by Max Beaton

Created on: July 09, 2007   Last Updated: January 02, 2008

Ciad Mille Failte
(One Hundred Thousand Welcomes)

Whether you arrive by air at Halifax International airport, by sea through its many ports or by road from other parts of Canada and the United States, a hundred thousand welcomes await you in Canada's ocean playground, Nova Scotia. Chances are that you will be welcomed by a piper adorned in the blue, yellow, red and green Nova Scotia Tartan, the only recognized and registered regional tartan outside Scotland. Then again, you may be greeted by one of the many Town Criers who stroll through the cities, towns and villages dressed in authentic old English garb.

Driving at a leisurely 70 km an hour, you can travel the 955 km from Yarmouth in the south to the tip of Cape Breton Island in about 15 hours. With a population of just over one million there are plenty of open spaces and enough lakes and steams to make the ardent fisherman think he has died and gone to heaven. The Dartmouth side of Halifax harbour boasts twenty-one lakes within its boundaries.

Nova Scotia revels in its cultural diversity from the original First Nation inhabitants to French, English, Scottish, German, Indian and a host of 70 different cultural groups. The French arrived in 1604 and named the area Acadia. The colony changed hands between the French and English no fewer than seven times. In 1621 the Scots arrived and, under charter of King James, the territory was renamed Nova Scotia or New Scotland. During the American Revolution, thousands of United Empire Loyalists arrived, as did many hundreds of African Americans. At one time, Nova Scotia hosted over fifty percent of the total African Canadian population.

As one of the four founding provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia is rich in history. Port Royal (founded by Champlain in 1604) was the first permanent European settlement in Canada. Champlain's Order of Good Cheer was the first social club in Canada. Nova Scotia is also the home to Canada's first school, first coal mine and first protestant church (St Paul's in Halifax was erected in 1750 and is still used for services). The first airplane flight in the British Empire (The Silver Dart) took off from Badeck in 1909 and Nova Scotia gave Canada its first representative government and its first newspaper.

Heritage and progress go hand in hand in the seaside province. The Historic Properties site on the shore of Halifax Harbour hosts centuries old houses and warehouses that have been lovingly restored and turned into an upbeat shopping, dining and entertainment
centre

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