Atlantic Canada | |
---|---|
Country | Canada |
Composition | |
Most populous municipality | Halifax |
Area | |
• Total | 488,000 km2 (188,000 sq mi) |
Population (2021) | |
• Total | 2,409,874 |
• Density | 4/km2 (10/sq mi) |
Time zones | |
The Maritimes and Labrador | UTC-4:00 (AST) |
Newfoundland | UTC-3:30 (NST) |
Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (French : provinces de l'Atlantique), is the region of Eastern Canada comprising four provinces: New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. As of 2021, the landmass of the four Atlantic provinces was approximately 488,000 km2 (188,000 sq mi), and had a population of over 2.4 million people. The term Atlantic Canada was popularized following the admission of Newfoundland as a Canadian province in 1949. The province of Newfoundland and Labrador is not included in the Maritimes, another significant regional term, but is included in Atlantic Canada.
The Atlantic Provinces are the historical territories of the Mi'kmaq, [1] Naskapi, [2] Beothuk [3] [4] and Nunatsiavut [5] [6] peoples. The people of Nunatsiavut are the Labrador Inuit (Labradormiut), who are descended from the Thule people. [6] [7]
Leif Erikson and other members of his family began exploring the North American coast in 986 CE. [8] [9] Leif landed in three places, and in the third established a small settlement called Vinland. [10] [11] The location of Vinland is uncertain, [12] but an archaeological site on the northern tip of Newfoundland at L'Anse aux Meadows [13] has been identified as a good candidate. [14] [15] It was a modest Viking settlement and is the oldest confirmed presence of Europeans in North America. [11] [16] The Vikings would make brief excursions to North America for the next 200 years, though further attempts at colonization were thwarted. [11] The site produced the first evidence of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact of Europeans with the Americas outside of Greenland. [16] [17]
Acadia, a colony of New France, was established in areas of present-day Atlantic Canada in 1604, under the leadership of Samuel de Champlain and Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons. [18] The French would form alliances with many indigenous groups within Atlantic Canada, including the Mi'kmaq of Acadia, who joined the Wabanaki Confederacy, important allies to New France. [19]
Competition for control of the island of Newfoundland and its waters contributed to major ongoing conflicts and occasional wars between France and Britain. [20] The first major agreement between the two powers over access to this coastline came with the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, [21] giving Britain governance over the entire island and establishing the first French Shore, [22] [23] giving France and its migratory fishery almost exclusive access to a substantial stretch of the island's coastline. [24] [25] Despite reoccurring wars and conflicts the Britain acquiesced to France's demands for continuing access to this fishery. [21] Between 1755 and 1764 during the Seven Years' War the British forcibly removed thousands of Acadians from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in an event known as the Great Expulsion or Le Grand Dérangement. [25] [26] Following the Seven Years War and the Treaty of Paris of 1763, Newfoundland's governor, Admiral Hugh Palliser, consolidated British control by carrying out the first systematic hydrographic charting of the island, [27] including the Bay of Islands and Humber Arm, much of it by the Royal Naval officer James Cook. [20] [28] [29]
After the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1764 some of the Acadians returned and settled in the area that would become New Brunswick. [31] The effect of this migration can still be seen today as the province of New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province in Canada with over a quarter of residents speaking French at home. [32] [33] [34]
After the conclusion of the American Revolution with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 many loyalists from the United States settled in the region. [35] [36] This influx of immigrants caused the partition of Nova Scotia creating New Brunswick. [37] [38] Additionally these immigrants changed the culture and character of the region which had historically been French towards more British styled communities. [39] [40] It also marked one of the first large waves of migration to the area that established a predominantly Anglo-Canadian population. [36] [41] [42] Some of the new settlers brought with them Black slaves. [43] [44] Also 3,000 Black loyalists who were slaves during the war and who sided with the British were given freedom and evacuated with other Loyalists from New York to Nova Scotia. [45] [46] Most of the free Blacks settled at Birchtown, [47] the most prominent Black township in North America at the time. [48] [49]
The War of 1812 significantly impacted the provinces of Atlantic Canada where they played crucial roles in naval operations, privateering, [50] and as strategic support bases for the British war effort against the United States. [51]
In the last half of the 19th century the region's population grew due to the immigration from Ireland due to the great potato famine. [52] [53] Saint John and Halifax, both port cities, particularly received a significant influx of Irish immigrants within the region, [54] with Saint John's quarantine station on Partridge Island being the second-busiest in British North America during the epidemic typhus outbreak. [55]
The first premier of Newfoundland, Joey Smallwood, coined the term "Atlantic Canada" when the Dominion of Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949. [56] He believed that it would have been presumptuous for Newfoundland to assume that it could include itself within the existing term "Maritime provinces," which was used to describe the cultural similarities shared by New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. [57] [58] [59] The other provinces of Atlantic Canada entered Confederation during the 19th century with New Brunswick and Nova Scotia being founding members of the Dominion of Canada in 1867, [56] [60] and later Prince Edward Island joined in 1873. [56] [59] [61]
Atlantic Canada is characterized by its rugged coastlines, gravel beaches, rugged mountains, and dense forests. [62] [31] Bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, [63] and Quebec to the west. [64] The region shares two international borders one with the United States and its State of Maine [62] and another off the coast of Newfoundland with France and its overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. [65] [66] The region's maritime environment has profoundly influenced the region's climate, culture, and economy. [62] [67] The area encompasses a mix of urban centers like Halifax and St. John's and rural communities that rely on fishing, and tourism. [62] [68]
Although Quebec has a physical Atlantic coast on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, [69] [70] it is generally not considered an Atlantic Province; [71] [72] [73] instead, it is classified as part of Central Canada, along with Ontario. [74] [75]
Atlantic and Central Canada together are also known as Eastern Canada. [62] [76] Atlantic Canada includes a section of the Appalachian Mountains known as the Appalachian Uplands. [62] [77] In each Atlantic province, Upland regions have been divided into three highland areas. The mountain range results in coastal regions being fjorded. [78] [79] Some areas contain glaciofluvial deposits. [80] [81] [82]
Atlantic Canada's primary industries are natural resource extraction and power generation including fishing, [83] hydroelectricity, [84] wind power, [85] forestry, [86] oil, [87] [88] and mining. [35] [62] [89]
The Atlantic provinces contribute a significant part of Canada's fish production, [90] [91] with many coastal communities primarily dependent on fisheries. [92] Over half of all ocean related jobs in Canada are found in Atlantic Canada with 75% of the ocean economy centered in its provinces. [93] The access point for many of such fisheries being the Gulf of St. Lawrence [94] and the Atlantic continental shelf. [95] [96] Due to the collapse of the Atlantic northwest cod fishery Canada imposed a moratorium of cod fishing in 1992. [97] [98] This affected the region significantly and caused the loss of between 30,000 and 50,000 jobs in the region which was the largest single layoff in Canadian history. [99] [100]
Additionally the region is host to parts of Canada's eastern boreal forests which were historically used for timber production and boat production. [101] [102] [103]
Labrador hosts the second largest hydroelectric system in Canada at Churchill Falls where it produces 35,000 GWh of power each year. [104] [105] Elsewhere in the region wind power and hydrogen generation have begun to make a large impact on the energy landscape including exporting energy to Canada and hydrogen overseas. [106] [107] [108]
The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is the official agency responsible for creating economic opportunities within Atlantic Canada. [109] [110]
Nova Scotia has historically been an exporter of gypsum and now produces over 60% of the gypsum in Canada. [35] [111] [112] Salt and iron is also mined in the Atlantic provinces.
This article incorporates text by John Douglas Belshaw available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
This article incorporates text by Rainer Baehre available under the CC BY 3.0 license.
The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Canada's population. Together with Canada's easternmost province, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Maritime provinces make up the region of Atlantic Canada.
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of 405,212 km2 (156,453 sq mi). As of 2024 the population of Newfoundland and Labrador was estimated to be 545,247. The island of Newfoundland is home to around 94 per cent of the province's population, with more than half residing in the Avalon Peninsula. Labrador has a land border with both the province of Quebec, as well as a short border with the territory of Nunavut on Killiniq Island. The French overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon lies about 20 km (12 mi) west of the Burin Peninsula.
Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North America—New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Province of Canada —united to form a federation, becoming a fully independent country over the next century. Over its history, Canada's international borders have changed several times as it has added territories and provinces, making it the world's second-largest country by area.
Canadian Confederation was the process by which three British North American provinces—the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick—were united into one federation, called the Dominion of Canada, on July 1, 1867. This process occurred in accordance with the rising tide of Canadian nationalism that was then beginning to swell within these provinces and others. Upon Confederation, Canada consisted of four provinces: Ontario and Quebec, which had been split out from the Province of Canada, and the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The province of Prince Edward Island, which had hosted the first meeting to consider Confederation, the Charlottetown Conference, did not join Confederation until 1873. Over the years since Confederation, Canada has seen numerous territorial changes and expansions, resulting in the current number of ten provinces and three territories.
United Empire Loyalist is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester, the Governor of Quebec and Governor General of the Canadas, to American Loyalists who resettled in British North America during or after the American Revolution. At that time, the demonym Canadian or Canadien was used by the descendants of New France settlers inhabiting the Province of Quebec.
The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a series of underwater plateaus south-east of the island of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. The Grand Banks are one of the world's richest fishing grounds, supporting Atlantic cod, swordfish, haddock and capelin, as well as shellfish, seabirds and sea mammals.
The music of Canada's Maritime provinces has included many artists from both the traditional and pop genres, and is mostly European in origin. The traditional genre is dominated by the music brought to the region by the European settlers, the most well known of which are the Scots & Irish celtic and Acadian traditions. Successful pop acts from all genres have had degrees of national and international success since the beginning of recorded music period. Performers as diverse as Hank Snow, Stan Rogers, Anne Murray, the Rankin Family, Barachois, The Men of the Deeps and April Wine have all experienced tremendous success as popular music acts with considerable national and international tours and record sales.
Maritime Union is a proposed political union of the three Maritime provinces of Canada – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island – to form a single new province.
Eastern Canada is generally considered to be the region of Canada south of Hudson Bay/Hudson Strait and east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces : Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario.
Boyd's Cove, also known as Boyd's Harbour, is a local service district and designated place in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador that is near Lewisporte. There is an interpretive centre dedicated to the earlier indigenous Beothuk settlement at this location.
Starting with the 1763 Treaty of Paris, New France, of which the colony of Canada was a part, formally became a part of the British Empire. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 enlarged the colony of Canada under the name of the Province of Quebec, which with the Constitutional Act 1791 became known as the Canadas. With the Act of Union 1840, Upper and Lower Canada were joined to become the United Province of Canada.
Atlantic Canadian English is a class of Canadian English dialects spoken in Atlantic Canada that is notably distinct from Standard Canadian English. It is composed of Maritime English and Newfoundland English. It was mostly influenced by British and Irish English, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, and some Acadian French. Atlantic Canada is the easternmost region of Canada, comprising four provinces located on the Atlantic coast: Newfoundland and Labrador, plus the three Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Regions such as Miramichi and Cape Breton have a wide variety of phrases and words not spoken outside of their respective regions.
The history of New Brunswick covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day New Brunswick were inhabited for millennia by the several First Nations groups, most notably the Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, and the Passamaquoddy.
The history of Nova Scotia covers a period from thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day Nova Scotia were inhabited by the Mi'kmaq people. During the first 150 years of European settlement, the region was claimed by France and a colony formed, primarily made up of Catholic Acadians and Mi'kmaq. This time period involved six wars in which the Mi'kmaq along with the French and some Acadians resisted British control of the region: the French and Indian Wars, Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War. During Father Le Loutre's War, the capital was moved from Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, to the newly established Halifax, Nova Scotia (1749). The warfare ended with the Burying the Hatchet ceremony (1761). After the colonial wars, New England Planters and Foreign Protestants immigrated to Nova Scotia. After the American Revolution, Loyalists immigrated to the colony. During the nineteenth century, Nova Scotia became self-governing in 1848 and joined the Canadian Confederation in 1867.
British Canadians primarily refers to Canadians who were either born in or can trace their ancestry to the British Isles, which includes the nations of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Newfoundland is a large island within the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is situated off the eastern coast of the North American mainland and the geographical region of Labrador.
A number of states and polities formerly claimed colonies and territories in Canada prior to the evolution of the current provinces and territories under the federal system. North America prior to colonization was occupied by a variety of indigenous groups consisting of band societies typical of the sparsely populated North, to loose confederacies made up of numerous hunting bands from a variety of ethnic groups, to more structured confederacies of sedentary farming villages, to stratified hereditary structures centred on a fishing economy. The colonization of Canada by Europeans began in the 10th century, when Norsemen explored and, ultimately unsuccessfully, attempted to settle areas of the northeastern fringes of North America. Early permanent European settlements in what is now Canada included the late 16th and 17th century French colonies of Acadia and Canada, the English colonies of Newfoundland (island) and Rupert's Land, the Scottish colonies of Nova Scotia and Port Royal.
This is a bibliography of works on the Provinces and territories of Canada.
The Atlantic Bubble was a special travel-restricted area created on July 3, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. The area was an agreement between the four Atlantic Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador which allowed unrestricted travel among provincial residents and restricted travel from Canadians who were residents of outside provinces. Residents wishing to travel to the Atlantic Bubble were subjected to screening and were required to quarantine for 14 days before moving freely throughout the bubble. Individual provinces had specific rules toward travellers from outside of Atlantic Canada. The provinces in the bubble saw the lowest numbers of COVID-19 compared to other Canadian provinces throughout the pandemic.
The border between the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and the province of Quebec is the longest interprovincial border in Canada. It stretches for more than 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi) on land, and, according to both provincial governments, also contains a maritime part. Starting from the north, the border follows the Laurentian Divide on the Labrador Peninsula for the majority of the border's length, then follows the divide between the Côte-Nord-Gaspé and Newfoundland-Labrador drainage basins as far as Brûlé Lake, after which it goes along the Romaine River downstream to the 52nd parallel, which it follows east to its southeastern terminus at Blanc-Sablon.
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