My trip to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island
What is the difference in a province and a territory? How many of each
does Canada have? What are the maritime provinces? These, and many more questions circled through my mind as I began my tour of Nova Scotia and the two adjacent provinces, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
The territories of Canada have no inherent jurisdiction and only have those powers delegated to them by the federal government.
The federal government of Canada also has a responsibility over Native and Inuit peoples, who happen to be in a majority in the territories. It does not have the same obligation towards people in the provinces.
There are ten provinces and three territories. I visited three of the maritime provinces. I did NOT get to Newfoundland.
Although I flew into Halifax, NS , my tour bus took us immediately up the island to the northwest corner and out toward Cape Breton National Park. Traveling on the Cabot Trail, a 300 kilometer ride where we saw spectacular water views and beautiful, fir covered mountains.
At the beginning of the trail , we stopped at the Acadian village of Chéticamp on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The Appalachian-like mountains sloped gently down to the sea. I have never wanted to ride a motorcycle before, but the gentle slopes and curves of the coastal mountains are a bewitching invitation to many motorcycle fans and they were welcomed at restaurants and hotels as warmly as we who rose buses or drove cars. Indeed, there is a summer event known as the Atlanticade motorcycle festival in the town of St. Andrews, where seven meter tides ebb and flow agains New Brunswick’s shore. Thousands converge on the little town and they are a boon to hotel owners and restaurant owners.
We stayed two nights at Chéticamp, a fishing community of almost 4,000 residents . A large number of them are Acadians as well as English. Chéticamp was once a fishing station used only during the summer months by a man from the Isle of Jersey. At one time, the town was a cashless society, with the fishermen being paid in skip that could be used in the company store, just like the miners in West Virginia used to do.
Fishing has declined somewhat and tourism has become the primary industry. They depend on Acadian music and food, whale watching ships, hotels and restaurants, and two local museums to bring in dollars. There is also an international Dance Festival.
Two local museums caught my fancy and , while I don’t have any photos of them, I’ll tell you what interested me.
One was a hooked rug museum. That is not the most exciting thing in the world to see, but when one visits the museum and sees how one woman started a cottage industry in this small, one can only admire her inventiveness. One gets the idea that every woman in town is a “hooker’, as they jokingly call themselves and makes a few nickels selling their wares at local shops.
From Wikipedia: “In its earliest years, rug hooking was a craft of poverty. The vogue for floor coverings in the United States came about after 1830 when factories produced machine-made carpets for the rich. Poor women began looking through their scrap bags for materials to employ in creating their own home-made floor coverings. Women employed whatever materials they had available.”
To read more about them use the following link:
http://www.cheticamphookedrugs.com/museum
or type “ hookers of Chéticamp” on Google.
The other fascinating museum (and story!) was The Centre de la “Mi Carême”. This is a tradition passed down from the French since the Middle Ages. On the third week of lent, people make masks and costumes and parade up and down the town streets, visiting homes and trying to make the hosts guess their identity. Hosts offered them food and drink. Sometimes there was dancing. Festivities went on throughout the night.In an area of a hard and simple life, this festival becomes the bright spot of the year.
Check it out at : http://micareme.ca/en/index.php
or type in "Mi Carême” on Google for more information and photos.
Houses in this little town were very simple. They have steep, gabled roofs ot let the show slide off in winter. Although they told us they had very little snow last year, they also mentioned that winds off the ocean can get up to 150 miles per hour. I think that is why the houses had very small windows and not many of them. Only rarely did we see plants of any kind. The one pictured is right along the main road and perhaps was given more attention
The soil is very shallow there, and the trees cling precariously to the rocks. The predominant tree was fir. However, we saw many trucks bearing loads of lumber, so timber must be big there, so there must be deciduous trees too.
As we left the area, we went across the rolling mountains over the Cabot Trail. We drove 105 Km (60 miles) journey through the western edge of the park which borders the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This is a jagged coastline with mountains up to 300 metres. Over the top and across large areas of forests. we descended on the south side to more beauty as we approaced the town of Ingonish. We saw many, many motorcycles and , again, I felt how it must be wonderful to be free of the confines of a bus when passing through this beautiful country.
Note: I have trouble placing photos in Blogger, so my photos are not in the story where I wanted them. If any of you bloggers can tell me how to do that, I would appreciate it.
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