The MARITIME PROVINCES - Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and
Prince Edward Island - are Canada's three smallest provinces, and
their combined population of around one-and-three-quarter million
has been largely confined to the coasts and river valleys by the
thin soils of their forested interiors. Even today, the bulk of the
region remains intractable - 84 percent of New Brunswick, for
example, is covered by pine, maple and birch forests - and this
rough-and-ready wilderness combines with a ruggedly beautiful
coastline to form one of Canada's most scenic regions. Of some
appeal too are the chunks of fertile land that punctuate the
forests, principally in the undulating fields of PEI (Prince Edward
Island) and the lowlands around New Brunswick's Grand Falls, both
of which produce massive crops of potatoes, and in Nova Scotia's
Annapolis Valley, a major fruit-producing area.
Most visitors to the Maritimes come for the coastal scenery and
the slow pace of the "unspoilt" fishing villages, but the Maritimes
were not always as sleepy as they appear today. When the three
provinces joined the Dominion in the middle of the nineteenth
century, their economies were prospering from the export of their
fish and timber and the success of their shipyards. But, as
opponents of the confederation had argued, the Maritimers were
unable to prevent the passage of protectionist measures favouring
the burgeoning industries of Ontario and Québec. This
discrimination, combined with the collapse of the shipbuilding
industry as steel steamers replaced wooden ships, precipitated a
savage and long-lasting recession that, within the space of thirty
years, transformed most of the Maritimes from a prosperous,
semi-industrialized region to a pastoral backwater dependent on the
sale of its raw materials - chiefly wood and fish. In recent years,
tourism has helped to keep the region's economy afloat and the
tourist industry hereabouts is extremely well-organized, though out
of season - before mid-May and after mid-October - many attractions
and B&Bs are closed.
Bypassed economically, many of the region's villages still
retain their nineteenth-century appearance, with pastel-shaded
clapboard houses set around rocky coves and bays. However, the
Maritimes offer much more variety than this bucolic image suggests.
In Nova Scotia , the southwest coast does indeed have a
clutch of quaint fishing ports, but it also harbours the busy
provincial capital of Halifax , whilst Annapolis
Royal , with its genteel mansions, is but a few kilometres from
Port Royal and its reconstruction of the fort Samuel de
Champlain built in 1605. Further east, Cape Breton Island ,
connected to the mainland by a causeway, is divided into two by
Bras d'Or Lake : the forested plateau flanking industrial
Sydney is unremarkable, but in the west the elegiac hills
and lakes framing the resort of Baddeck lead into the
mountainous splendour of Cape Breton Highlands National Park
- a rare chunk of mountain in a region that is relatively flat.
Moving on, New Brunswick has urban pleasures in the shape of
its cosy capital Fredericton and the gritty, revitalized
port of Saint John (never "St John") - but its star turn is
the Bay of Fundy , whose taper creates tidal variations of
up to 12m. This phenomenon is observable right along the shoreline,
but has a spectacularly scenic setting at both Fundy National
Park and along the Fundy Trail Parkway . The tides churn
the nutrient-rich waters down near the ocean bed towards the
surface and this draws an abundance of marine life into the bay -
including several species of whale , beginning with finback
and minkes in late spring, and humpbacks from mid- to late June. By
the middle of July all three species are frequently sighted and
they usually stay around till late summer and autumn, which is when
the rare North Atlantic right whale is seen too. Whale-watching
trips leave from a string of Fundy ports in both Nova Scotia and
New Brunswick - those from Westport, near Digby , Alma and
Grand Manan Island , are among the best. Last but certainly
not least is PEI , linked to the mainland by the whopping
Confederation Bridge in 1997. The island possesses one of the
region's most amenable towns in leafy, laid-back
Charlottetown , well worth at least a couple of days
especially as it's but a short hop from the magnificent sandy
beaches of the Prince Edward Island National Park .