Nova Scotian Facts and Trivia...

• Nova Scotia - claimed by John Cabot in 1497 is Britain's only colony named in Latin (New Scotland) by James I of England, VI of Scotland, in 1621.

• Acadia (Acadie - France - 1500's) - meaning "land of beauty" in Ancient Greece (Arcadia), similar meaning in Mi'kmaq.

• The Official Welcome: "Ciad Mile Failte" - (Key-ut-me-la falchuh), Gaelic for "One Hundred Thousand Welcomes"

• Motto: "One defends and the other conquers". - 1625

• Flower: Mayflower

• Dog: Duck Trolling Retriever (Canada's only true bred dog)

• Tree: Red Spruce

• Flag: Britain's first overseas, 1621

• Berry: Wild Blueberry

• Tartan:
  The Nova Scotia Tartan is Canada's Oldest. In 1956, Nova Scotia became Canada's first province to have an official tartan approved by the Royal Registry in Scotland. Colors:
  • Blue & White - The seas
  • Greens - The forrests
  • Red - The Royal Lion
  • Gold - The Nova Scotia Royal Charter

• Population - 930,000 (340,000 in Greater Halifax)

• Joined Canada July 01, 1867 and at that time was Canada's wealthiest province

• Government - Parliamentary System, 1758

• First Peoples till 1860's: The Mi'kmaq (Me-ga-ma), Vikings, French, Portuguese, Scots, English, Irish, German, Swiss, African

• The first European settlement north of Florida Joao Fagudes was granted permission to claim new territories for Portugal by the king in 1519. In 1520 he sailed Northeast and landed on the Northern shores of Cape Breton Island. He set up a small settlement here to which the king funded but in 1523 abandoned the colony because of bad relations with the Micmac. This marked the end of Portugues intrest in the North.This was the first European settlement in North America after that of the Vikings 500 years before. The second was the French at Port Royal in 1605, where North America's first apple trees and grains and dandelions were planted and North America's first social club was established: "The Order of the Good Time", by Samuel de Champlain. Mattieu Da Costa was the First French Black here, in 1606, a hired assistant to Champlain.

• Scottish Gaelic - More Gaelic is spoken in Nova Scotia than in Scotland; North America's only Gaelic College is at St. Ann's, Nova Scotia; The Antigonish Highland Games are the oldest in North America.

• Bluenoses: Nova Scotian's are proudly called "Bluenoses" or "Bluenosers" since the 1700's. Reason: Planting and exporting of Irish Bluenose Potatoes, blue marks on the noses of fishermen left by blue mitts, and the nickname given to the Nova Scotia British troops which occupied New York City and Boston during the American Revolution.

• Bluenose Schooner - World Famous Lunenburg Tall Ship, 1921-1946; appears on the Canadian dime - 1937

• Bluenose II - Canada's Sailing Ambassador, Lunenburg, 1963. It was built by the Oland family to promote Schooner Beer and was later given to the Nova Scotia Government where it has had a new life promoting Nova Scotia's past.

• Heritage Architecture
  • Halifax Citadel Fort
  • The Victorian Storm Porches
  • The 4 'Royal' Round Buildings and Province House (Canada's first Georgian building)
  • the widely found five sided Scottish Dormers
  • Lunenburg: famous "bumps" (extended dormers)
  • Annapolis Royal: Canada's oldest English and French wooden houses (1708-1712)
  • Pictou: Scottish buildings
  • Louisbourg Fortress: North America's largest restoration
  • Shelburne: Loyalist homes
  • Sherbrook Village Museum.

• Famous Nova Scotia expressions:
  • The early bird catches the worm
  • Give and take
  • Live and let live
  • Raining cats and dogs
  • You're barking up the wrong tree
  • Facts are stranger than fiction
  • Quick as a wink
  • Jack of all trades, master of none
  • Honesty is the best policy
  • I wasn't born yesterday
  • Every dog has his day
  • Drank like a fish
  • What goes around, comes around
  • Hey Bud
  • A stitch in time saves nine (T.C.Haliburton)

• Quote from Joseph Howe: "A wise nation preserves its records, gathers up its monuments, decorates the tombes of its illustrious dead, repairs its greatest structures and fosters national pride and love of country, by perpetual references to the sacrifices and glories of the past."

• Quote from Alexander Graham Bell about Nova Scotia: "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." - The Bells are buried in Baddeck, Nova Scotia

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