Welcome to the Maritimes!

Normally I use this blog as an opportunity to share a situation and/or story from my life, highlighting a lesson that it has helped me to learn - this week I would like to teach a lesson. Recently, I went to watch the movie Traitor and during it a few law enforcement agents were sent to Halifax, Nova Scotia. As there plane landed, and they were unloading, they lamented that they had been sent to the ass end of Canada. I am here today to let you know that there is something farther East than Toronto and that we are more than just the ass end of the country.

The Maritimes are a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: (1) New Brunswick, (2) Nova Scotia and (3) Prince Edward Island. The modern Province of Newfoundland and Labrador is often mistakenly identified as a Maritime province: it is properly part of Atlantic Canada (with the other three provinces) and thus referred to as an Atlantic province.

New Brunswick is one of Canada’s three Maritimes provinces and is the only constitutionally bilingual province (French and English) in the federation. The provincial capital is Fredericton.

Five Fun Facts:

1. The world's biggest lobster also calls New Brunswick home. He is 10.5 meters long and 4.5 meters high and weighs 90 tons.
2. The world's largest axe is located in New Brunswick. It stands 15 meters high.
3. The first chocolate bar was also invented in New Brunswick by Arthur Ganong.
4. Sibian Cymbals are manufactured in New Brunswick. Drummers for Eric Clapton, Phil Collins and Billy Joel as well as percussionists with the Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Cleveland and New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestras all use Sibian Cymbals.
5. Saint John has the steepest main street in all of Canada. Over the distance of 2 city blocks, the street rises 80 feet - that's roughly the height of an 80-storey building!
   

Nova Scotia is Canada's second smallest province in area (after Prince Edward Island). It is located on Canada’s southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. Its capital Halifax is a major economic centre of the region. Nowhere in Nova Scotia is more than 67 km (40 mi) from the ocean. Cape Breton Island, a large island to the northeast of the Nova Scotia mainland, is also part of the province, as is Sable Island, a small island notorious for its shipwrecks.

Five Fun Facts:

1. Nova Scotia has the most degree-granting institutions in Canada with 11 universities and 13 community college campuses. It boasts the highest number of universities per capita and the highest participation rates in post-secondary education in Canada.
2. Stewiacke, a town in Nova Scotia is famous for being located exactly halfway between the North Pole and Equator.
3. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, is buried in Nova Scotia.
4. Halifax is the capitol and also the largest city in Nova Scotia. A person from Halifax would be called a Haligonian.
5. Halifax is home to one of North America’s top ten medical centers, the IWK Children's Hospital.
   

Prince Edward (PEI) is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name. The Maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population (excluding the territories).

Five Fun Facts:

1. The Confederation Bridge connects PEI to New Brunswick. It was completed in 1997 and is the world’s longest bridge over freezing waters.
2. Jacques Cartier landed in 1534 and described PEI as "the most beautiful stretch of land imaginable."
3. Approximately 15% of electricity used on PEI is generated from renewable resources, predominately wind.
4. PEI is the setting of Lucy Maud Montgomery's book, Anne of Green Gables. She also wrote the Island Hymn.
5. PEI's famous red soil gets its color from the high iron content which oxidizes when exposed to the air.

So the next time that you hear the Maritimes described as the ass end of Canada think about this quote from Alexander Graham Bell, ‘I have travelled around the globe. I have seen the Canadian Rockies, the American Rockies, the Andes and the Alps and the Highlands of Scotland; but for simple beauty, Cape Breton outrivals them all.’