Population and main cities:
The population of Nova Scotia included people of British, Irish, Scottish, German, Mi'kmaq and Acadian descent. The largest community was the city of Halifax; other major cities included Yarmouth and Truro. The largest city by population was Halifax with 19 850 people and the total population of Nova Scotia was 331 000. Ten percent of Nova Scotia was farmland and Halifax was capital of Nova Scotia as well as the center of Nova Scotia.
Main Industry:
The economy was based on the traditional industries of fishing, shipping and shipbuilding, agriculture and natural resource such as timber. However, the newer industries of manufacturing and the railway were beginning to make an appearance.
Type of Employment:
The major types of employment were fishermen, farmers, people working on the railway, publishers (Halifax had the oldest newspaper in all of Canada "The Halifax Gazette"), agriculture and people working in the forestry business.
Special Problems, Defence and Railways:
The people from Nova Scotia are worried about the new steamships taking all the business from the wooden ships that were made in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia felt safe and ready if there was an attack against them because they had lots of soldiers and sailors stationed in Nova Scotia. The citadel is a fortress of great strength overlooking the harbour and the city of Halifax. The people of Nova Scotia wanted a railway between Nova Scotia and Canada East and West so they can get across the large and easily and trade
Confederation
Between 1854 and 1864, the province of Canada was changing governments very often because of the political unrest and if the people of Nova Scotia joined Confederation, it would be easier to make all the important decisions. Many politicians in Canada West and Canada East agreed that creating a new country called Canada was the solution to this problem. This meant that Quebec would get its own provincial government to make important decisions. The government of Ottawa would make decisions for all the people of the new country. The leaders believed that a closer connection with the other colonies would help to make the economy stronger. William Alexander Henry wanted confederation and thought that there would be great benefit as free trade with the construction of the Intercolonial railway In order for their economies to do well, the colonies needed to be able to sell their gods to other markets. At this time, there were very few places that they could sell to. One solution was to bring all the colonies together. In this way they could more easily sell goods to each other and maybe even export some goods to other nations because together if they export a lot of goods it would cost them less then to export good little by little.
Nova Scotia is in favor of confederation.