressed at her willingness to do it, and
not sort of give a trite answer.”
QUOTE:The word
“poverty” was not uttered once during the recent federal leaders’ debate.
Canada is one of the wealthiest countries on earth, yet poverty and
inequality are systemic and are increasing in many areas of life. According to
the most recent National Household survey, about one quarter of Canadians live
in housing that is overcrowded, unaffordable, substandard, or a combination of
all three. Forty per cent of indigenous children in our country live in
poverty. Ten per cent of Canadians cannot afford to fill their medical
prescriptions. All this, in a country that, according to Harper, is the envy of
the developed world.
Why won’t politicians address the poverty problem?
The word “poverty” was not uttered once during the recent federal
leaders’ debate.
By: Desmond Cole Published on
Mon Aug 10 2015
In Thursday’s federal election debate, NDP leader Thomas Mulcair
successfully pushed the Conservatives’ Stephen Harper to concede that the
Canadian economy has shrunk in each of the last five months. Mulcair
triumphantly followed up, “you’re not denying we’re in a recession, that’s
good.” It was a moment that he, Green party leader Elizabeth May and Liberal
chief Justin Trudeau had all been angling for — an acknowledgement from Harper,
who has led the country for nearly a decade, that economic times are tough.
While Harper’s contenders hammered him with the “R” word, they never
once uttered the word “poverty,” the state people find themselves in when jobs
are scarce, or when the jobs that exist don’t pay the bills. Trudeau and
Mulcair are especially prone to speaking as if recession is a temporary
problem, rather than a fixed and cyclical reality in our global economy. Like
Harper, they speak as if they expect the best for our economy, and in their
false optimism they are failing to prepare Canadians for the worst, to speak up
for those who are worst off, including the many whose fates have become
disconnected from the ebb and flow of the economy.
Canada is one of the wealthiest countries on earth, yet poverty and
inequality are systemic and are increasing in many areas of life. According to
the most recent National Household survey, about one quarter of Canadians live
in housing that is overcrowded, unaffordable, substandard, or a combination of
all three. Forty per cent of indigenous children in our country live in
poverty. Ten per cent of Canadians cannot afford to fill their medical
prescriptions. All this, in a country that, according to Harper, is the envy of
the developed world.
Opposition parties are eager to connect these problems to the prime
minister, but not to the economy itself. Trudeau has been preaching for months
about “strengthening the middle class and those hoping to join it.” For the
Liberal leader, this second group is a nameless, aspiring mass of humanity, a
group that can achieve stability with a little help from caring politicians. He
suggests he can elevate them from their current state of poverty, instead of
promising to help them manage it.
The NDP’s Mulcair is promising to implement a $15-an-hour federal
minimum wage by the end of his first term of office. This policy would only
apply to a small percentage of those currently making minimum wage, but its
true failing is that it is not indexed to inflation. A $15 minimum wage will be
a lot less to celebrate in four years, and if it doesn’t increase with the cost
of living, it will soon represent a new standard of poverty.
May goes further than her counterparts in acknowledging systemic
poverty in Canada. “We can’t just sit back and think that the current stagnant
economy is going to fix itself,” May said in Thursday’s debate. She wants to
spend billions of tax dollars to upgrade energy inefficient homes, repair
infrastructure, and build sources of renewable energy. What’s more the Greens
are campaigning on a guaranteed minimum income, a safety net for all Canadians similar
to what we currently provide seniors.
Yet May didn’t mention a guaranteed income during the debate, even
though the Green party website labels poverty as “the single largest
determinant of ill health” in Canada. She too is trapped in a conversation that
labels the eradication of poverty as unrealistic. As May fights to be included
in debates and election coverage, she faces pressure to sound more like her
opponents, who are allergic to the language of structural suffering.
No one who has followed Harper’s career would expect him to flinch at
the prospect of a recession. In keeping with his neo-liberal religion, the
prime minister has spent the last 10 years cutting taxes for individuals and
corporations. When those measures have failed to insulate Canada from a
volatile global economy, Harper has insisted the public should be grateful that
things are not even worse. He has never concerned himself with entrenched
poverty, and he likely never will.
But we could hope for more from his potential successors, especially
the two so-called progressive leaders most likely to replace him on Oct. 19.
Mulcair and Trudeau need to present long-term plans that don’t take an economic
resurgence for granted. We are poised for a second recession in the last seven
years — Canadians who continue to struggle cannot live on the false optimism of
our politicians.
Desmond Cole is a Toronto-based freelance journalist.
Canada’s East Coast entrepreneurs aim for global growth
LISA HRABLUK
SAINT JOHN — Special to The Globe and Mail Last updated Tuesday, Aug.
11, 2015 1:52PM EDT
Burgeoning tech companies are on the rise in Canada. Our occasional
series explores how each locale nurtures its entrepreneurs, the challenges they
face and the rising stars we’re watching.
Eyeread chief operating officer Julia Rivard is accustomed to setting
global ambitions.
The former Olympian, now Halifax-based entrepreneur, wants to teach the
world’s children to read and she approaches her goal in much the same way she
earned her spot on Canada’s national sprint canoe team at the 2000 Sydney
Games.
“When I was at the Olympics, I realized that no one was better than
anyone else there,” she says. “The ones who got on the podium were just more
confident. That confidence piece is huge.”
Since launching Eyeread in January, Ms. Rivard and her partner, Eyeread
chief executive officer Leah Skerry, have been moving quickly, attracting
investors and accolades to their company, which is pioneering the use of
artificial intelligence to track children’s eye patterns on computers and
tablets and pinpoint specific reading challenges.
In the past few months, Ms. Rivard and Ms. Skerry have pitched
investors across North America, including San Francisco, and this past spring
became one of 200 companies vying for Elon Musk’s $15-million (U.S.) Global
Learning XPrize.
Ms. Rivard credits Atlantic Canada’s close-knit business network with
helping to launch Eyeread and for guiding its growth.
“I am one phone call away from [Nova Scotia seafood baron] John Risley
or even [Nova Scotia Premier] Stephen McNeil. People want to help and they will
– if you have the balls to reach out.”
Growing up and out of Atlantic Canada is the only way to succeed in a
global economy, says Rob Barbara, who, along with childhood friend Patrick
Keefe, manages the $65-million (Canadian) Build Ventures, the region’s largest
early-stage venture fund.
“Companies that think regionally are not of interest to us. We have to
be thinking globally.”
It isn’t just the private sector that’s thinking that way these days.
Build Ventures was created in 2013 with an initial $32.4-million from the
governments of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI to help early-stage companies
in the region. “Governments realized that direct investment by government
wasn’t working so they put capital in the hands of private sector managers,”
says Mr. Barbara, who, like Mr. Keefe, is also invested in the fund. Build
Ventures’ current portfolio includes six startups from around the region, most
notably Fredericton-based IntroHive, which earlier this month announced
$7.3-million (U.S.) in series B financing.
“As an investor, you’re always looking for opportunities to find
undiscovered companies because that gives you a leg up on other investors,” Mr.
Barbara says. “We are here because we know we will discover great companies,
and for other investors, Atlantic Canada is still largely undiscovered.”
In addition to its portfolio of companies, Build Ventures also sponsors
the region’s network of tech hubs, such as Planet Hatch in Fredericton, Venn
Garage in Moncton, Volta Startup House in Halifax and Startup NL in St. John’s.
Startup NL co-founder Jason Janes says Atlantic Canada’s success is
predicated on the four provinces’ technology and business networks deepening
connections.
“We may have different tech hubs but the people within it must start
thinking as one.”
That is the mantra of Propel ICT, which runs Launch36, the region’s
largest startup accelerator program, which began life in Saint John, N.B., in
2003. Founded by former telecommunications executives Gerry Pond, Curtis Howe
and Jeff White, the trio knew that to build successful high-performing
companies in Atlantic Canada, entrepreneurs and mentors would need to be
fiercely collaborative.
In March, 2015, the Business Development Bank of Canada named Mr. Pond
the first-ever BDC Entrepreneurship Champion for his leadership as both a
mentor and angel investor. Technology news site Techvibes and accountancy KPMG
had earlier recognized Mr. Pond as Canadian Angel of 2011 for his early investment
in New Brunswick companies Radian6 and Q1 Labs, which were bought by
Salesforce.com and International Business Machines Corp., respectively, for a
total of $1-billion.
The two deals brought an estimated $300-million into the region and
helped to seed the latest round of startups.
Mr. Pond has long championed the combined power of Atlantic Canada’s
business network and today PropelICT draws on a network of close to 100 mentors
and coaches who meet up with entrepreneurs in communities around the region to
offer advice and to open doors.
Mr. Janes has felt the power of that network first hand. He and
business partner Sarah Murphy are alumni of Launch36 via their wearable safety
technology startup, Sentinel Alert.
“I see Atlantic Canada as an example for the rest of Canada and North
America to follow,” Mr. Janes says. “We have this key differential here because
we have this large geographic distance. St. John’s is far from Saint John. We
have to think more about ways we can connect people through networks rather
than a single physical space.”
Cathy Simpson, chair of the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, which
funds early-stage startups and applied research activities in the province,
agrees.
“There is no shortage of ideas or energy in our region but once they
get started, how does the ecosystem come together to help them grow?” asks Ms.
Simpson, who is also a vice-president of mid-sized information technology
consultancy T4G.
Ms. Simpson says building international sales capacity is an acute need
for local startups and a problem she and other IT leaders are trying to grapple
with, including Mr. Pond, who in February, 2015, offered $500,000 (Canadian) to
any university or other body in Atlantic Canada to establish an international
sales program.
“The components to build large global players are here but I do think
we have to work harder because of where we are,” says Ms. Simpson, adding that
while she and her colleagues in the tech sector have built export-focused companies
that do little to no business in the region, they remain fiercely committed to
working and living on the East Coast.
The mantra in Atlantic Canada is this: As long as you live here, you
have a responsibility to make it better.
“For all of us, our business is outside the region but we do come
together to help build it up,” she says. “We really love working in our own
backyard.”
Lisa Hrabluk is a freelance journalist and founder of Wicked Ideas
Media, a PropelICT alumnus.
This post was originally done in honour of Canada’s 145th birthday on July 1st, 2012.
And so for fellow Canadians and those even mildly interested in Canada I thought I’d put a blog together and give you 145 weird, fun and interesting facts about the country.
Canada came into being as a country on July 1, 1867 when the British Parliament passed the British North America Act.
Famous Canadians
Famous Canadian celebrities include Justin Bieber, Michael Buble, James Cameron, Jim Carrey, Celine Dion, Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, Mike Myers, Ryan Reynolds and William Shatner.
Famous Canadian rock and rollers include Bryan Adams, Paul Anka, the Guess Who, Rush, Steppenwolf, The Barenaked Ladies, Alanis Morissette, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Neil Young and Avril Lavigne.
Other famous and well known musicians and songwriters include Sarah McLachlan, Nelly Furtado, Diana Krall, Chantal Kreviazuk, K.D.Lang, Maureen Forrester, Leonard Cohen, Raffi Cavoukian, Bruce Cockburn, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray, David Foster, Robert Goulet, Shania Twain, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Joni Mitchell.
Famous Canadian authors include Lucy Maud Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables), Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Alice Munro (Lives of Girls and Women), Mavis Gallant, Stephen Leacock, Pierre Berton, Robertson Davies, Douglas Copeland, Alistair MacLeod, Farley Mowat and Michael Ondaantje.
Famous Canadian artists include the Group of Seven made up of Lauren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, J.E.H.MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, Frank Johnston and Franklin Carmichael. Tom Thomson and Emily Carr, two artists associated with the group are also very well know.
Inspirational Canadians include Terry Fox who attempted a one-legged cross country run for cancer research, Rick Hansen, a paraplegic athlete who completed an around the world marathon for spinal cord injury research and Donovan Bailey, the world’s fastest man.
Famous Canadian dancers include Karen Kain, Veronica Tennant and Lynn Seymour.
Superman was co-created by a Canadian Joe Shuster and American Jerry Siegal. The character was created while Shuster was visiting Siegal in Cleveland in 1934.
Famous Canadian journalists, TV or radio personalities include Peter Jennings, Alex Trebek, Lloyd Robertson, Peter Gzowski, Robert MacNeil, Morley Safer and John Roberts.
Fun Geography Facts
Canada is the second largest country in the world.
The highest tides in the world occur in the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick.
The capital of Canada is Ottawa, the second coldest capital in the world.
A cold (-25C) and wintry night in Ottawa
Canada has ten provinces and three territories.
Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world at 243,977 kilometers – 151,600 miles.
Montreal is the world’s second largest French speaking city after Paris.
Six cities in Canada have a population of over 1 million: Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa.
Canada is lucky to have 9% of the world’s renewable water supply!
The largest non-polar ice field in the world can be found in the St. Elias Mountains, Yukon Territory. It covers an area of 40 570 square kilometers of which 16,900 square kilometers are located in Canada, the remainder being in Alaska.
Canada has six time zones.
The longest highway in the world is the Trans-Canada Highway which is over 7604 kilometers (4725 miles) in length.
The world’s most northerly sand dunes are in Athabasca Provincial Park in northwest Saskatchewan. They are 30 meters high.
Half of the country is covered with forests, which should come as no surprise considering one-tenth of the world’s forests are here.
The highest mountain in Canada is Mount Logan, Yukon Territory, 5959 meters (19,551 feet).
Wasaga beach is the longest fresh water beach in the world.
Despite being a huge country, Canada has the fourth lowest population density in the world, with only three people living per square kilometer! Almost half of the population in Canada were born in other countries.
The coldest temperature ever recorded in Canada was -63C (-81.4F) on February 3, 1957 in Snag, Yukon.
Alert, in Nunavut Territory, is the northernmost permanent settlement in the world.
The highest waterfall in Canada is Della Falls, British Columbia, 440 meters high (1444 feet).
The border between Canada and the United States is officially known as the International Boundary. It is 5,525 miles long, including the 1,538 miles between Canada and Alaska. It’s the world’s longest unprotected border.
Ocean Falls, British Columbia has on average 330 days of rain per year. Yuck!
Estevan, Saskatchewan is reportedly the sunniest place in Canada with 2,537 hours of sunshine per year.
Nakwakto Rapids, Port Hardy’s legendary dive destination, boasts the strongest current in the world – with speeds of up to 18.4 miles per hour.
Three of Canada’s islands make the top ten for size in the world – Baffin, Ellesmere and Victoria.
The first chuckwagon race held at the Calgary Stampede occurred in 1923. Purses and prizes totaled $275. To get the Canadian Championship title each outfit – consisting of four horses, wagon, driver and four helpers – were required to cut a figure eight around barrels, head out through a backstretch, then around a track, unhook the horses from the wagon, stretch a fly with a minimum of two stakes and make a fire. First smoke decides winner.
In Flander’s Fields is a poem written by World War I Col. John McCraea, a Canadian veteran of the Second Boer War. He was struck with admiration at the courage of the dead when he saw red poppies swaying among the markers of his fallen comrades.
Canada’s first million-selling author was Marshall Saunders, with her novel Beautiful Joe (1894).
French and English are the two official languages in Canada.
Queen Elizabeth II is the Canadian Head of State.
Canada’s literacy rate is over 99%.
The Canadian motto is A Mari Usque ad Mare. It means from sea to sea.
The English version of Canada’s National Anthem – O Canada – was written by Robert Stanley Weir for the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation in 1927.
The National Flag of Canada came into being in 1965 to replace the Union Jack. It is an 11 pointed red maple leaf on a white square.
Inventions/Medical Advancements
Canadian inventions include the game Trivial Pursuit (Scott Abbot and Chris Haney), the telephone (Alexander Graham Bell), basketball (James Naismeth) and the snowmobile (Joseph-Armand Bombardier).
Thomas Ahearn invented the electric cooking range in 1882.
Graeme Ferguson co-invented IMAX. There are over 500 IMAX theaters in 45 countries.
Insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas was first isolated at the University of Toronto in 1921-22 by Dr. Frederick Banting and Charles Best.
James Till and Ernest McCulloch are credited with the discovery of the stem cell.
Elizabeth Catherine Bagshaw was one of Canada’s first female doctors and the medical director of the first birth control clinic in Canada. She has been recognized as providing outstanding contributions to the quality of life of women in Canada.
History
John Cabot was the first explorer to reach Canada in 1497.
The east coast of Canada was settled by Vikings in approximately 1000 AD. It’s definitely worth a visit to L’Anse aux Meadows.
Newfoundland didn’t become a province until 1949.
The northern tip of Newfoundland
Tools that date back 20,000 years are the first evidence of history in Canada. They were found in caves on the Bluefish River in northern Yukon.
It wasn’t until 1610 that Henry Hudson sailed through Hudson Strait into Hudson Bay.
In 1576 Martin Frobisher discovered the strait that bears his name.
Navigation of the north-west passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific was first achieved by the Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen in 1906.
In 1792-94 Captain George Vancouver painstakingly surveyed the west coast of Canada.
Food and Drink
Poutine
The Moosehead Brewery in Saint John, New Brunswick turns out 1,642 bottles of beer per minute.
The beer named after Canada is called Molson Canadian. Founded in Montreal in 1786, Molson Coors Canada is the oldest brewery in North America and continues to produce beer on the site of the original brewery
Over 200,000 pancakes are served during the Calgary Stampede.
Foods we think of as being Canadian include peameal back bacon, poutine, maple syrup and Timbits (small donuts from Tim Hortons).
Canada is famous for its ice wine – made from pressed frozen grapes. It’s usually served as a dessert wine.
Wine is produced in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia.
Cheddar is the most popular cheese in Canada. On average Canadians consume 23.4 pounds per person annually.
The Maritimes are famous for their desserts. Try Blueberry Grunt and Raspberry Buckle.
There are more doughnut shops in Canada per capita than any other country.
Each Canadian eats an average of 190 eggs per year.
Canadians drink more fruit juice per capita than any other country.
National Parks and UNESCO WORLD Heritage Sites
The Rideau Canal in Ottawa, A UNESCO world heritage site, has the world’s longest skating rink in the winter.
The only walled city north of Mexico is Québec; it was also the first city in North America to be placed on UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites list.
Canada is home to 42 national parks, 167 national historic sites and four marine conservation areas.
There are 15 world heritage sites in Canada. The one with the most interesting name is Head Smashed In-Buffalo-Jump.
Moraine Lake in Banff National Park
NATURE FACTS
A 9.3 kg lobster is the largest documented lobster caught. It was caught in Nova Scotia in 1977.
The muskox has an inner fur layer that is finer than cashmere and can be spun into wool that is very much warmer than sheep’s wool. If you knew that then you probably knew it was called qiviut.
Fifty percent of the world’s polar bears live in Nunavut.
A bald eagle can see 4-7 times better than humans (though not just in Canada) and they have been recorded doing 100 mph dives.
There are about 200 species of mammals in Canada.
You’ll find about 630 bird species in Canada.
Canada’s beaver is the second largest rodent in the world, weighing up to 60 pounds. (The largest rodent is the capybara, found in South America and weighing up to 100 pounds.)
There are eleven sub species of Canada geese. The four smallest species are called the cackling geese. My husband wonders if they poop less than Canada Geese.
Canada geese galore
You can swim with beluga whales in Churchill, Manitoba.
There are nearly 2.5 million caribou in Canada.
Churchill, Manitoba sees one of the largest annual polar bear migrations.
FINANCIAL FACTS
The Bank of Canada opened its doors in 1935 and issued its first bank notes.
The Bank of Canada began as a privately-owned institution, with shares sold to the public at a par value of $50. In 1938, all shares were purchased by the Government of Canada and the Bank became a Crown corporation.
During World War II, the Bank of Canada’s nine victory Bond campaigns raised almost $12 billion for the war effort. After the war, the program was continued with Canada Savings Bonds.
Starting in December 2000, the Bank began making interest rate announcements on eight pre-specified dates per year.
The Canadian dollar is sometimes described as a petro currency.
The S&P/TSX is the fourth largest exchange by market cap in the developed world.
On April 23, 1997, the TSX’s trading floor closed, making it the second-largest stock exchange in North America to choose a floorless, electronic (or virtual trading) environment.
At its peak in 2000, Nortel represented more than 36 percent of the Toronto TSE 300 index when their equipment carried 75% of internet traffic.
The Hudson’s Bay Company or “The Bay” is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. The company was incorporated by English royal charter in 1670.
Just Plain Weird, Unusual or Interesting
Canada has the world’s smallest jail – in Rodney, Ontario; it’s only 24.3 square meters (270 square feet).
Canada has 198 jails.
Daylight savings time does not occur in Saskatchewan.
The heaviest rainfall ever recorded was in Buffalo Gap, Saskatchewan. On May 30, 1961 25 centimeters fell in less than an hour. That’s ten inches!
The Regina Tornado of June 30, 1912, rated as F4 (winds of 330 to 416 kilometres per hour) was the most severe tornado so far known in Canada. It killed 28 people, injured hundreds and demolished much of the downtown area.
At the time it happened, the most expensive natural catastrophe in terms of property damage was a horrific hailstorm that struck Calgary on September 7, 1991. Insurance companies paid about $400 million to repair over 65,000 cars, 60,000 homes and businesses, and a number of aircraft.
There are 522 airports with paved runways, 931 airports with unpaved runways.
The West Edmonton Mall, once the largest in the world is now the fifth largest indoor shopping mall. It still claims the title as having the largest indoor amusement park.
The CN Tower in Toronto was the world’s tallest free standing structure until 2007.
The license plate for cars, motorbikes and snowmobiles in Nunavut is in the shape of a polar bear.
Canada is the largest producer of uranium in the world.
The intersection of Portage and Main Street in Winnipeg has been called the windiest place in Canada.
Newfoundland is nicknamed “The Rock.’
Prince Edward Island, Canada’s smallest province is only 225 kilometers long and 56 kilometers wide.
The Northwest Territories is called The Land of the Midnight Sun because the sun barely sets around the summer solstice.
There are diamond mines in the Northwest Territories.
Some of the world’s largest wheat fields are found in Saskatchewan.
The US, the UK and Mexico are the top countries visited by Canadians.
Canada is the world’s largest source of the rare element Cesium. It is found at Bernic Lake, Manitoba.
Canada is home to 15 million cattle, 9 million of which live on the Prairies.
The US buys more oil from Canada than any other country.
There are 459 cars for every 1000 people.
Thirty two percent of Canadians are very happy, 55% are quite happy.
This is just a smattering of facts about Canada. If there are any you’d like to add please be sure to leave a comment. Other posts you might find useful:
Vinland (pronounced "Winland") was the name given to part of North
America by the Icelandic Norseman Leif Eiríksson, about year 1000. Later
archeological evidence of Norse settlement in North America was found in L'Anse
aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada. Whether this was the Vinland of the Norse
accounts is the subject of debate. It must be recognised that the Vikings did
not perceive the exploration and settlement of Greenland and Vinland as any
different than that of founding Iceland. It was merely an extension of their
homeland and notions as to a different world only surfaced upon meeting the
natives, noticeably different from Irish monks in Iceland. The colonization of
the "New World" only occurred some time after Christopher Columbus discovered
Central America for economic reasons. Vinland was first recorded by Adam of
Bremen, a geographer and historian, in his book Descriptio insularum Aquilonis
of approximately 1075. To write it he visited king Svend Estridson, who had
knowledge of the northern lands.
Landing at L'Anse aux Meadows reenactment 2000
The main source of information about the Viking voyages to Vinland
can be derived from two Icelandic sagas, The Saga of Eric the Red and the Saga
of the Greenlanders. These sagas were written down approximately 250 years after
the settlement of Greenland and are open to significant interpretation.
Combining those two, it seems that there were a few separate attempts to
establish a Norse settlement in Vinland, including one led by Þorfinnur
Karlsefni, none of which lasted for more than two years. The disbandment of the
small Viking colony probably had several causes. Disagreements among the men
about the few women that followed on the trip, and fighting with the skrælingjar
(Native Americans) already living on the land, are both indicated in the written
sources.
The story tells that after the settlement of Greenland by the
Vikings, a merchant by the name of Bjarni Herjólfsson, who was on his way to
Iceland from Greenland, strayed off course due to a storm and thus accidentally
discovered the east coast of America in 985 or 986. He then afterwards told the
story and sold the ships to Leifur Eiríksson, who, according to the stories,
sailed back to those areas. It was late in the summer, and he did not want to
stay over winter in this new land, which he noted was covered with forests, so
he did not land and managed to reach Greenland before winter fell. With wood
being in very short supply in Greenland, the settlers there were eager to
explore the riches of this new land. Some years later Leifur Eiríksson explored
this coast, and established a short-lived colony on a part of the coast that he
called Vinland.
The first discovery made by Leifur was according to the stories
Helluland ("flatstone land"), possibly Baffin Island. Markland ("wood land"),
possibly Labrador Peninsula was discovered next (there is some evidence that the
tree line in northern Labrador has been diminished or eroded since circa 1000)
and lastly Vinland (commonly interpreted as "wine land", but interpreted as
"pasture land" by others), possibly Newfoundland. The expedition included both
families and livestocks and the aims were to begin new settlements.
Straumfjörður was the name of the northern settlement and Hóp was the name for
the southern settlement. However, according to the stories it was cancelled soon
due to conflicts with the "skrælingjar" (possibly the later Beothuks, or Dorset
people). New voyages for woodcutting etc. seem to have been discussed even as
late as the 1300s.
Until the 19th century, the idea of Viking settlement in North
America was considered by historians to be the product of mere folk tales. The
first scholarly theory for the idea was put forth in 1837 by Danish literary
historian and antiquarian Carl Christian Rafn in his book Antiquitates
Americanæ. Rafn had made an exhaustive examination of the sagas, as well as
potential settlement sites on the North American coast and concluded that
Vinland was a real place in North America that had been settled by the
Norse.
Historians do not agree on the location of Vinland. Rafn believed
that Vinland was probably in New England. In the 1960s a Viking settlement was
discovered and excavated at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, and many
historians believe that this was Leifur's settlement, thus connecting Vinland to
Newfoundland. Others have followed Rafn in sharing the belief that Vinland was
farther to the south. In this view, L'Anse aux Meadows was perhaps part of an
undocumented later attempt at settlement.
Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland.
Those who believe Newfoundland is the location of Vinland
generally think that settlements further south are unlikely, because maintaining
such a distant lifestyle from the Norse homelands would have been far too
difficult for the Vikings of the time. Iron and other European convenient
resources would have been too difficult to sustain on any workable level, as the
later English settlers in New England would later find. Costly fights with
native populations so far from supply lines would have been another
deterrent.
An argument for placing Vinland further south is Adam of Bremen's
account. In his Descriptio insularum Aquilonis he wrote that the name Vinland
comes from huge amounts of grapes growing there . He received this information
from king Svend Estridson. However, grapes do not grow in the sites commonly
seen as possible locations of Vinland. There are a number of theories to explain
this discrepancy:
It was an early marketing attempt, something like the naming of
Greenland by Erik the Red. In this theory, Leifur's naming of Markland and
Vinland was to encourage others to explore and settle there.
A theory subject to much debate among scholars is that there was a
misinterpretation of short-i Vinland as long-i Vinland (Viinland). In this
theory Vinland's naming is based on the Old Norse word (short-i) 'vinja' meaning
cereal grass. This theory can be combined with the previous one: Estridson might
have embellished Adam's mistake if he believed it would increase the fame of
Vinland for joint-financed ventures he would no doubt claim for himself. One
problem with this theory is why it was not called vinjaland or vinjarland
instead; a contraction needs to be posited to explain this. Another problem is
why the sagas outside of Adam of Bremen's account also refer to double-i
Viinland and mention vines as well. Since the sagas were written later, an
explanation for this could be that the sagas were somehow influenced by Adam of
Bremen's account.
Alternatively Estridson was joking or lying, or even referring to
similarly sounding Wendland instead in an earlier account, where grapes did
grow, and this was later confused with Vinland by Adam of Bremen.
Another theory is that we have not discovered the true location of
Vinland yet, and it is further south, where grapes do grow. More subtly Vinland
could be seen as a gateway or northern part, in reach of more temperate areas
where grapes grew. Another possibility is that later, longer voyages further
south, reporting Concord style grapes confused the story told about the
settlement, as there were individuals of the crews who had ventured out on their
own to return with tales.
Finally it has been speculated that grapes did in fact grow in the
area in the past, but not anymore due to climatic changes. It may indeed have
been warm enough for grapes to grow in Newfoundland as in present times grapes
do grow at the same latitude in Europe (France and northern Italy) and North
America (Washington State and southern British Columbia).
While the theory that Vinland was further south is a legitimate
line of inquiry, for some the motivation to search Vinland further south could
have been more personal to justify or romanticize the later (post-Columbian)
history of Swedish and Danish colonization of areas in the present-day United
States. There have been several instances where evidence of pre-Columbian
presence of Norse explorers in the United States has been considered to be fake
by most researchers, such as for example the Kensington Runestone. So far, the
only evidence of the Norse in the United States that is generally accepted is
the Maine Penny.
halifaxmag.com/features/50-things-you-dont-know-about-halifax/ - Cached - Similar
30 Jul 2013 ... You likely know that Halifax is Canada's largest city east of Quebec. ... In 1912, people gathered in the Orpheus Theatre on Granville Street to watch 1,000 ... In the 1960s, Dartmouth had a youth-elected Junior Council that met ...
www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/about/milestones.asp - Cached - Similar
Canadian Space Milestones. ... The following list highlights significant dates of the Canadian space history as well as major events and news of ... 1950 - 1960 ...
21 Aug 2014 ... Home » Canada's 1960s The Ironies of Identity in a Rebellious Era Bryan ... Canadian Geographic Biggest and Best of Canada 1000 Facts and ...
12 Jun 2015 ... Once, in the 1960s, there was Paul and there was Donald. ... by Google itself states that Internet space might have 5 million terabytes of data (1TB = 1,000GB). ... UK is 11th, Canada is 15th and the US is 18th on the list.
Bannerman, James, An Excursion into Canada With Charles Dickens, "An Excursion into Canada With Charles Dickens," Maclean's Magazine, 5 Dec 1953, p. 28,29,41,42,44,45,46 ...An article about a visit of Charles Dickens in North America, published in Maclean's Magazine, December 15, 1953. In 1842 the novelist visited Niagara Falls and Queenston, among other places in Canada
. p.8; ill.; size: 26.5cm x 35cm...
ORIGIN OF PROVINCE NAME: The area was first called "Acadia" by French settlers and later "New Caledonia" (meaning "New Scotland" from the Latin name for northern Britain). The anglicized "Nova Scotia" name dates from 1621, when Sir William Alexander, a Scot, was given a charter to colonize the area. NICKNAME: Bluenose Country or Canada's Ocean Playground. CAPITAL: Halifax. ENTERED CONFEDERATION: 1 July 1867. SONG: "Farewell to Nova Scotia." MOTTO: Munit hæc et altera vincit (One defends and the other conquers). COAT OF ARMS: In the center, the provincial shield of arms displays (in a fashion similar to that of the provincial flag) the cross of St. Andrew, patron saint of Scotland, in blue on a white background. In the center of the cross are the Royal Arms of Scotland. Above the provincial shield is a royal helmet with a blue and silver scroll that represents the royal cloak. Two joined hands (one with a gauntlet and the other bare) are above the crest, supporting a branch of laurel which stands for peace and a branch of thistle representing Scotland. Above all, the provincial motto appears on a scroll. Supporting the shield are a white royal unicorn on the left representing England and an Aboriginal Canadian on the right holding an arrow. Beneath the shield is a grassy mound with mayflower entwined with the thistle of Scotland. FLAG: The flag is based on the provincial shield of arms. It has a blue St. Andrew's Cross on a white field, with the Royal Arms of Scotland mounted at the center. FLORAL EMBLEM: Trailing arbutus, also called mayflower. TARTAN: Blue, white, green, red, and gold. PROVINCIAL BIRD: Osprey. TREE: Red spruce. MINERAL: Stilbite. GEMSTONE: Agate. TIME: 8 AM AST = noon GMT.
1 LOCATION AND SIZE
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's Atlantic provinces and consists largely of a peninsula that is 360 miles (580 kilometers) in length. The peninsula is surrounded by four bodies of water—the Atlantic Ocean, the Bay of Fundy, the Northumberland Strait, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence. A narrow passage on the northwest (the Chignecto Isthmus) connects the province to New Brunswick. Its geographic location, together with large, ice-free, deepwater harbors, has been a key factor in the province's economic development.
With an area of 21,425 square miles (55,491 square kilometers), Nova Scotia is larger than Denmark, although somewhat smaller than Scotland, after which it is named. In size, it is the second smallest of the ten Canadian provinces. Its average width of 80 miles (128 kilometers) means that no part of the province is far from the sea. The highest point is North Barren Mountain, at 1,745 feet (531 meters) above sea level.
Nova Scotia Population Profile
Estimated 2003 population
936,000
Population change, 1996–2001
-0.1%
Percent Urban/Rural populations
Urban
55.8%
Rural
44.2%
Foreign born population
4.6%
Population by ethnicity
Canadian
425,880
Scottish
263,060
English
252,470
Irish
178,585
French
149,785
German
89,460
Dutch (Netherlands)
35,035
North American Indian
28,560
Welsh
12,245
Italian
11,240
Acadian
11,180
Métis
4,395
Population by Age Group
Top Cities with Populations over 10,000
City
Population, 2001
Halifax (metro area)
276,221
Cape Breton-Sydney
33,913
Truro
33,913
Glace Bay
21,187
New Glasgow
21,102
Sydney Mines
16,068
2 TOPOGRAPHY
The province is comprised of a peninsula, connected to the remainder of Canada by 17 miles (27 kilometers) of land, along with the island of Cape Breton (mainly highland country broken by lakes, rivers, and valleys), which is joined to the mainland by a 0.9-mile (1.4-kilometer) causeway. Nova Scotia is a mosaic of rugged headlands, tranquil harbors, and ocean beaches. Its indented shoreline stretches 6,478 miles (10,424 kilometers), while inland is a myriad of lakes and streams. The land is framed by the rocky Atlantic Uplands, the Cape Breton Highlands, and the wooded Cobequid Hills. The agricultural areas of Nova Scotia are predominantly lowlands. The northern coastal belt of low, level land stretches along the Northumberland Strait from the New Brunswick border to Cape Breton Island. When the glacial ice withdrew from coastal Nova Scotia 15,000 to 18,000 years ago, the ocean flooded ancient river valleys and carved out hundreds of small
protected harbors which later became fishing ports.
3 CLIMATE
Nova Scotia lies in the northern temperate zone and, although it is almost surrounded by water, the climate is classified modified continental rather than maritime. The temperature extremes of a continental climate, however, are moderated by the ocean. Because of cool currents of air and water from the Arctic alternating with warmer breezes from the Gulf Stream, extremes of summer and winter temperatures are not as evident as in central Canada. Average daily temperatures at the Halifax International Airport range from 21° F (-6° C ) to 65° F (18.2° C ) in July. The total average annual precipitation of 58.7 inches (1,490 millimeters) includes 107 inches (271 centimeters) of snowfall.
Only on rare occasions does the temperature rise above 90° F (32° C ) or fall below 14° F (-10° C ) in winter. The frost-free season ranges from 120 days in northern Nova Scotia to 145 days in the Annapolis Valley. The highest recorded temperature in Nova Scotia was 101° F (38.3° C ) on 19 August 1935 at Collegeville, and the lowest was -42° F (-41.1° C ) on 31 January 1920 at Upper Stewiacke.
4 PLANTS AND ANIMALS
Nova Scotia has more than 250 bird and mammal species. Deer, rabbit, pheasant, and ruffed grouse are prominent upland species, while beaver and waterfowl are common wetland species.
5 ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
As in New Brunswick, the impact of drifting air pollution from industrial centers in the southeast (which results in acid rain falling in Nova Scotia and the other maritime provinces) is a local concern. Nova Scotia itself annually releases about 430,000 tons of nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide (gases that cause smog), 248,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide (gases that produce acid rain), and the equivalent of 4.7 million tons of carbon dioxide.
The Nova Scotia Environment Act became law in 1995. Due to the province's success in recycling under the act, 50 percent of Nova Scotia's solid waste was diverted from disposal sites by 2000. As of 2003, 99 percent of Nova Scotians had curbside recycling. From 1996 to 2003, 1.3 billion beverage containers had been recycled. Each year, 900,000 tires are reused or recycled. As of 2003, Nova Scotia had 18 municipal solid waste disposal sites. It was anticipated that the number of those sites would be reduced to seven by 2005.
Nova Scotia has more than 400 companies with 2,500 employees in the environmental sector. These firms work in such specialties as remote sensing, geographic information systems, waste utilization, and water and wastewater treatment products and services. Nova Scotia Power Inc. is a world leader in the clean burning of coal for electricity generation, and has been approached by several Caribbean
Most of the coast is rocky and dangerous for ships at sea. Nova Scotia has more lighthouses than any other province. This lighthouse, built in 1868, lies on the coast just south of Halifax. By 2004, all of the province's 150 lighthouses had been automated and no longer required a lighthouse keeper.
EPD Photos/Jean Knight
and Asian utilities for advice on how to control fossil fuel emissions.
6 POPULATION
As of 2001, almost all of the 908,007 residents lived in close proximity to the coast. The largest concentration of population in 2001 was in Halifax, with a population of 276,221. The Cape Breton–Sydney municipality had a population of 33,913. The Halifax metropolitan area is the largest population area in Canada east of Québec City. Halifax functions as a regional headquarters for many government and private institutions. Major towns in Nova Scotia include Truro, Glace Bay, New Glasgow, Sydney Mines, New Waterford, Kentville, Amherst, Bridgewater, and Yarmouth.
Residential growth is about evenly split between urban and rural areas, but the farm population is diminishing. Nova Scotia has the lowest ratio of men to women. For every 100 women, there were 93.6 men in 2001. This was lower than the national average of 96.1 men.
Nova Scotia's population is aging. Between 1991 and 2001 the median age grew 5.4 years from 33.4 years to 38.8. The national average is 37.6.
7 ETHNIC GROUPS
Almost 80 percent of Nova Scotia's population trace their ancestry either wholly or partly to the British Isles. Those with French origin rank second: 16.7 percent of residents have some French ancestry. The next largest groups by ancestry are German and Dutch. Residents of Nova Scotia are also of Polish, Italian, Chinese, and Lebanese descent. Over 6,400 residents of the province have African origins. About 28,560 residents have Amerindian origins, and primarily belong to the Micmac Nation.
8 LANGUAGES
In 2001, English was the first language of 92.8 percent of Nova Scotians, with French the mother tongue of 3.8 percent of the province's residents. About 2.8 percent of residents speak both English and French.
9 RELIGIONS
Almost half of the population, or about 438,150 people, are Protestant, including members of the United Church of Canada, Anglicans, Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Pentecostals. Nova Scotia also has about 328,700 Roman Catholics (36.6 percent of the population), about 3,580 people of Eastern Orthodox faith, 3,545 Muslims, 2,120 Jews, 1,730 Buddhists, and 1,235 Hindus. More than 106,400 provincial residents profess no religious affiliation.
10 TRANSPORTATION
Nova Scotia has a network of 438 miles (705 kilometers) of railroad track serving major communities in the province. Both the Dominion Atlantic Railway, a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific, and Canadian National operate in the province. Unit trains are used for rapid delivery of containers between the Port of Halifax and central Canada and the United States. Passenger rail service is provided by Via Rail from Halifax to Amherst and points west.
Nova Scotia has a network of 16,200 miles (26,000 kilometers) of highways, of which 8,400 miles (13,600 kilometers) are paved. During the 1980s a series of all-weather, controlled-access highways was constructed. The number of motor vehicles registered in 2003 was 551,670. There were also 1,841 buses registered, 6,826 motorcycles and mopeds registered, and 44,163 trailers registered. Urban transit consists of over 200 buses.
With a strategic location on the major North Atlantic shipping route, Nova Scotia's 129 commercial ports are able to serve the eastern Canadian and north-central US markets for shipments of goods to world markets. The port of Halifax is in the forefront of this activity, handling nearly 14 million tons of water-borne cargo in 2000. Other harbor facilities at Halifax include 35 deepwater berths and, located in Woodside, the largest automobile distribution center in Canada. The port at the Strait of Canso can accommodate the world's largest supertankers. Sydney Harbour also has a full range of facilities and can handle vessels up to 44,080 tons (40,000 metric tons).
National and regional air service is provided at Yarmouth, Sydney, and Halifax International Airport. Air Canada, Canadian International Airlines, KLM, Air Nova, Air Atlantic, and Northwest Airlink provide regular scheduled service to all Canadian points and international service to Boston, New York, Bermuda, London, Glasgow, and Amsterdam. Several local airports have been developed throughout the province for the use of charter services, local commuting, and flying clubs. In 2000, the Halifax International Airport handled 2.98 million passengers. The province's other main airport is at Sydney.
11 HISTORY
French Settlement
Nova Scotia, one of Canada's Maritime Provinces, is a peninsula that stretches off the eastern coast of Canada into the Atlantic Ocean. The Micmac Indians were
A railyard and grain elevators in the Port of Halifax. Railways are an integral part of container delivery between central Canada and the United States via the Port of Halifax.
the original inhabitants of the region. Europeans probably didn't show up in the area until the eleventh century, when the first Norse explorers were thought to have arrived from Scandinavia. In 1497, Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot) discovered the rich fishing grounds in the area. Cabot planted the English flag on the northern Cape Breton shore in June of that year, despite the fact that there were already 25,000 native Micmac Indians in Nova Scotia at the time. It was the French, however, who established the first permanent European settlement at Port Royal in 1605 under the leadership of French explorer Pierre de Monts. French settlements throughout Nova Scotia, as well as parts of Québec, New Brunswick and Maine (together known by the Micmac name "Acadia"), continued to develop throughout the 1600s. In the early 1700s, though, the English challenged French ownership of the province. England claimed that King James I had granted the province to Sir William Alexander back in 1621. King James named Nova Scotia "the Royal Province," and granted it a royal coat-of-arms. Control of the region passed back and forth between the British and French until 1713, when all of Acadia was given up to the British under the Treaty of Utrecht.
For a century, the French-speaking Acadians in Nova Scotia prospered in their trade with the New England states while England and France continued their battle for the territory. Britain was outraged when some Acadians refused to swear their allegiance to the British Crown. In 1755, these Acadians were deported (or sent away) to Louisiana and Virginia, an event immortalized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "Evangeline."
Other Settlers Arrive
Germans and Yorkshiremen also formed settlements in Nova Scotia throughout the 1700s. Following the American Revolution, 25,000 Loyalists (colonists who sided with Great Britain during the war) arrived from the newly independent New England states. All of these Loyalists ended up doubling Nova Scotia's population, and in 1784, the area was partitioned to create the colonies of New Brunswick and Cape Breton Island. After the War of 1812, several thousand African Americans, including the Chesapeake Blacks, settled in the Halifax-Dartmouth area. Around the same time, the Highland Scots started to arrive; within 30 years 50,000 Highlanders settled on Cape Breton Island and in Pictou and Antigonish counties.
Tragedies Strike Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia was one of the four provinces that joined the Dominion of Canada in 1867. At that time, the province was a leader in international shipbuilding, the lumber industry, and fishing. The building of a railroad to Québec City opened the province to the interior of the continent. Economically, the region was doing very well: business was booming, and consumers were confident. But a series of accidents—some of which were related to the unpredictable weather in the Nova Scotia area—struck the province in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, bringing economic advancement to a screeching halt.
It began on 25 August 1873, when a hurricane—then called "the Great Nova Scotia Cyclone"—swept across Cape Breton Island, killing 500 people and destroying 1,200 sailing vessels and more than 900 buildings. The tragic consequences of the hurricane resulted in the implementation of a better storm warning system in Nova Scotia. On 21 February 1891, a coal mine explosion at Springhill in Cumberland County killed at least 125 miners. Just seven years later, Nova Scotia was hit by the "Great November 1898 Gale." The steamer Portland sank off the coast of Yarmouth, making it one of about 3,000 vessels lost between Nova Scotia and New Jersey that day. All passengers onboard were lost, and no firsthand accounts of the sinking exist, so mystery and legends continue to surround the Portland 's disappearance to this day. Fourteen years later, in 1912, another tragedy of unbelievable proportions struck Nova Scotia: the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic Ocean. Many officials in the capital city of Halifax played a central role in the rescue efforts and were involved in the identification and burial of the victims recovered from the ocean.
The port of Halifax played an important part in the Allied victory in World War I (1914–18). Halifax served as a major military port, sending supplies and troops across the Atlantic to Europe. During the war it was one of the world's busiest and congested ports. A 1917 collision between a French arms ship and a Belgian vessel highlighted the dangers of such congestion: the resulting explosion completely destroyed the north end of Halifax.
Economic Ups and Downs
Canada experienced losses of over 68,000 soldiers in World War I, and when the war was over, Nova Scotians faced a bleak future. Jobs were scarce and low-paying, and tariffs (taxes) on imports kept prices for consumer goods high. Over the course of the 1920s, though, Canada as a whole experienced a period of rapid industrialization. Improvements to railways and roads enabled commercial opportunities to flourish. Automobiles, telephones, electrical appliances, and other consumer goods became widely available. As in the United States, consumer confidence led to the rapid expansion of credit and greater business opportunities. In Nova Scotia, electric companies in particular were developing at a great rate in the 1920s. The leaders in the field at that time were Stiver's Falls Hydroelectric Plant, Paradise West Electric Light Company Limited, and Western Nova Scotia Electric Company.
But the good times were cut short with the onset of the Great Depression, a period of severe economic slowdown that began in 1929. The interior of Canada was hit particularly hard because the country relied so heavily on agriculture. Low grain prices, droughts, and frequent crop failures further devastated the national economy. Social welfare programs were rapidly expanded during the 1930s to help the poor and the unemployed throughout Canada.
World War II (1939–45) brought both the United States and Canada out of the Depression. Halifax became a major military port and saw heavy convoy traffic. The city was also a major military training centre. Almost 24,000 military personnel were stationed there by May of 1945. With the withdrawal of much of the army at the end of the war, Halifax branched out into nonmilitary industries. When the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge opened in 1955, the city experienced rapid expansion. The 1950s also brought advances in communication with broadcasting improvements at CBHT, Halifax's first television station.
In 1962, the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Canada's largest federal research centre for oceanography, was founded. But the 1960s also brought the demise of an important community in Halifax. In 1969, Africville, home to a number of black families for more than 100 years, was dismantled by the Halifax government. The plan to take the land away from its residents was met with opposition, but in the end the city won out and the community was wiped out.
The Citadel Historic Park in Halifax.
Canadian Tourism Commission photo.
Recent Years
Nova Scotia has seen other tragic events in more recent years. In May of 1992, the Westray coal mine in the village of Plymouth, Pictou County, exploded. Every miner working underground that day—26 in all—was killed. The mine never reopened. In September of 1998, tragedy struck again when Swissair Flight 111 crashed into the ocean off the Nova Scotia coast. There were no survivors. En route from New York to Geneva, Switzerland, the aircraft was attempting an emergency landing when it crashed near Peggy's Cove. The people of Nova Scotia played a key role in the recovery effort that followed.
On a happier note, the province of Nova Scotia became the center of international attention in 1995, when leaders from around the world gathered in Halifax for the 21st Summit of the "Group of Seven." In 1997, the 500th anniversary of John Cabot's voyage to Nova Scotia was commemorated with the reconstruction of the historic ship Matthew.
In 1999, a Canadian Supreme Court ruling declared that same-sex couples were entitled to the same benefits and obligations as opposite-sex couples in long-term relationships that the government recognizes as "common law" marriages. The Nova Scotia legislature later amended its civil code to mandate equal treatment for same-sex partners.
12 PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
The government of Nova Scotia consists of a 52-member elected House of Assembly and Lieutenant Governor who is the Queen's representative in the province. The lieutenant governor is appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the federal cabinet, acting on recommendation of the prime minister. The House of Assembly is elected by the people of Nova Scotia for a term of five years. It may be dissolved, however, at any time by the lieutenant governor on the advice of the premier of the province. Ministers of the Executive Council, or Cabinet, are selected by the premier from elected representatives of the majority party.
13 POLITICAL PARTIES
Political parties first appeared in Nova Scotia in the 1830s. The Liberal Party was in the minority from 1836 to 1867 and was primarily against entry into the confederation. After 1867, however, it became the majority party and held power until 1956 (with brief interruptions in 1878, 1925, and 1928). After 1956, the Conservative Party took the majority until the 1970s.
The last general election was held on 5 August 2003. The parties held the following number of seats in Nova Scotia's House of Assembly as of 2003 (after the election): Progressive Conservatives, 25; Liberals, 12; and New Democrats, 15.
Premiers of Nova Scotia
Term
Premier
Party
1867
Hiram Blanchard
Liberal
1867–75
William Annand
Anti-Confederation
1875–78
Philip Carteret Hill
Liberal
1878–82
Simon Hugh Holmes
Conservative
1882
John Sparrow David Thompson
Conservative
1882–84
William Thomas Pipes
Liberal
1884–96
William Stevens Fielding
Liberal
1896–1923
George Henry Murray
Liberal
1923–25
Ernest Howard Armstrong
Liberal
1925–30
Edgar Nelson Rhodes
Conservative
1930–33
Gordon Sydney Harrington
Conservative
1933–40
Angus Lewis MacDonald
Liberal
1940–45
Alexander Stirling MacMillan
Liberal
1945–54
Angus Lewis Macdonald
Liberal
1954
Harold Joseph Connolly
Liberal
1954–56
Henry Davies Hicks
Liberal
1956–67
Robert Lorne Stanfield
Conservative
1967–70
George Isaac Smith
Conservative
1970–78
Gerald Augustine Regan
Liberal
1978–90
John MacLennan Buchanan
Conservative
1990–91
Roger Stuart Bacon
Conservative
1991–93
Donald William Cameron
Conservative
1993–97
John Patrick Savage
Liberal
1997–99
Russell MacLellan
Liberal
1999–
Dr. John Hamm
Conservative
14 LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Nova Scotia consists of 18 counties, of which 12 are separate municipalities and the other 6 are each separated into two districts. The 24 rural municipalities contain 39 incorporated towns and 3 cities. Towns must have a population of at least 1,500 in an area of less than 640 acres (1 square mile). In total, there are 66 municipal units in Nova Scotia—cities, towns, and rural municipalities—which have local governments with powers to enact bylaws governing such matters as zoning and planning.
15 JUDICIAL SYSTEM
The Canadian Constitution grants provincial jurisdiction over the administration of justice, and allows each province to organize its own court system and police forces. The federal government has exclusive domain over cases involving trade and commerce, banking, bankruptcy, and criminal law. The Federal Court of Canada has both trial and appellate divisions for federal cases. The nine-judge Supreme Court of Canada is an appellate court that determines the constitutionality of both federal and provincial statutes. The Tax Court of Canada hears appeals of taxpayers against assessments by Revenue Canada.
The provincial court system consists of a Provincial Court, where most criminal matters are heard; the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, which is the highest trial court in Nova Scotia, hearing serious criminal and civil cases; and the Court of Appeal, the province's highest court, which hears appeals from the Provincial Court and the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. In addition to these three main courts, there is a family court, a small claims court, a bankruptcy court, and probate courts in each of Nova Scotia's districts, which deal with estates.
In 2002, there were 9 homicides in Nova Scotia. That year, there were 1,099 violent crimes per 100,000 persons, and 3,322 property crimes per 100,000 persons.
16 MIGRATION
The Micmac tribe inhabited Nova Scotia long before the first explorers arrived from Europe. In the 17th century, all of Nova Scotia (as well as parts of Québec, New Brunswick, and Maine, which made up an area known as Acadia) was settled by the French. In the next century, migration involved the forced deportations of Acadians (the descendants of the original French settlers) and their return, as well as an influx of British Loyalists from the American colonies following the American Revolution (1775–83). More recent immigrants to Nova Scotia in the 19th and 20th centuries included African, Asian and eastern European groups. International migration, on a net basis, has not made a significant contribution to population change since the 1960s.
In 2001, 26.1 percent of the 41,315 immigrants living in Nova Scotia had come from the United Kingdom, 19.5 percent from the United States, 15.3 percent from Northern and Western European countries other than the United Kingdom (mostly from Germany and the Netherlands), and 9.5 percent from West Central Asia and the Middle East. Many immigrants in recent years have come from Kuwait and India.
In 2001, 1.1 percent of Nova Scotia's residents age 5 and older were living abroad. Some 6.6 percent were living elsewhere in Nova Scotia, while 6.2 percent were living in another province. Ontario is the leading province of origin and destination for interprovincial migration.
17 ECONOMY
Nova Scotia's economy is highly diversified. It has expanded from resource-based employment in agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining to include many types of manufactured goods as well as business and personal services. In 2002, Nova Scotia's gross domestic product (GDP) totaled C $27.1 billion, or 2.3 percent of the national total.
18 INCOME
The highest average weekly wages are in the mining sector, followed by public administration, utilities, and goods-producing industries. The average family income was C $56,226 a year in 2000 for a family of five.
19 INDUSTRY
In 2001, the leading manufacturing industries in Nova Scotia according to the value of shipments were: food products (including the important fish processing sector), C $2.19 billion; pulp and paper products, C $1.07 billion; plastic and rubber products, C $1.07 billion; transportation equipment, C $665 million; wood products, C $481 million; fabricated metal products, C $225 million; and beverage and tobacco products, C $210 million. The value of manufactured shipments for Nova Scotia in 2002 was C $8.6 billion.
20 LABOR
In 2003, the total labor force was about 481,300 persons, of whom 434,600 were employed. There were 46,700 persons unemployed, for an unemployment rate of 9.7 percent. The hourly minimum wage as of January 2004 was C $6.25.
In 2003, the sectors with the largest numbers of employed persons were: trade, 72,900; health care and social services, 53,600; manufacturing, 46,400; educational services, 33,600; accommodation and food services, 29,400; public administration, 29,300; construction, 27,000; management, administrative, and other support, 23,800; transportation and warehousing, 20,700; finance, insurance, real estate and leasing, 19,700; professional, scientific, and technical services, 19,500; information, culture, and recreation, 19,200; other services, 18,500; forestry, fishing, mining, and oil and gas, 13,200; agriculture, 6,300; and utilities, 2,300.
21 AGRICULTURE
There were 3,923 farms in Nova Scotia in 2001. Total farm area was 1.01 million acres (407,046 hectares), with 294,602 acres (119,219 hectares) of land area under crops. Farm cash receipts in 2000 totaled C $460.4 million (excluding forest products sold). Farmers' operating expenses equaled C $388.7 million. The average farmer had C $17,933 before interest payments and taxes.
Nova Scotia has a highly specialized commercial agriculture sector dominated by horticultural crops. Export items include blueberries, apples, strawberries, processed fruits, vegetables, and juices. A wide variety of vegetables are produced, with potatoes the most important one. Other important vegetables are carrots, green or wax beans, and green peas. Pears and tobacco are also commercially grown. Hay is the most important field crop.
Greenhouse operations cover over 3 million square feet (282,472 square meters), and primarily produce vegetables, flowers, and ornamental shrubs. There were 23 farms producing organic products in 2001. Production of maple syrup has an annual value of approximately C $1 million.
22 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS
More than 2,300 farms raise cattle in Nova Scotia, but they provide only a quarter of the beef consumed in the province. In 2001, there were 108,401 cattle on provincial farms, 124,935 hogs, and 24,896 sheep. In 2003, livestock receipts amounted to C $277.4 million.
The poultry population in 2003 was 942,017. There were 81 chicken producers, 25 egg producers, and 21 turkey producers.
Fur products include ranch mink and fox and wild muskrat, mink, and beaver.
23 FISHING
Fishing resources, particularly cod, have been hit by dwindling stocks in recent years. As a result, quotas are affecting those who make their living from fishing. Products of the sea include shellfish, such as lobster, deep-sea crab, and scallops; groundfish, such as cod, haddock, and halibut; and estuarial species, such as herring and mackerel. Nova Scotia leads the provinces in total volume and value of commercial landings. Fish farm production centers primarily on salmon and steelhead. In 2003, a total of 143,465 tons of fish and shellfish, valued at C $1.2 billion, were exported from Nova Scotia.
In 2000, Nova Scotia had 56,110 resident anglers actively engaged in sport fishing within the province's waters.
24 FORESTRY
With 73.5 percent of the provincial land area covered by forest, forestry is of paramount importance to Nova Scotia. Total productive forest land in Nova Scotia exceeds 9.9 million acres (4 million hectares). Only 28 percent of this area is provincial Crown land, and a further 3 percent is under federal ownership; 69 percent of forest land is in the hands of a large number of private owners.
Predominant species include such softwoods as spruce, fir, and white pine, and such hardwoods as red maple, sugar maple, and yellow birch. In 2000, the total timber harvest was 218.9 million cubic feet (6.2 million cubic meters). Forest products take the form of pulp, newsprint paper, paperboard, hardboard, lumber, pulpwood, and Christmas trees. In 2000, forestry directly employed 11,700 persons.
Each year, Nova Scotia produces about 1.7 million Christmas trees, covering 28,617 acres (11,581 hectares).
25 MINING
In 2001, average weekly earnings in the mining industry in Nova Scotia were C $1,000 per week. This was one of the highest earning levels in the province. The earliest gypsum mining operations in Nova Scotia recorded by settlers date back to 1779. In 2002, Nova Scotia produced more than 83 percent of Canada's gypsum from quarries located in Cape Breton and central Nova Scotia. The principal markets for gypsum are the New England and south Atlantic states of the United States, where it is primarily used in the production of wallboard, with other markets in central Canada and many foreign countries. The province also has major deposits of salt and limestone. The estimated value
Lunenberg is Nova Scotia's premier fishing port.
Canadian Tourism Commission photo.
of mineral production for 2003 was C $260 million for the province. Other types of mining activity involve barite, crushed stone, horticultural peat, and sand and gravel.
26 ENERGY AND POWER
Canada's first coal mine began operating in 1720 on the north side of Cow Bay at Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Coal production was valued at C $53.6 million in 2001. The largest coal reserves are near Sydney. Substantial reserves of fuel-grade peat also exist in several southwestern counties.
Development of the Cohasset Panuke oilfield, to the southwest of Sable Island, began in 1990, with production starting in 1992. Substantial gas reserves have been discovered off the coast of Nova Scotia. The Sable Island natural gas project includes three fields—Thebauld, Venture, and North Triumph—but is expected to expand to six fields. The Sable project yielded 200 billion cubic feet of natural gas in 2002. The value of petroleum production in 2001 was C $150.7 million. The value of natural gas production in 2001 was C $972.1 million.
Nova Scotia Power Inc. (NSPI) is responsible for generating and distributing electricity. During the 1980s, NSPI adopted an operating plan based on conversion to coal generation from imported oil. By 1992 the dependence on oil-fired generation was cut to less than 25 percent. In December 2001, Nova Scotia released a new energy strategy. It was designed to allow for the gradual introduction of competition in the industry. The plan also called for the development of renewable energy sources, reduction of emissions, and the development of clean coal technologies.
The concept of using tides to generate electricity was first proposed in the late 1800s. With the opening of the Annapolis Tidal Generating Station at the mouth of the Annapolis River in 1984, this goal became a reality. It was built as a small-scale tidal project to test and evaluate the potential of the Straflo turbine for possible future use within a massive tidal project on the Minas Basin.
27 COMMERCE
In 2002, total merchandise exports in Nova Scotia amounted to C $5.34 billion and imports totaled C $5.14 billion. The United States is the major export market (81.5 percent of all exports), followed by Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and China. Germany is Nova Scotia's main import supplier (31.7 percent of all imports), followed by the United Kingdom, the United States, Norway, and Cuba.
More than half of Nova Scotia's exports consist of products of the forest and the sea. Exports of food products are largely in the form of fish, bakery, and dairy products, fruits and fruit preparations, fish meal, and feed. Fabricated materials—primarily paper and paper-board, wood pulp, industrial oils and chemicals, metals and metal-fabricated basic products, and wood-fabricated materials—are the next most significant group of goods exported.
28 PUBLIC FINANCE
The fiscal year runs from 1 April to 31 March. For fiscal year 2002/03, total revenues were estimated at C $5.36 billion; expenditures totaled C $5.34 billion. The largest expenditure areas were health, education, interest on debt, transportation and communication, social services, and resource development. In the 2003/04 fiscal year, provincial debt was estimated at C $11.7 billion. The debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio was 41 percent.
29 TAXATION
Taxation rates for provincial residents include a retail sales tax of 8 percent to cover most physician and hospital costs. Major consumption taxes are levied on gasoline ( C $0.155 per liter) and tobacco ( C $26.04 per carton). The basic personal income tax rate for Nova Scotia residents was 45.2 percent in 2003. The general corporation tax is 16 percent, and 5 percent for small businesses. The capital tax rate ranges from 0.25 to 3 percent.
The average family of four (two parents and two children) in 2003 earned C $71,269. Such a family paid C $33,123 in taxes.
30 HEALTH
The number of births in the province was 8,909 in 2001, a decrease of 2.3 percent from 2000. Deaths totaled 7,879, which was equal to the number of deaths in
Humpback whales near Brier Island. Many whales, dolphins, porpoises, and seals travel through the Bay of Fundy along Nova Scotia.
Canadian Tourism Commission photo.
2000. The decline in birth rates, which began in the early 1960s, has resulted in a shift in the age distribution of the population. Extended life expectancy has also contributed to an increasingly older population. Life expectancy for men in 2001 was 76.3 years, and 81.5 years for women. Reported cases of selected diseases in 2002 included campylobacteriosis, 201; giardiasis, 122; salmonellosis, 143; gonococcal infections, 199; and hepatitis B, 13. Between November 1985 and June 2003, 609 residents (includes Prince Edward Island) had become infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Hospitals and maternity wards are provided to communities throughout the province, with regional hospitals providing some of the more specialized requirements. Nova Scotia has over 50 hospitals and health centers. The Victoria General Hospital in Halifax is the overall referral hospital for the province and, in many instances, for the Atlantic Region. The Izaak Walton Killam Hospital provides similar regional specialization for children. Psychiatric facilities are available in Dartmouth and Sydney.
31 HOUSING
There were 360,020 households in Nova Scotia in 2001. The average household size was 2.5 persons. There were 246,440 households living in single-detached houses, 13,370 households living in apartments in buildings with five or more stories, 13,345 households living in mobile homes, and 86,875 households living in other dwellings, including row houses and apartments in buildings with fewer than five stories. In 2002, C $1.3 billion was invested in residential construction.
32 EDUCATION
Elementary and secondary schools offer free instruction from primary through grade 12. School attendance is compulsory from 6 to 16 years of age. During the 2000/01 academic year 161,530 students were enrolled in elementary, junior high, and senior high schools. In 1999/2000, there were 9,834 full-time elementary and secondary school teachers, with 15.3 students per teacher.
Eleven regional vocational schools, the Institute of Technology, the Adult Vocational Training Campuses in Dartmouth and Sydney, the Nautical Institute in Port Hawkesbury, and the College of Geographic Sciences in Lawrencetown have been integrated into the Nova Scotia Community College system, which enrolls nearly 4,000 full-time and 12,000 part-time students annually.
Halifax is the center for several universities, including Dalhousie, Saint Mary's, Mount Saint Vincent, King's College, and the Technical University of Nova Scotia. The Technical University provides bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering and architecture and a doctorate degree in engineering. Other facilities in the Halifax metro area include the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, the Atlantic School of Theology, and the Maritime School of Social Work. Other areas of the province are served by Université Ste. Anne at Church Point, Acadia University in Wolfville, St. Francis Xavier in Antigonish, and the University College of Cape Breton in Sydney. Other specialized facilities throughout the province include the Cox Institute of Agricultural Technology, the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, and the Nova Scotia Teachers College, all in Truro, and the Coast Guard College at Point Edward.
33 ARTS
The Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in Halifax is center stage for Symphony Nova Scotia and other musical and theatrical performances. The Neptune Theatre provides professional repertory theater in Halifax. Art galleries are found throughout the province, and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia has renovated a historic building for its new headquarters. The site is close to the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in downtown Halifax. In 2000/01, per capita provincial spending on the arts was C $64.
34 LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS
Public library services are provided by a number of regional library systems. The largest is the Halifax Regional Library, with 13 branch locations. The Nova Scotia Museum is a group of 25 museums, including Balmoral Grist Mill (Balmoral Mills); Barrington Woolen Mill (Barrington); Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History (both in Halifax); Ross Farm Museum (New Ross); Sherbrooke Village (Sherbrooke), and many more.
35 COMMUNICATIONS
All local telephone service in Nova Scotia is provided by Maritime Telegraph and Telephone, which is a private company. Long distance service is offered by both Maritime and other companies. Nova Scotia had 11 AM and 8 FM radio stations. Both Canadian Television (CTV) and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) operate television stations in Halifax and Sydney.
36 PRESS
Halifax has three daily newspapers: The Chronicle-Herald , The Mail-Star , and The Daily News . Other daily papers are published in Sydney, Amherst, Dartmouth, New Glasgow, and Truro.
37 TOURISM, TRAVEL, AND RECREATION
Recreational activities in Nova Scotia are often centered on the seacoast because of its proximity to most of the population. While the water is on the cool side along the Atlantic coast, the beaches on the Northumberland Strait enjoy some of the warmest waters north of the Gulf of Mexico. Kejimkujik National Park and Cape Breton Highlands National Park are administered by the federal government, while smaller provincial parks are located throughout the province.
Tourism is an important sector in the provincial economy. Total tourism receipts exceeded C $1.2 billion in 2001, and about 33,500 were employed in the many aspects of the industry. More than 2.14 million people visit the province each year, with about 16.7 percent of these coming from outside Canada.
Festivals, exhibitions, and various other celebrations throughout the province attract both residents and tourists. A few of the most notable events include the Annapolis Valley Apple Blossom Festival, the Antigonish Highland Games, the Nova Scotia Provincial Exhibition, the Joseph Howe Festival, the Nova Scotia Fisheries Exhibition and Fishermen's Reunion, and the Buskers Festival. Halifax is also host to the Nova Scotia International Tattoo (a military drill held outdoors to music) in late June.
38 SPORTS
Sailing, wind surfing, and canoeing are all enjoyed extensively throughout the province. In winter the lakes become a skater's paradise, and the hills and mountains of areas such as Martock, Cape Smokey, and Wentworth attract downhill skiers. Virtually all towns and many smaller communities have arenas, bowling alleys, gymnasiums, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, playing fields, and curling rinks (curling is a game imported from Scotland in which large rounded stones with attached handles are slid down an ice-covered playing area toward a circular target). Golf courses abound and are available within short distances of all communities.
Spectator sports are available in the major towns, with the Halifax Metro Centre Stadium attracting professional sporting and other touring entertainment events.
39 FAMOUS NOVA SCOTIANS
Nova Scotia was the birthplace of three Canadian prime ministers: Sir John Thompson (1845–94), Sir Charles Tupper (1821–1915), and Sir Robert Borden (1854–1937).
Famous Nova Scotian entertainers include actress Joanna Shimkus (b.1943) and singers Clarence Eugene "Hank" Snow (1914-99), Anne Murray (b.1945), and Carole Baker (b.1949).
Noted novelists born in Nova Scotia include Hugh MacLennan (1907–90), Alden Nowlen (1933–83), and Joan Clark (b.1934).
40 BIBLIOGRAPHY
LeVert, Suzanne. Nova Scotia . Philadelpha: Chelsea House, 2001.
Norman, Howard A. My Famous Evening: Nova Scotia Sojourns, Diaries, and Preoccupations. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2004.
Sorensen, Lynda. Canada: Provinces and Territories . Vero Beach, FL: Rourke Book Co., 1995.
Thompson, Alexa. Nova Scotia . Minneapolis: Lerner Publications, 1995.
Weihs, Jean. Facts about Canada, Its Provinces and Territories . New York: H. W. Wilson, 1995.
https://www.nfb.ca/history/1950-1959/ - Cached - Similar
On October 14, Parliament passed the National Film Act: “The Board is .... North, which won First Prize in the geographic category at the Venice Film Festival. .... Carries On (En avant Canada) featuring subjects such as the Nova Scotia coal crisis, ..... The parts of the film illustrating the history of Parliament were planned and ...
www.empr.gov.bc.ca/Mining/Geoscience/.../1604_1943tablesBC.pdf - Cached - Similar
In addition, the historical tables have been prefaced by a Chronological ... 160PDiscovei-y of iron and silver reported at St. Mary's Bay, Nova Scotia, by Master Simon, a mining engineer .... Iron Mask staked August 13 at Kamloops, B.C., by Geo. ..... 1940--January 15, Canada's first publicly offered war loan placed on market.
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SYMPATICO- A BRIEF HISTORY OF CANADA FROM 1600- 10,000 years ago we were ice
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Not to stand on the past, last week
prior to a special screening in town hall, Mayor Don Clarke spoke of
three new projects the community can get behind: the town’s part
ownership in a wind farm, a new library that will become the home for
the regional library system and a splash pad at Rainforth Park.
This post was originally done in honour of Canada’s 145th birthday on July 1st, 2012.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses
material from the Wikipedia
article "Vinland". 
Bannerman, James, An Excursion into Canada With Charles Dickens, "An Excursion into Canada With Charles Dickens," Maclean's Magazine, 5 Dec 1953, p. 28,29,41,42,44,45,46 ...An article about a visit of Charles Dickens in North America, published in Maclean's Magazine, December 15, 1953. In 1842 the novelist visited Niagara Falls and Queenston, among other places in Canada
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