Halifax, Nova Scotia, with the largest urban population in Atlantic Canada, is a major sporting centre.
Halifax, Nova Scotia, with the largest urban population in Atlantic Canada, is a major sporting centre.
The municipal and provincial governments maintain a network of public parks, sports fields, skating arenas, and other facilities throughout urban and rural areas of the municipality. Additionally, many schools in the Halifax Regional School Board and several universities make use of their gymnasiums and sports fields for community use outside of school programs. Ranging from walking trails and provincial parks to tennis courts, swimming pools, shooting ranges and artificial turf soccer fields, Halifax residents have access to virtually every type of sport facility, with organized leagues available throughout the area.
The Gaelic games of Hurling and Gaelic football, governed by the Gaelic Athletic Association, are played in Halifax. The local team is the Halifax Gaels. The team competes in the Eastern Canada GAA division. Beginners are actively encouraged.
HRM's plentiful sheltered lakes in the urban core of Dartmouth and Halifax provide private paddling clubs with some of the best race courses in Canada, in particular Lake Banook. Lake Banook and all the clubs on the lake hosted World Senior Canoe Kayak Championships in 1997, 2009 and 2023.
The Armdale Yacht Club, Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, Dartmouth Yacht Club and Bedford Yacht Club provide organized sailing competitions on a daily or weekly basis throughout the summer sailing season. St. Margarets Bay in the western part of the municipality, along with areas of the Eastern Shore, provide additional support to sailing sport enthusiasts.
The city hosts two of the four 50 metre swimming pools in Atlantic Canada: Centennial Pool, built for the 1969 Canada Games, and the pool at Dalhousie University. [1] Smaller 25-metre pools exist at the Dartmouth Sportsplex, the Canada Games Centre, Cole Harbour Place, Captain William Spry Centre, Stadplex, Sackville Sports Stadium, the Waegwoltic Club, and the Shearwater Fitness and Sports Centre. There are also several smaller public pools of about 20 metres length.
The YMCA in the Spring Garden district is being rebuilt and will include a 25-metre competition pool. The facility is set to open in 2017 or 2018. [2]
Several lakes in the city are popular places for swimming in the summer. The city posts lifeguards to the most popular lakes. [3]
Dalhousie University, St. Mary's University and Mount St. Vincent University all field varsity and intramural teams for sports, enjoyed by members of the public and university communities.
The Saint Mary's Huskies Canadian Interuniversity Sport football team is a popular draw, and play their games at Huskies Stadium. Both Dalhousie and St. Mary's field ice hockey and soccer teams have a fierce rivalry.
Hockey teams are the most popular sports draw in Halifax. The Scotiabank Centre is home to the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League's Halifax Mooseheads, who usually lead the league in attendance. The Dartmouth Sportsplex hosts the Metro Marauders Junior-A team.
The Halifax Wanderers are a professional soccer team playing in the Canadian Premier League.
On August 24, 2006 it was announced Halifax would receive an American Basketball Association team. The team was known as the Rainmen. After one year in the ABA, the Rainmen left the league and joined the Premier Basketball League. From 2011 they played in the National Basketball League of Canada until declaring bankruptcy and folding in July 2015. [4] The Rainmen were replaced in late 2015 by the Halifax Hurricanes, based in the Scotiabank Centre.
Rumours of a Canadian Football League team have circulated for decades[ clarification needed ], with one team, the Atlantic Schooners, existing only on paper. The Halifax Regional Municipality has considered lobbying to have a CFL team located in the area, though the proposal has never been formally endorsed by the municipal or provincial governments[ citation needed ]. Huskies Stadium hosted Touchdown Atlantic, a CFL exhibition game, in 2005, and planned to host another in 2006, but the suspension of one of the scheduled teams forced the cancellation of the game.
The Nova Scotia Keltics play in the Rugby Canada Super League.
On September 13, 2018 the National Lacrosse League announced it would be expanding into Halifax for the 2019-20 season.
Halifax will have its first women's professional soccer team in 2025 when Halifax Tides FC of the Northern Super League begins play.
The city has hosted the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in 1997 and 2009 (both listed as Dartmouth) and will do so in 2022.
HRM has hosted the World Junior Hockey Championships, as well as the Brier and Tournament of Hearts curling championships.
HRM was selected to host the 2007 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship in May, 2007. National teams from Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Iroquois Nation, Scotland, and the United States participated. Canada defeated the Iroquois Nation in the final by a score of 21-4.
The inaugural World Indoor Lacrosse Championship were held in Hamilton, Kitchener, Mississauga, and Oshawa, Ontario, Canada in May, 2003. The World Indoor Lacrosse Championship is an International Lacrosse Federation-sanctioned event.
Halifax also co-hosted the 2008 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships with Quebec City.
In 2015, Halifax hosted the Eastern Canada GAA finals. Teams will compete in Hurling and Gaelic Football. Teams from Quebec, Newfoundland, Ontario and Nova Scotia will be competing. The Halifax Gaels will be hosting the event.
In 1969, the then cities of Halifax and Dartmouth hosted the first edition of the Canada Summer Games. In preparation for the games the cities built a range of new sports venues, including a softball facility, the paddling course at Lake Banook, and the first Olympic-size swimming pool in Atlantic Canada, the Centennial Pool. [5]
In February 2011, the city hosted the 2011 Canada Winter Games. Several new facilities were built for the games, including the Canada Games Centre and the Emera Oval. The skating oval, originally intended to be temporary, proved very popular with the public and was made a permanent fixture on the Halifax Common. [6]
Halifax was selected as the Canadian bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, beating other Canadian municipalities such as Hamilton, Ontario, York Regional Municipality, Ontario, and Ottawa, Ontario. [7]
The estimated costs for the games in Halifax were projected at C$800 million, to which the federal government committed $400 million in the fall of 2006. Leaked information projected these costs could escalate to $1.6 billion as the bid committee prepared for submitting the final bid information in May 2007 to the Commonwealth Games Federation. [8]
A major cost was projected to be the construction of a 50,000 seat stadium and sports complex, including an athlete's village, on former Department of National Defence property at Shannon Park on the Dartmouth waterfront. Officials had estimated these facilities would cost $163 million alone. Shannon Park was chosen as the most suitable location since it is situated on the Halifax Harbour where proposed high speed ferries could connect to other parts of Bedford Basin and the downtown central business district, as well as being situated astride several major highways and a rail line.
On March 8, 2007 the provincial and municipal governments issued a joint statement withdrawing Halifax from the bidding process for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, citing the projected costs to public finances and lack of available funding. [8]
Halifax's withdrawal left two remaining bids under consideration: Abuja, Nigeria and Glasgow, United Kingdom. The Commonwealth Games Federation announced at a meeting in Sri Lanka on November 9, 2007 that Glasgow would host the 2014 Games.
Dartmouth is a built-up community of Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. Located on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour, Dartmouth has 72,139 residents as of 2021.
Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2023, it is estimated that the population of the Halifax CMA was 518,711, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The regional municipality consists of four former municipalities that were amalgamated in 1996: Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford, and Halifax County.
The Atlantic Schooners were a conditional Canadian Football League (CFL) expansion team that was to begin play in 1984 in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. However, team ownership could not secure funding for a stadium and the franchise application was withdrawn 13 months after it had been submitted.The Atlantic Schooners name was revived in 2018 as the name of a proposed CFL expansion team.
The Zatzman Sportsplex is an indoor sports and community centre in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, opened 1982 and known as the Dartmouth Sportsplex until 2019. It houses an arena, a gymnasium, two swimming pools, and other fitness, leisure and events facilities. It is managed by the Dartmouth Sportsplex Community Association, a non-profit organization which runs the facility on behalf of the Halifax Regional Council.
The Halifax Peninsula is a peninsula within the urban area of the Municipality of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Lake Banook is a freshwater lake located in Dartmouth within the Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is home to three sprint canoe and kayak clubs, two rowing clubs, and a dragon boat club. It also has a claim to be the birthplace of ice hockey.
The Shubenacadie Canal is a canal in central Nova Scotia, Canada. It links Halifax Harbour with the Bay of Fundy by way of the Shubenacadie River and Shubenacadie Grand Lake. Begun in 1826, it was not completed until 1861 and was closed in 1871. Currently small craft use the river and lakes, but only one lock is operational. Three of the nine locks have been restored to preserve their unique fusion of British and North American construction techniques. More extensive restoration is planned.
Sullivan's Pond is an artificial lake and recreation area located in Dartmouth in Halifax Regional Municipality. It formed part of the Shubenacadie Canal.
Mic Mac Amateur Aquatic Club (MMAAC) is located on Lake Banook in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. This organization provides structured recreational and competitive paddling, rowing, dragon boat, and swimming programs to the local community ages 6+. Summer day camp programs are also offered for kids ages 6-12.
Musquodoboit Harbour is a rural community located in Nova Scotia, Canada within the Halifax Regional Municipality. The community is situated on the Eastern Shore at the mouth of the Musquodoboit River. The community lies 45 kilometres east of downtown Halifax. With a hospital, RCMP detachment, postal outlet, schools, recreational center, library, municipal office and other services, Musquodoboit Harbour is a serve centre for many of the surrounding communities.
The Halifax Rainmen were a professional basketball team based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. They played in the Atlantic Division of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL) and their home games took place at the Scotiabank Centre, formerly known as the Halifax Metro Centre. Andre Levingston was the owner of the Rainmen since he helped establish the team in 2006. The team played their first season in the American Basketball Association (ABA). However, after becoming unhappy with the ABA, they moved to the Premier Basketball League (PBL) for the next three seasons. In 2011, they joined the NBL Canada as one of the original seven teams. Despite showing success in the four seasons they spent in the Canadian league, making two Finals appearances, the Rainmen filed for bankruptcy in July 2015. The team was coming off a controversial loss in the 2015 NBL Canada Finals against the Windsor Express and forfeited Game 7 after taking part in a pre-game brawl. The Halifax Hurricanes, with a larger ownership group than the Rainmen's single owner, replaced the Rainmen in NBL Canada for the 2015–16 season.
The 2009 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships were held 12–16 August 2009 in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, on Lake Banook. The competition was organized by the International Canoe Federation (ICF). The Canadian city was selected to host the championships in October 2003 after having done so previously in 1997. Final preparations were made after the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, with competition format changed for the first time since the 2001 championships. Four exhibition events for both paddleability and women's canoe were added. Sponsorship was local within the province of Nova Scotia and the Halifax Regional Municipality. Media coverage was provided from Canada, Europe and the United States on the Internet, television and mobile phone. 669 canoeists from 68 nations participated at the championships themselves.
Don Brien is a Canadian sprint canoer, who competed in the mid to late 1980s. He won a bronze medal with partner Colin Shaw in the K-2 1000 m at the 1985 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships at Mechelen.
Julia (Rivard) Dexter is a Canadian sprint canoer who competed in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Rivard and her teammates finished ninth in the K-4 500 m event at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. She has since become an entrepreneur in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has held several positions in Canadian Olympic sports, Government Stewardship and the Arts and Culture community.
Mihai Apostol is a Canadian sprint canoer who competed from the early-1990s to the early 2000s. Apostol was born in Romania, but defected to Canada with two teammates while attending the 1989 world junior paddling championship in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He was 18 years old at the time. After defecting, Apostol took up residence in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and adapted well to life in Canada by making the Canadian National Kayak team in 1991 and moving from Halifax to Vancouver to join the rest of the team. In Vancouver, supporting himself and without the financial help that most of his teammates received from their families, Mihai worked part-time while attending college and trained full-time with the National Team.
The National Basketball League of Canada was a Canadian professional men's minor league basketball organization. The NBL Canada was founded in 2011, when three existing Premier Basketball League teams joined with four new franchises for the league's inaugural season. The league changed in size multiple times and had four active teams in its final season, all in Ontario, but historically the NBLC had several located in the Atlantic provinces. The league's season typically ran from November to April of the following year. The final league champions were the London Lightning, who defeated the Windsor Express 3–2 in the 2023 NBL Finals.
The Nova Scotia Senior Lacrosse League(NSSLL) is a Senior B box lacrosse league based in Nova Scotia. NSSLL is sanctioned by Lacrosse Nova Scotia.
The Halifax Hurricanes were a Canadian professional basketball team based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The Hurricanes were founded as members of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBLC) to replace the Halifax Rainmen, who filed for bankruptcy in July 2015 ultimately leading to the club folding. In 2021, the organization left the NBLC.
Schooners Sports and Entertainment is a sports ownership group that was previously in negotiations with the Canadian Football League (CFL) for an expansion team that was expected to begin play sometime in the 2020s as the Atlantic Schooners. Had the team taken the field, it might have begun playing in Moncton, New Brunswick, before moving into a new stadium in the Dartmouth community of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The prospective team had the same name as a conditional CFL franchise that was granted by the league in 1982 only to fold the following year without playing a game. As with the original Schooners franchise, the most significant impediment to this application was the inability to secure funding for a new stadium. On March 15, 2023, TSN reporter Dave Naylor revealed that Schooner Sports and Entertainment (SSE) "is no longer involved in pursuing a team for Atlantic Canada".
The 2023 North American Indigenous Games are being held in Halifax, Nova Scotia from July 16 to 23, featuring 5000 athletes from 756 Indigenous nations competing in 16 sports across 21 venues, who will also share and celebrate their cultures.
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