No Major Cities: Why So Few Canadians Live In On The East Coast

[@BrennanMacdonald12]

Hi Geoff, Born and raised halogonian here, who studied both history and politics and gave guided historical tours of the city. I'm sorry but I have to point out several major errors and omissions in your video concerning why the east coast is so sparsely populated. If you would like to discuss any of them further, please don't hesitate to reach out. 1. Quebec city is not the oldest city in Canada: port Royal was the first major french settlement founded Nova Scotia close to those amazing tides you spoke of in 1605. St John's was founded in 1497 by the English. Nova Scotia itself was actually first settled as a LONE Scottish colony In 1621. 2. Halifax was the most important port for the British on mainland North America: Halifax was it for the British. Nova Scotia actually had the first representative democracy in North America. Halifax was home to one of four principal ports for the British navy in the Atlantic. (The others being Gibraltar, Portsmouth, and Bermuda). It was home to the courts, the political center, the economic center, and financial center. 3 out of five of the major Canadian banks were based boat of Halifax. So what happened to Halifax? So many things. 3. You forgot about the Halifax explosion: the most devastating explosion in the history of mankind, and the largest non-nuclear explosion ever. It leveled the city during world war I by a freak accident. Unfortunately, at this point in Canada's history, the military importance of Halifax was far greater than anything else and that became the focal point of recovery, especially with the dawn of the great Depression and world war II. 4. You forgot about the national policy: during the infant stages of Canada's development as a nation, the very serious question of where to invest you economically came into question. Here. You are very correct to identify why St. Lawrence River Montreal, Quebec, Toronto, Ottawa are so important. Canada chose to invest in this area and actively repressed and extracted everything they could out of the Atlanta provinces to establish that industrial center. It's consequences of this policy were severe, and led to all the major banks leaving Halifax, (Although the bank of Nova Scotia still holds that name in Toronto) and government sanctioned suppression of unions to ensure cheap coal and timber would flood into proper Canada. This is why all Atlantic provinces have been in a recession since the early 1900s. There are actual videos of the RCMP beating up strikers in cape Breton on their way home from church. 5. Canada is huge and has been organized and developed opposite to and in a symbiotic economic relationship with the United States: The coast of America are densely populated populated with almost no one in between. For the longest time, that was the same case in Canada until the national policy and the absolute explosion of immigration and development in British Columbia. Because of this relationship with US. However, again, our development was focused in the middle of the country, with each coast being far more sparsely populated. So as you can see, you hit on a few of the important geographic conditions that led to how Canada was populated, but you presented some clearly wrong facts and very important omissions that give critical context.

[@rancon265]

St.John NB. 1604.

[@fistmcstrongpunch2776]

I live in St. JOHN'S. The island was discovered by John Cabot in 1497. It was not settled until decades later and the first colony was Avalon near Ferryland.

[@adppositiveapproachtocare45]

I mentioned that Geoff should read your post.

[@stephenjones8885]

I watched the video hoping to learn something new, but it pretty much just verified my prior assumptions. Then I scrolled down and learned so much from this comment. Thanks for that :)

[@seanmackey8552]

@@fistmcstrongpunch2776 I thought the Vikings discovered it.

[@fernrfernandez]

Something that is completely missing here is the availability of suitable agricultural land. Although some regions of Atlantic Canada have good soil/land to grow food (e.g., PEI, Annapolis Valley Region in NS), most of the region has shallow soils and is incredibly rocky. It's the same reason most people in New England live in Massachusetts and not northern New Hampshire and Maine. Compare that with the rich agricultural land in Southwestern Ontario and along the St. Lawrence River around Montreal. Southwestern Ontario even grows tobacco. The big economic driver in Atlantic Canada was cod fishing, which never drove enough industry as most of the processing was done in Massachusetts. Mining, coal extraction and forestry were other notable industries, but again never generated enough population growth or industry to foster large cities. For this reason, Atlantic Canada has always been relatively poor and sparsely populated.

[@aldenfloyd5432]

At the time of Confederation, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were not the poor provinces but actually as rich or richer than Ontario or Quebec. The reason was because most of the Canadian ship building and shipping companies of that time period were based in these two Atlantic provinces, and the initial construction of the Intercolonial Railway began here being extended to Quebec and then in time to Ontario. Because of the British North America Act not allowing the Federal government to collect any form of taxes from the citizens, the import and export tariffs were collected at the ports and the provinces paid taxes to the Federal tax collectors. The Canadian climate allowed sea going vessels to go to Montreal only after spring melt till winter freeze up, this lasted until the building of the St Lawrence Seaway and the use of ice breaker ships to keep it open in the winter. Most Atlantic Canadians resent the attitude of central Canadians looking down on us as the welfare cousins considering part of our Federal tax dollars went to build the Seaway and the ice breakers that damaged our provinces economies. The ship building industry has dwindled after ships started being built of steel, negating our abundant supply of timber that had allowed a large number of coastal communities to build their own vessels. I believe the last ship building facility here, is in Halifax, Nova Scotia. There are some tech companies trying to establish facilities in Atlantic Canada, but they have a hard up hill battle against a large world wide competition.

[@jordansmith4040]

@@aldenfloyd5432 The Irving corporation maintains shipbuilding facilities in St. John N.B., I do believe. Tech companies are doing well here in St. John's, there is a bit of a boom. Removing the ice breakers might help mainland Atlantic Canada, but does nothing for the economy of Newfoundland, as being unconnected means we could never be a part of a national rail system. Indeed, the Canadian government replaced our railroad with a highway system instead. Even without the St. Lawrence seaway, Shipping would still get inland to Quebec city, which is still possibly better for them than going to Halifax.

[@hzwanepol6947]

This is actually the most compelling factor involving Atlantic Canada's population growth. When Britain planned and established Halifax, it also established smaller satellite communities such as Lunenburg to provide agricultural resources. However, within a generation, most of these communities relied on the fisheries for their own existence, as the soils simply could not produce sufficient excess to support major urban populations.

[@stevehatcher7700]

@hzwanepol6947 and to this day Nova Scotia only produces about 10% of it's own food supply, in terms of vegetables, fruits (excluding apples), and minimal grains. Excluding chicken, eggs, and dairy which are supply managed for near total local demand, and excluding fish, for obvious reasons. At best, it could maybe get bumped up to 20%. 30%, maybe, if we plow under all the apple orchards (majority of apples are exported) and vineyards in the Annapolis Valley to convert to vegetables. During peak season, vegetable crops like lettuce, carrots, onions, celery, cucumbers, squash, and cabbage do supply most of Atlantic Canada, not just Nova Scotia, but that season is short and about half of all vegetable production coming from about 4 or 5 large farms.

[@hzwanepol6947]

@@stevehatcher7700 Historically, NS produced up to 70% (by price) of its agricultural products, but recent decades have seen supply chains consolidated outside the province. This does reflects the challenges of the smaller economies of scale in Atlantic Canada. Atlantic Canada has seen an erosion of processing facilities for meat, and dairy, with cereal crops dwindling almost completely in the region.

[@vincentprice4076]

Nova Scotians voted massively against joining confederation with Canada because as the richest of the 4 colonies, it was afraid that Upper Canada would want to impose tariff barriers against the US, killing business with Nova Scotia’s biggest trading partner. That’s exactly what happened. This version of “history” completely misses the true story.

[@jeffcusack3921]

It's a terrible video. Calling Atlantic Canada "Mostly Empty" is also nonsense, given that PEI, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have the 1st, 2nd, and 4th largest population densities in Canada. Getting basic facts wrong in the thumbnail--facts that can be checked in less than a minute--is a pretty bad look. As an Atlantican, this video is exactly the sort of disinformation that I'm used to hearing about the region, and the various errors I'm reading elsewhere in the comments are no better.

[@fraslex]

Yes, this video does not engage with the history of Canada. He is just guessing after reading Wikipedia and looking at a map.

[@BronzeGoldfish]

We’ll the video is based on geography so maybe that’s why he skipped the actual reason? Upper Canada just gutting the region of resources.

[@OGT4204]

@@jeffcusack3921ud, southern Ontario has the biggest population density, where did you get that idea from? You talking about misinformation yet you are here spreading it

[@jeffcusack3921]

@@OGT4204 Your attempt at a correction is clearly offbase, as southern Ontario is not a province. My point stands.

[@joylox]

You left out my favourite fact! Nova Scotia is the only place outside of the UK to have a Gaelic dialect, and bilingual road signs in Gaelic and English. There's a lot more Scottish and Irish influence here, which you can really hear if you talk to people from Newfoundland or Cape Breton. The accent and some phrasing is not quite the same as the rest of Canada.

[@TYRONE_SHOELACES]

I'm from Cape Breton and I approve this message. Mar mholadh a dúirt mé é

[@IHateMyAccountName]

Noofies sound borderline Scottish.

[@HalifaxHercules]

@@IHateMyAccountName Newfoundland English originated from England's West Country, including Bristol, and Southeastern Ireland, and also has some Scottish and Inuktitut influence. Its even more noticeable in the Bayman variation than the Townie (St. John's) counterpart. The Bayman version has several different dialects depending on where you live in Newfoundland. Scottish Gaelic in Cape Breton originated from Lochaber and Highland Scotland. That's why "100,000 Welcomes" is "Cead mile failte" in Scotland and Waipu (also known as "Little Nova Scotia" in New Zealand) while its "Ciad Mile Fàilte" in Nova Scotia.

[@aliarizvi2508]

Have friends in Cape Breton and that’s so true. Their english accent is very different as well, leaning towards scottish

[@martinlacouline2049]

Absolutely! There's also towns in NS, PEI, and NF with clearly some french sounding words sometimes... I would LOVE to have a comprehensive map of all of this linguistic tapestry... Did you know that nova-scotia is actually from the same ancient geological formation as half Newfoundland, PEI, England, eastern Ireland, Lower Saxony, Prussia and even a part of Jutland (denmark)? "Avalonia" in geology, it may be 300 million years too late but it makes you wonder... linguistics of canadian accents is "wild". I'm french canadian, i swear, there is nothing like "l'ostie de Québecois"!! Pardon my french, cheers!!!

[@bigdon37]

I’m from New Brunswick and not going anywhere else! Freedom, space, ocean side, great people.

[@dennisenright9347]

Montreal and Quebec City might seem far inland from a modern point of view, but at the time they were founded they would have been ocean front property for the purposes of transportation. Montreals position was dictated by geography: its as far up a river that gave easy access to the center of the continent. (A characteristic that it shares with New Orleans) Quebec City is where the river narrows enough for a single fortress to cover its entire width

[@petersilva037]

Montreal is where the first (last?) rapids are in the river. Without the canals that came much later, all ocean going ships had to stop there.

[@adamvandolder1804]

@@petersilva037 First, yeah. To get to the Great Lakes, the early French explorers would have to go up the Ottawa River and then portage across to the French River. It wasn't until the construction of the Erie canal that ships could go straight from the ocean to the lakes, which bypassed the St Lawrence entirely.

[@WilliamAndrea]

​@@adamvandolder1804 there's also the Lachine Canal that bypassed the rapids in Montreal starting around the same time as the Erie Canal, and the St Lawrence Seaway that does now, and goes further

[@musafawundu6718]

Given the ruggedness and coldness of New Foundland and Labrador, it is understandable as to why they have such a low population density, but with regards to the NB and NS, it is more confounding. They are not much colder than Quebec and Montreal. Could it just be that their soils are much less fertile comparatively to the Laurentian valley and southern Ontario?

[@dennisenright9347]

@musafawundu6718 NS and NB both have some areas of excellent soil, and PEI is entirely made of very fertile soil, however the areas are fairly small. And what was destined to be the regions biggest city was Halifax due to one of the continents best harbours on the Atlantic, which is isolated from the regions best farmland

[@timdella92]

Halifax was an also important pre-jet era port. Most ocean liners had their headquarters in Halifax like Titanic’s White Star line.

[@skbuydens7717]

Most non-French speaking immigration came through Halifax back in the day including much of my family over 130 years ago. Halifax definitely has an important place in Canadian history.

[@joylox]

It still is a well used port for cruise ships and cargo ships, with two ports for unloading and loading containers onto ships. But with shipping by air and having a lot of the railroad removed, it's not as important anymore. It's kind of sad, because a lot of people born here in the Maritimes end up moving West to work, mainly to Toronto, Vancouver, and the oil sands of Alberta. Halifax has been trying to get more into tech, and I know a few Atlantic Canadian developed games are on Steam, as well as being home to Ubisoft's mobile game division, a number of smaller tech startups, and some big companies like IBM.

[@bobbybob3865]

I'm an American who has been in all 50 states and all 10 Canadian provinces. Halifax is easily my favorite city. (One experience: The organ grinder's monkey bit my coin to make sure it was gold before dropping it into the wooden box.)

[@elliottb8704]

Not to mention it’s importance during the 1st and 2nd world wars! It’s harbour was a massive staging grounds for convoys and fleets that were about to make the Atlantic crossing to send supplies and troops to Europe. It’s importance during that time was crucial for the outcome of both wars, and the sacrifice it payed in the form of the Halifax Explosion in 1917 cannot go unforgotten (though unfortunately it seems like everybody outside, and even inside Nova Scotia have already forgotten that it happened).

[@heatheryoung7898]

@@elliottb8704 No one remembers battles off NL either... I get it was pre-confed for us, but the Battle of Bell Island, the SS Caribou sinking, direct torpedo hits to St. John's, etc... Atlantic Canada's significant history/contributions keep being minimized. Like, how is the Halifax explosion not mainstream in all Canadian school history classes?

[@GeorgeP-uj8xc]

You should do a video on why the Canadian Prairie is so much more Urban than the American Prairie. Just looking at Calgary and Edmonton it's weird that no city in Montana even comes close to their size.

[@728huey]

I believe it was mentioned briefly in the video that Calgary and Edmonton are near oilfields, so that's why they grew rather large. Eastern Montana and western North Dakota were both rather sparsely populated until recently when the Bakken oil shale deposit was fracked for more oil after 2008.

[@petermozuraitis5219]

I’ve heard it’s due to the dry and arid air coming off the Rockies, Montana south to Texas and Oklahoma don’t have climate to grow crops so their population stayed low

[@nickyalousakis3851]

the prairies are urban and developed due to politics. the east is empty also due to politics.

[@austindavis4321]

He did in another video and the primary reason was oil and oil/mineral resources and related industries which centered themselves in medium size metropolitan regions in the area. It’s also not as much of a dry waist land as the American side which is much further south

[@Simon-tc1mc]

That's because you can't compare Alberta to Montana. Canada doesn't have a more urban prairie. Minneapolis is vastly larger than Winnipeg. Calgary is more comparable to Denver, which Denver is larger. The Rockies move west as you go north, so both Denver and Calgary are cities situated right next to the mountains, even though Calgary is further west. Colorado has a significantly larger population overall than Alberta, the difference is just that Alberta has two large cities and then rural land, whereas Colorado has a much more spread out population over many midsized cities, with of course one large city of Denver.

[@DCARA06]

we’re quite happy to stay remote and unknown, it’s part of the beauty of the Maritime provinces. nice video!

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

The western portion of the land at 3:27 shouldn't be red as a part of the agreement in the Treaty of Paris was that thanks to a secret deal between Louis XV and his cousin Charles III of Spain the year before, France would give Louisiana (or the land west of the Mississippi River) to Spain. Spain then administered the territory from Havana, and while they tried their best to make the territory Spanish by sending Canarians there (and Louisiana today still has people descended from said Canarians called Isleños), their effort was usually fruitless as the majority preferred French. To gain land in Tuscany, Louisiana was returned to France in 1800, and of course would be purchased by the US in 1803. Shame the Acadians weren't mentioned as they're just as important to the history of the Maritimes. The Acadians are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia (now Atlantic Canada) during the 17th and 18th centuries. During the French and Indian War, British officers suspected that Acadians were aligned with France after finding some Acadians fighting, even though the majority were neutral. Despite this, the British worked together with New England militia to carry out the Great Expulsion which forcefully deported 11,500 of them, and one-third of them dying from disease or drowning. Many of them ended up getting recruited by the Spanish in Louisiana, thus developing the Cajun culture.

[@canyonoverland5003]

As a Canadian living in Vancouver, I say Labrador is sparsely populated due to it's harsh climate and remoteness. There's only one road going in and out. In fact, it's so far away from my home, I'll probably never visit there in my lifetime.

[@corsacs3879]

it’s absolutely insane to my european brain that you can leave so extremely far away from another part of your own country

[@normanclatcher]

As an American, I feel the same way about France.

[@simonpelletier873]

@@corsacs3879 Yeah I live in Canada and the size of almost any of our provinces are the size of all of europe. Ontario is so large that at its lowest point you are closer to mexico than to the north of ontario. Also found out that St-John's is almost the same distance away from Vancouver as it is to Moscow.

[@newfoundlandmapping4493]

Im from St.John‘s, Newfoundland and I agree. Even as a newfoundlander I’ve never been to Labrador and I don’t think I ever will be. Theres nothing really there that would make me have to go there. The weather is unbearable and the geography also sucks due to most of the geography being the Canadian Shield. Labrador just doesn’t have many draws that bring in new people, besides a strong mining economy is lab city i can’t think of many large prospering industries in Labrador.

[@thezomby5015]

@@corsacs3879 I live in Quebec City, I'm closer to Iceland than I am to Vancouver

[@matthewmangan6251]

To be fair the population isn’t far off from Northern New England (Maine-New Hampshire-Vermont) Being a bit more rugged and forested it makes sense why the population would be lower

[@zachsmith8916]

Yeah I lived in Northern Maine for a while and I used to visit New Brunswick from time to time. It’s very similar to Northern Maine culturally and geographically. Given that Maritime provinces are so similar to northern New England it makes me chuckle that some people try to say the U.S. and Canada are so radically different from each other.

[@Econunlocked]

@@zachsmith8916 and Portland is like a smaller version of halfiax

[@zachsmith8916]

@@Econunlocked I wouldn’t know. I never made it that far up but I’m inclined to believe you. The biggest town I visited in the Maritimes was Fredericton.

[@hhiippiittyy]

@@zachsmith8916 In many ways, the provinces of Canada share more in common with their southern neighbour states than with their distant fellow national peers. Get people from Washington, Montana, Minnesota , Pennsylvania, and Maine, and they will line up culturally more with people from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and the Maritimes (respectively) than with each other. From my experience.

[@zachsmith8916]

@@hhiippiittyy in a lot of ways although I think Pennsylvania might be a bit of a stretch. I grew up in West Virginia and we went to Pennsylvania fairly frequently and aside from the accent a lot of Pennsylvania has a lot in common with southerners especially people from Appalachia.

[@FXwashere]

My dad, his friend, and I wanted to go to Labrador for vacations a few weeks before the wildfires in Quebec. Unfortunately, we weren't able to go there because we didn't have enough time. That might be a good thing, because we passed through Northern Quebec and Abitibi during our trip, the two regions where there are a lot of wildfires. I still dream of visiting Labrador one day.

[@jesslynnwinsor]

I live in Labrador.. its nice to visit, but in order to enjoy it you must bring lots of fly spray in the summer.. lol

[@dsxa918]

Is there any urban exploration one can do in the Labrador?

[@FrigidPhoenix]

@@dsxa918 There's not much in terms of urban areas in Labrador. You have Labrador city and Happy Valley Goose Bay, both small cities worth checking out but there isn't much going on. Labrador is dotted by smaller towns but is mostly wilderness. If you want to see urban in the province, then you'd have to go to the island Newfoundland, the Avalon peninsula always has been a place i've enjoyed visiting.

[@TheCanadianFurry]

@@jesslynnwinsor hey i live in Labrador City, where are you living in labrador?

[@DrRock2009]

Even I have been to Newfoundland & Labrador, more than once, and I live in the U.K. 🤷‍♂️ Make the time and go do it. 👍

[@Jase81478]

I live in the Annapolis Valley here in Nova Scotia. This province is growing. Due to extremely high Housing prices in other more densely populated provinces. I moved from the states to Ontario and then moved out here. Nova Scotia has some of the prettiest scenery I have ever witnessed. If you ever have a chance to visit do so. From wine lovers to cider fans you will find some of the very best locally grown and produced right here.

[@arbitrarycomplexity]

Most of nova scotia isn't nice at all. The cabot trail, mahone bay, sure there are exceptions. But most of it is just brush and swamp. I was blown away going to california for the first time.

[@AnOliveMoonrises]

As a Blue Noser born and raised here in the valley it's been pretty insane seeing the demographic change in my province in the last 10 years. Before no one wanted to ever come and live here, Ontarioans couldn't even point it out on a map. Now it almost seems rare for me to see another born Nova Scotian, everyone I talk to and know is from outside the province. Real estate even here in rural NS is getting insane because so many people are moving here and we just don't have the infrastructure to house everyone. I've never had a problem in finding a place to rent here even 5 years ago, and the rent was super cheap. Now it's very hard to find a place to rent even in the more desolate parts, there's tent cities in Halifax for the first time. I don't think any of us were prepared for how quickly people were going to start moving here and in such numbers.

[@jjsvideos715]

@@arbitrarycomplexity it's all subjective. i personally enjoy visiting wetlands and observing the local wildlife so i can imagine those swamps being pretty appealing. but i am from bc so i have access to a lot of "conventionally beautiful" scenery and the normalization of that might affect my opinion.

[@HalifaxHercules]

I'm originally from the Halifax community of Spryfield and moved to Western Newfoundland's Corner Brook and Bay of Islands areas around Labour Day Weekend 2008 for family and employment reasons. Each time I return home for vacation, I'm amazed at how fast Halifax has changed in a short period of time. Spryfield has experienced rapid changes in the last five years as real estate prices have tripled or even quadrupled in value, which is a grave concern considering that most of its traditional residents are lower and lower middle class residents. Halifax's biggest challenge will be keeping its residents in the city as some families are considering moving to Newfoundland where housing prices are much cheaper and taxes are lower. However, the big risk about moving to Newfoundland is that jobs can be a little difficult to get as their unemployment rates are generally high outsides its major population areas such as Port Aux Basques, Stephenville, Corner Brook, Deer Lake, St. Anthony (main population centre for the Northern/Viking Peninsula), Labrador City, Happy Valley - Goose Bay, Grand Falls - Windsor, Gander, Clarenville, Marystown, and the Greater St. John's Area.

[@EviMlcak]

I get a good idea from watching 'Anne of Green Gables'. How beautiful it is over on your side of the fence. Here in B.C., it's getting more and more crowded. A shame. (Not to mention the house prices are through the roof)

[@AverytheCubanAmerican]

They may not be as populated as Ontario, Quebec, or BC, but Atlantic Canada is still proud of their culture, and it shows on their provincial flags! On the New Brunswick flag, the big lymphad evokes NB's historical shipbuilding industry and the ships utilized by numerous Loyalists to land in the province after they fled the US after the American Revolution. On the Newfoundland and Labrador flag, the flag design is that of etchings on Beothuk and Innu decorative pendants worn hung from a cord around the neck. Blue for water, white for snow, red for effort, gold for their confidence. Nova Scotia's flag represents their Scottish heritage, with the royal arms of Scotland in the middle and an inverted version of the Saint Andrew's Cross. And finally, PEI's flag has a large oak tree with three saplings. One for England, and the three represent the island's counties. Taken altogether, the trees tie in with the province's motto of Parva sub ingenti ("the small under the protection of the great". The three oak saplings are interpreted as the descendants of the British oak tree and are guarded by the British lion. Also, Atlantic Canada is home to the oldest city in Canada as Sir Humphrey Gilbert founded St. John's in Newfoundland in August 1583! The town of Harbour Grace also in Newfoundland was founded even earlier in 1517 by the French. And something else to note is that Newfoundland didn't join Canada until 1949

[@dpcnreactions7062]

As a Maritimer living in Calgary I was a little dismayed over how quickly the history was glossed over with no mention of the Acadians, the expulsion of the Acadians, Halifax( The Warden of the North) and the sailing companies that shaped the business character of the region.

[@dforrest4503]

Well, it’s a ten minute video.

[@colinbelliveau1905]

Still, the explusion of the Acadians is rather important when discussing the topic of why the Maritimes have such a low population. Add 10,000s of people anywhere in North America in the mid-1700s and extrapolate that population growth to 2023 and it would be millions of people.

[@ryanprosper88]

​@@colinbelliveau1905that's a very good point

[@andrewclarke166]

Port Royal and Louisburg went unmentioned....

[@newfoundlandmapping4493]

I agree, in Newfoundland too the French and British burned and killed opposing settlers stunting the population until the end of the 7 years war.

[@jamesinorlando3454]

Great video. I'm American, but I've visited all ten provinces at least twice each and the Yukon once. Still hoping to make it to the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. I absolutely love Canada and have driven all the way from Victoria to St. John's (except for the stretch from Sault Ste. Marie to Windsor). While driving up the north shore of the St. Lawrence in Québec, I took the train from Sept-Iles up to Schefferville, passing through Labrador. Of all the places I've visited in Canada, I'd say the island of Newfoundland is the one I enjoyed the most. I really appreciate the sense of remoteness I felt there.

[@hemusbull]

As a Canadian I say kudos to you!

[@joshuameadus7861]

As a Newfoundlander, thanks for the compliment! I'm glad you enjoyed our little isolated corner of the world.

[@aquaticborealis4877]

Worth a trip to Baffin Island to see some of the epic mountains there. Fairly rugged travelling though.

[@CoDShotz14]

My entire family is from Newfoundland and I have spent tons of time there throughout my life. You have warmed my heart good sir. :)

[@EviMlcak]

I live in B.C. and I have to say how much I love Washington State and my favorite city, Seattle.

[@birbluv9595]

Thank you, Geoff! My family settled along both sides of the St. Lawrence. But that ability to withstand the cold did not trickle down to me!

[@dankelly5150]

There is a major city on the coast, it's called Halifax!

[@maryjeanjones7569]

During WW2 Halifax was an enormous port. Halifax was a major hub for everything needed and used for the war including the production of ocean vessels. Never underestimate Halifax's role as a major city or port.

[@thecaynuck]

Saint John was also a large shipbuilding port, manufactured much of Canada's legendary WWI/WWII fleet and later vessels. In the 90's, Irving put present shipbuilding operations in Halifax, so Saint John's shipyards are now closed.

[@JoeMama-ql5xv]

Also Goose bay had a major part with its air base

[@dixonhill1108]

It's hilarious the military heritage in Canada is just bizarrely underrated, and cleraly because it wasn't in Ontario, and the French were openly cowards. How many people in the US had to actively worry about being killed by Nazis? @@JoeMama-ql5xv

[@heeroheero8844]

lol that was 80 years ago

[@barbarabaker3056]

Several years ago I went on a tour of Nova Scotia, PEI and New Brunswick. Every moment was wonderful. It had so many beautiful spots and the people were very courteous and welcoming. And the lobster and salmon dinners!

[@khx73]

Who was your tour guide?

[@Goldencitygirl]

@@khx73 …I live in N.S. you actually don’t really need a tour guide…the province is small…sites to visit can be found online…we had friends visit a few years ago from the UK…they were on a cruise…we took them to all the sites they wanted…at no cost…a few places that a tour guide from the cruise did not have listed…

[@khx73]

@@Goldencitygirl Agreed.. I live in NB. Had a family member who did guided tours of the area and thought maybe OP was on one

[@flamingmuffin666]

super technical and specific addition - The Appalachian mountains extend into Newfoundland as part of the Long Range Mountains on the province's west coast. Beautiful mountains and fjords there, and the UNESCO world heritage site of Gros Morne and the Tablelands.

[@GoWestYoungMan]

Although the St. Lawrence Seaway helped shift growth inland to Montreal/Toronto, the principle reason Canadian east coast cities never grew large is POLITICAL. After Confederation in 1867, Ontario/Quebec forced policies to encourage trade between Canada while severely restricting trade with the US The Maritimes economies were deeply tied to trade with New England, and predictably, were economically devastated. 150+ years later, the Maritimes still haven't recovered from these policies.

[@anthonybelyea1964]

Thank you finally somebody that knows their history also in the 70s and 80s they took away our subsidized rail which was 20 million dollars and subsidized the Saint Lawrence Seaway ice-breaking to the tune of 70 million dollars we used to be the winter ports but we lost all that business a lot of the maritimes have been hurt trying to appease Quebec and Ontario St John New Brunswick in the 1860s and 1870s is one of the leading cities in North America and should be the biggest city in Canada

[@atodaso1668]

The fishing industry also died

[@Sosyso]

Halifax: exists

[@virginiansupremacy]

small city

[@riverjonzy]

@@virginiansupremacy not really

[@riverjonzy]

St. john’s too

[@AnimeSunglasses]

​@@virginiansupremacyit's 2/3 the population of Boston...

[@jakeboynton]

@@AnimeSunglasses realistically it's 1/10th of the population

[@frig0ff843]

Great Video Geoff. I happen to live in Newfoundland and there's 1 piece of information you forgot to mention, Newfoundland has not connection to either Labrador or Nova Scotia either by land or by bridge unlike PEI and the other Atlantic Provinces.

[@dixonhill1108]

Seriously people do not get this. It's 8 hours from Port Aux Basque to the great Metropolis that is Sydney Nova Scotia. It takes 47 hours to get to Florida from St John's, nearly half the trip is getting to the US border.

[@bonbonvegabon]

Yep, its an island and oyu can only get there by plane or a 5 hr ferry ride

[@100percentSNAFU]

Nova Scotia is my favorite place i have ever visited. Because it is so rural and natural makes it so much better. Halifax is a really cool small city and i enjoyed staying there, but the most enjoyable part of my trip thrre was driving west out to Yarmouth and staying at an old farm house, and exploring the area, all the lighthouses, etc. It was most amazing to me how it was essentially a completely different climate out in the west coast of Nova Scotia than in Halifax. It was very mild and cool and foggy, in July when it was hot and humid in Halifax. We drove back around the bay of Fundy en route back to the airport and visited several more lighthouses as well as an interesting little zoo. Most beautiful scenery i've ever seen in person, and the people there were very friendly and welcoming.

[@JohnMHill-oi6rb]

Yes, I would stay at the same old hotel in Yarmouth while travelling for Roche. A nice hotel and great company! JMH

[@arbitrarycomplexity]

dear god where do you come from that yarmouth is amazing

[@bgorveatt]

Try Prince Edward Island next time! It's red soil, green rolling hills that meet the sea, framed by the blue sea and sky is beyond beautiful! Then there's the wondrrful people who are very friendly and welcoming. You'll love it!!

[@ryanbishop9646]

I’m guessing u didn’t go to PEI

[@arifshahabuddin8888]

Excellent video. I'm from the Boston area in New England and I did my undergraduate studies in Montreal. I visited Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and remote parts of Quebec. In some ways, I felt more at home in Halifax than in the U.S outside of New England and the Hudson Valley. Atlantic Canada (including Labrador and Newfoundland and the Maritime Provinces of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick) is an amazingly beautiful region with warm and welcoming people.

[@niggalini]

I used to live in New Hampshire, and had made a few summer trips through Maine and the maritime provinces, Maritime Canada and New England are pretty close to each other, a lot closer than some other regions in their own respective nations.

[@robertarisz8464]

I believe that there is a kinship between Atlantic Canada and New England. Especially the bond between Halifax and Boston is strong - it is only right that neighbours have each other's back.

[@calvinbaII]

@@robertarisz8464 There is also a massive cross-border migration between Atlantic Canada and New England. Entire families that to this day are still pretty split between Canadian-American. Hell, I even have 2nd cousins that are Long Islanders (NY), others from Cape Cod, etc and it's pretty common amongst different ethnic groups too (Black-Scotians/Loyalists, Acadiens, Celts) not just English people.

[@terryslipp3148]

I live in New Brunswick near the Maine border. All my paternal cousins are American as my father’s sisters all married American guys. Maine is very similar to Atlantic Canada in a multitude of ways.

[@migjager7352]

As others have commented here, many people in Atlantic Canada have family ties to the 'Boston States' due to out migration, so it is no wonder that you felt at home in Halifax, Nova Scotia- the 'Fourteenth Colony'. If you visited the South Shore while you were here in NS, you could have heard many people speaking with an accent not unlike that of Boston- they still have this from the MA planters who came to the region in the 1750s!

[@77WHeavy]

Great video. Unless I missed it, there was a big omission! Newfoundland only became part of Canada in 1949. That being the case there wasn’t a ton of incentive for Ottawa to develop it…

[@sbclaridge]

That's correct! As a British colony, and later Dominion, obviously Ottawa would have had nothing (or little) to do with Newfoundland and Labrador. London basically called the shots there before Newfoundland joined Canadian Confederation. The then-Dominion's economy collapsed during the Great Depression, but they started to prosper again during World War II due to military spending coming from the US and Canada. Being the closest point in North America to the European theater of war gave Newfoundland strategic importance. The end of the war brought concerns about the end of wartime prosperity, and this is where joining Canada was presented as an option for Newfoundland (and by a narrow vote, that's what happened).

[@rwboa22]

​​​@@sbclaridge there was the temptation for Newfoundland to join the US instead of Canada, which would have then presented Canada (and France with its two island territories off of the coast of Newfoundland) with an issue of having the US be literally on their "doorstep" (and given that New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia being between Maine and a US-held Newfoundland, they would have wanted secession from Canada in order to become part of the US as states, a possibility that even floated as recently as 1995 had the Quebec Referendum been successful and the République du Québec became a reality, cutting the Atlantic Provinces off from the rest of Canada).

[@markmh835]

​@@rwboa22-- Cool! The USA could use more states....... and oceanfront property as well. But sorry Atlantic Canadians: you'll have to give up your beloved national Canadian Health System in favor of our free-market, obscenely overpriced competitive healthcare dumpster fire.

[@johnearle1]

@@markmh835HMO is a good way to explain Hell to atheists.

[@realdreamerschangetheworld7470]

I wish more people were as kind as you when information is missed in a video…

[@honeywell7892]

During Covid, tons of people moved to the East Coast. We now have too few doctors, insane rents and housing prices. People came to the Island as it’s a tourist destination and picturesque and quiet and we were considered safe during COVID.

[@pat7785]

I can't even afford to live in my own province now because rich Ontarians flocked here and snatched up all the real estate. People are now renting out their living rooms for 1k+ a month in a province that only a few short years ago used to be considered affordable.

[@honeywell7892]

I know it. It sucks. I could not buy anywhere to live and looking at very small bunkies with a bathroom as an affordable future option.

[@squangan]

@@pat7785 Unfortunately the Maritimes are now experiencing what the rest of Canada has been putting up with for years housing shortage and cost wise. You were sheltered until Covid hit.

[@theoaure3774]

@@pat7785 Ya, well the eastern provinces voted in favor of mass migration policy in 2015 and still since. Now that Ontarians can't afford homes, guess where they're forced to move to be able to own a home. Think NB didn't vote for record migration again this past election solely because of all the non-NB people living there now. So now that the repercussions of bad policy hits you, don't blame us.

[@SednaNyx]

Quebec City was not the first permanent settlement!! You want to talk about Atlantic Canada but you skip over our history pretty easily. Port Royal NS is slated to be the first permanent French settlement in 1604 with Cupids, NL being the first English settlement in 1610. St. John’s, NL has the founding date of 1583 and Canso, NS having the founding date of 1604 but both having fishermen in those areas since the early 1500s.

[@hankscarth2046]

Thanks for highlighting our region with a great concise history and overview. One correction: Newfoundland is pronounced exactly like the word "understand". Just remember to "understand Newfoundland"

[@Tintan54725]

As someone from Newfoundland I honestly never put that together and I had a big mind blown moment then

[@tayloraverett1841]

You said Canada was all French until the 1763 Treaty of Paris, ending the Seven Years War, and that Great Britain then took over control. However, Hudson's Bay, and much of the area you're specifically mentioning here, namely Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, were ceded to Great Britain 50 years before that in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 at the end of the War of Spanish Succession.

[@neolithictransitrevolution427]

A loop hole, 'Canada' referred to the lower Ontario and Southern Quebec until confederation.

[@jean-philippeleblanc2660]

newfoundland had a population of around 500 in 1700 and 5000 in 1725 so not sure the impact of the place had on bigger politics at the time but i doubt it was very big.

[@rodchallis8031]

@@neolithictransitrevolution427 A neat and confusing thing is that from about 1840 to Confederation, South Western Ontario was called "Canada West".

[@neolithictransitrevolution427]

@@rodchallis8031 IRL, Canada is still just Windsor to Quebec City, the rest is a colonial possession.

[@bellybutthole69]

I mean , the video is 10 minutes long. some corners had to be cut hehe. Hard to condense the tons of treaty the country had with the first nations, which first nations were aligned with which side, the deportation of Acadians and all that.

[@liamobrien6151]

It's a very small point, but when showing the arrow for the Norse visits to Newfoundland, I'd have pointed it more expressly to the northern tip of Newfoundland's northern peninsula. This is where the one archaeologically confirmed Norse site, L'Anse aux Meadows, is located. All in all though, a great video. Thanks!

[@danachos]

Also forgot to mention Helluland (Qikiqtaaluk) and Markland (Labrador)

[@Janelle2120]

i was gonna mention that to it should of pointed up to the northern peninsula

[@Caperhere]

I’ve lived in New Brunswick, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. It’s beautiful land, scenery, with the ocean lending a moderating effect to our climate, not too hot or cold. There are areas of each province which get a lot of snow in winter, so lots of skiing and snowmobiling. Our cities are not overly large; you can find your way around, and everywhere there is a friendly feeling. The entire 4 Atlantic provinces are paradise in the summer. There is something to do everyday for tourists, from golfing to a strong music scene, but the best part of summer is just relaxing and enjoying the view.

[@dicksonfranssen]

A friendly feeling like not getting shot for telling someone they have a flat tire? I'm from Alberta, my wife is from BC. Nova Scotia has to be the friendliest place in Canada. Also, The kids in the hall! I'm squishing your head!

[@mikegrew7446]

Great video Geoff! I really enjoy your channel. Two things; FYI during WW2 Halifax became Canada's main east coast port; mainly because of the U-Boats having a field day in the Gulf of St. Lawrence due to our sonar having a problem with the mixing of fresh and sea water. So we just shipped everything to Halifax by rail and the U-Boats had no targets. Second thing. Before 1959 (long before your time, but not mine) the St Lawrence was NOT navigable west of Montreal because of rapids. It was only when the St. Lawence Seaway project that opened in 1959, that opened the St. Lawrence up to the great lakes. I may be wrong, but I believe Toronto ships much more stuff every year than Montreal now. I was just back to Montreal last summer, and it seemed like the port was a shadow of what I remember it being when I was a kid. Also, when i was a kid growing up, Montreal was Canada's largest city. Now it's Toronto. Reason? When the Quebec legislature passed Bill 101 making French the working and only official language of Quebec, large companies that had been headquartered in Montreal simply relocated to Toronto, taking their workers with them.

[@dixonhill1108]

Seriously the U-Boat war is one of the most underrated aspects of World history. Obviously it wasn't as glorious as the battle of Britain but by North American standards it was an absolute shitstorm. You can tell the deep central Canadian bias, when no one talks about it anymore. Yet we'll get endless documentaries about the most trivial of minor battles in Ontario etc.

[@tishapratt9139]

Also Bedford Basin was a good spot for the convoys to assemble during the war.

[@SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

The East Coast and NS in particular had a large manufacturing base (similar to New England) before Canada was formed as a country, and a lot of large companies (including 2 of Canada's largest banks) were HQ'd there; during Canada's early history Halifax and Saint John were 2 of its largest cities. For political reasons plus the logistics of westward expansion, a very large proportion of these industries relocated to Toronto around the turn of the 20th century - imagine what Boston/New England might be like if nearly all of its "Old Money" and major companies had relocated to Chicago back in the jazz/prohibition era. Maine's borders being what they are mean that Canada's railroads and highways need to go around it, which adds significant travel time/inconvenience when going from Halifax to Montreal (for example); and after long-distance airliners became mainstream in the mid-to-late 20th century, and YYZ (Toronto) entrenched itself as Canada's hub airport, it became inconvenient to travel to the East Coast from across the Atlantic, since nearly all destinations required a transfer at YYZ - which is 2.5 hours in the wrong direction (this phenomenon is even worse for Newfoundland). The Western provinces don't experience this as much with transpacific travel, since YVR (Vancouver) is still the major Pacific gateway airport. YHZ (Halifax) has regained some transatlantic routes in recent decades although it is still a minor gateway compared to YVR or YYZ.

[@joylox]

There's a building in NS that makes me sad every time I see it, because it was a textile manufacturer, and sat empty for decades, and all its been good for recently is urban explorers doing photoshoots in there. I think they want to make it into housing. A lot of manufacturing left, and it seems like all we really do here now is make ships and grow/catch food. I remember in university in Halifax, they said that Nova Scotia's biggest industry was tourism, which surprised me, considering we have the blueberry capital of Canada, the Christmas tree capital of Canada, and is known for fishing.

[@Aggromerchant]

Boston did suffer, though, as the US grew westward.

[@thecaynuck]

Correct. Saint John manufactured most of Canada's WWI/WWII fleet and many important ships post and pre-war. In the 90's, Irving moved all shipbuilding operations to Halifax, ending Saint John's shipbuilding industry for now. I'd like to see Saint John become an economic hub again.

[@teacherjoe7019]

The east coast of Russia is at the same latitude as the Maritime provinces and virtually no one lives there except in Vladivostok because of the winters. Even the Vikings couldn't survive in Newfoundland. I agree, the Saint Lawrence river allows people to live in the Maritime provinces.

[@J7Handle]

Yakutsk actually has a sizeable population and has just about the coldest winters you can have anywhere outside of far inland Antarctica. It's kind of crazy to me how severe and isolating the winters are and have 100s of thousands of people there. Also Khabarovsk has more people than Vladivostok by a slim margin and is on the northeast flowing Amur river, 500 miles north of Vladivostok. Yes I know we're talking about the east coast, not Siberia, but to argue that people don't live there because of the winters is a little crazy. The biggest reason for low population in the east is that the heartland of Russia is in the west and most Russians don't want to go so far away as the far east. It also explains why frigid cities in Siberia (Novosibirsk, the third largest city in Russia is in Siberia) are more populous than a mild city like Vladivostok. They're closer to central Russia, while Vladivostok is almost as far away as you can go. Chukchi being a little further away, I guess.

[@teacherjoe7019]

@@J7Handle I understand. Vladivostok exists because it's one of 5 places in Russia where a port is possible, albeit only free of ice only six month a year. The inland cities exist along the TransSiberian Railroad for a variety of reasons, among them forced migration and the migration of entire factories and workers to build Novosibirsk beyond the Ural mountains and beyond the range of German planes during WW2.

[@ericparlee8547]

I live in new Brunswick and from experience I can guarantee you Vladivostok has much worse winters than here, the lowest I've seen temperatures drop was -40 almost 10 years ago and it normally stays above -20 c during the winter. It might not be Florida but it's barely worse than new England

[@J7Handle]

@@ericparlee8547 Vladivostok record low is -32C, while the average winter temperatures are up to 3C colder than Fredericton (the city I'm using to represent New Brunswick). I would not describe Vladivostok as significantly more severe. If you're coastal New Brunswick, maybe you have milder weather, but overall not that different.

[@mrlaine1666]

To be fair, the Vikings couldn't survive because of losing a war with the indigenous peoples of that area, not because of climate. I mean, heck, they populated Greenland for a while, and many places back in Scandinavia were probably just as challenging, or worse (which is why the Vikings were so often out and about to begin with).

[@phenomenonautumn9367]

Eastern Canada in general has a very dismal climate because of the Icelandic Low and Labrador Current which act as an opposite Gulf Stream. This immense climate system keeps Europe warm but Eastern Canada cold. Montreal (at 45.5°N) gets colder winters than Moscow (at 55.8°N) and is a colder overall city than Stockholm (at 59.3°N). Then much further northeast and you have Baie-Comeau (at 49.2°N) which shares the same climate as Hammerfest (at 70.7°N), and Chibougamau (at 49.9°N) which shares the same climate as Murmansk (at 69.0°N).

[@nicolasrenaud6875]

Not only colder, but especially snowier than many famous places around the world too, let's not forget it hehehe

[@Etaoinshrdlu69]

Not as cold as Edmonton/Saskatoon/Winnipeg.

[@RBB52]

Well, if you check the climate stats you will find that Halifax actually has a rather mild climate by Canadian standards.

[@thezomby5015]

The Canadian East coast gets cold dry air from the North, and hot and humid air from the South, thus a good amount of snow is generated. The stretch of land going from around Quebec City to Halifax is where most of the snow falls, so on average the climate will be a bit milder than further north, but does gets it share of cold temperature. The mountains in British Columbia do get a lot of snow too, but are even less populated than the East coast

[@SeattlePioneer]

> Come onnnnnn global warming!

[@edombre4637]

"John Cabot" was actually Italian - his real name was Giovanni Caboto.

[@danielperry8532]

I lived on pei my whole life. I don't see it mentioned a lot. So thank you for bringing us and all the rest of the maratimes to the spotlight :). We all have lots to offer and have very friendly people within each province. Usually you feel pretty forgotten when your such a tiny place compared to the rest of the country. But pei is my home I love it. Plus it's definitely the most dense. You can't get lost on pei, just walk a kilometer any direction and you'll find a road haha.

[@476233]

Three thoughts: 1) I’m an American and I learned more about Halifax and the Canadian provinces then I did about Mexico, Cuba, and even probably large portions of Europe. Was raised on the notion that Halifax was a major industrial port city with a similar role in the maritimes as Boston was to New England. Boston and Halifax also have significant historical ties 2) lots of Atlantic shipping and transportation industry takes place off Newfoundland and the Canadian maritimes- fishing, deep sea exploration like the titan submersible, ship rescues 3) in school here in the states after 9/11 we learned about the wonderful people in the maritimes who took care of Americans who were dropped off at goose bay following 9/11. Thank you to our wonderful northern neighbors for always being kind 😊 and usually way more pleasant than some of us down here 😂

[@steveleonard5206]

Thanks. Wish some of your videos were available when I was a kid near Toronto in the 50’s & 60’s. My wife and I summer in Newfoundland now. It’s a short drive from Ontario. Over the decades we have driven to the west coast and finally got around to drive from coast to coast to coast in the summers of 2017 & 2018, to dip our toes in the Atlantic and Pacific and swim in the Arctic. It is a BIG country.

[@bonbonvegabon]

3 days is not a short drive lol

[@Bhembca]

Thanks for covering this. It’s probably the same reason 75-80% of the Canadian population lives in southern Ontario & Quebec.

[@boosterh1113]

Partly. The other big thing is the Canadian Shield. something like 80% of Canada east of Winnipeg is just a couple inches of sandy soil on top of very rugged surface granite. It isn't farmable, and building anything is tremendously expensive and time consuming (especially linear transportation, like roads or rails). Therefor, early settlement of Canada as limted to Southern Ontario (which is an extension of the Mid-Western Plains), and a handful of river valleys and lake shores where erosion and deposition has created enough of a soil layer that farming and building is more practical (Southern Quebec, along the St. Lawrence, is the largest of these).

[@adamvandolder1804]

@@boosterh1113 Yeah that's a big part many people miss. I've seen a lot of takes about how climate change will make northern Canada more livable, but like, it isn't gonna change the fact that most of it is just a giant sheet of rock.

[@bonbonvegabon]

Eastern Canada has 28 ,million people and the west coast of Canada only has 12 million people. Thus proving eastern Canada is more populous than the west and the east holds 70% of Canadas population lol. When Canada became a country, Ontario and Quebec were the first to join and this is why they are the biggest provinces holding 66% of Canadas population. QC has almost 9 million people and ON has almost 15 million people.

[@KristianAponte]

I knew there was a geographic reason but couldn't explain it. Thanks for the informative video.

[@Axemang]

The sparse population is just one aspect that attracted me to move from Ontario to Nova Scotia. The population may never climb very high, and I hope it stays that way. It feels like I live on the edge of the world sometimes. The rocks, pine trees, and sheer density of lakes reminds me of Northern Ontario, where a lot of Ontarians go on their long weekends. Good fishing and hunting, good people, ocean air, beautiful scenery, you can't go wrong!

[@richard09able]

Do they have Amazon Prime, Costco, or Sam’s club? Or is it all farm and hunt to eat?

[@drinkmoreagua8984]

@@richard09able is this a joke? there are currently 2 Costco’s in Halifax and yes we have Amazon prime, Uber, many Walmarts, grocery stores, hospitals, you name it

[@YourMotherForReal]

@@richard09ableare you an American 😂 this sounds akin to “do you all live in igloos”

[@dixonhill1108]

Nova Scotia isn't sparely populated. If it were a US state it'd be considered to be of medium population density.

[@raymondmartin6737]

My wife and I went to Maritime Canada in 2004, from Maine, through New Brunswick, PEI, and Nova Scotia, and back to Maine. We took the Centennial Bridge from NB to PEI, and the ferry from PEI to Nova Scotia, which was very scenic. In 2008 we went up from NY state to Quebec, first to Quebec City, and Montreal for the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain's exploration in 1608. I had been to Quebec City also in 1980 and 1983. My wife and I went to Toronto in 2001, by the Maple Leaf train from NY state. I also drove to Vancouver for Expo 86 in 1986, accross Canada from New York State, and Montreal in 1967 for Expo 67 back then.😊

[@TheFirstShotCounts]

its the confederation bridge not the centennial bridge lol.

[@magnusthestruperlingsen9288]

Interesting video! I’d love to add that, while Atlantic Canada is sparsely populated, it has areas that are well worth visiting. St. John’s is one of the most charming cities I’ve been to.

[@MrJayehawk]

As a Canadian originally from Newfoundland but now living in Nova Scotia, I appreciate your efforts on this video about this region and thank you for not butchering it, as many do.

[@stevenhornostaj5676]

F Trudeau

[@bonbonvegabon]

he totally butchered it lol

[@passatboi]

While it was "technically" possible to go from the St. Lawrence to the Great Lakes, it wasn't possible for shipping until the St. Lawrence Seaway - a system of locks an man-made canals making large shipping possible - opened in the 19th and then further in the 20th centuries. There were a lot of rapids, shallow rivers, islands and other impediments between Montreal and Lake Ontario. You couldn't just bring ships in from the start, unfortunately.

[@mattslowikowski3530]

When was Trent Severn built? 1840?

[@adamvandolder1804]

@@mattslowikowski3530 It started then, but wouldn't be finished until nearly a century later - according to Wikipedia the first full-length journey was only done in 1920.

[@markmh835]

Yeah, and there was that little thing called Niagara Falls. Can't get a ship up that!

[@tinayoga8844]

Hard to cover everything in 10 minutes.

[@passatboi]

@@markmh835 Niagara Falls are not on the St. Lawrence.

[@JRM92B]

As a Canadian from the East Coast I sincerely prefer it that way

[@bonbonvegabon]

My town in NL was a secret fortress during WWII where planes came to refuel on our airbase. Even Winston Churchill visited our air base in Botwood NL

[@lukeblackmore5284]

Canada’s oldest city is actually St . John’s NL! Established 1497

[@WayneMacKinnon]

No, it is Saint John, NB

[@uydagcusdgfughfgsfggsifg753]

Halifax would have been around as big as Boston, if not for the whole city getting wiped off the map in a joint effort between the British & French in 1917

[@Volcanic0]

Halifax explosion was crazy bro

[@LowVoltage_FPV]

Saint John was on it's way to being much bigger then Halifax. Then the Irvings came along.

[@matsonboyd14]

Halifax was always about 1/5 the size of Boston, even before the explosion.

[@Etaoinshrdlu69]

@@LowVoltage_FPV Bay of Fundy stopped it. Not a good port.

[@heronimousbrapson863]

It's also possible that the economic center of eastern Canada exists around the Toronto-Montreal axis is because of that area's greater proximity to the American economic centers of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, etc.

[@boosterh1113]

No. If that were the case, Halifax and St John NB would be much larger, because they have easy access to Boston, NYC, and beyond, just by sailing down the East Coast. Conversely, Montreal would be much smaller, because it has terrible access to American centres. Even Toronto only really has easy access to the Midwest (Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, & Pittsburgh). Toronto's access to the East Coast cities requires you to either go the long way by sea, or find away through or around the Appalachian Mountains.

[@nicolasrenaud6875]

@@boosterh1113 hmmm pretty true although I wouldn't state that Montreal has a "terrible" access to America, since, by land, it is well connected to the most important American center New York city by the not much elevated and almost straight line Richelieu river - Lake Champlain valley and then the Hudson river valley. Wouldn't you agree?

[@jfethier5604]

Montréal is 1 hour away fron New York state line. I took the plane in Plattsburgh many times.

[@boosterh1113]

@@jfethier5604 Sure, its only an hour to the NY state line, but Plattsburgh is not exactly an economic titan. It is five and half hours Montreal to Boston, and almost 7 to NYC, and that is the kind of connection that matters.

[@boosterh1113]

@@nicolasrenaud6875 That is still a 700 km trip, along a river that is only marginally navigable. The US tried to use that as a military logistics route several times, and it always presented huge challenges. It isn't exactly impassable, but compared to just sailing down the coast from Halifax, it absolutely sucks.

[@MOTLrBlaze]

Hey there, just a little correction for your video, the first permanent EUROPEAN settlement in canada wasnt Quebec, in 1604 the french started the Acadian colonie with the building of Port Royal. An area in nova scotia that is still lived in to this day. Also there where First nations that lived in permanent or seasonal settlements for 1000s of years before europeans arrived. That means there where permanent settlements before europeans arrived. Source: Im a history major and learned all of this in my history class called Canada from the beginning up to 1850.

[@johnhansen6653]

I live in New Brunswick, close to Saint John, it’s beautiful here. Enjoyed the video, just wanted to mention that saint Johns population goes down to around 80-90 thousand in the winter time, and it used to be the capital until they changed it to Fredricton figuring it would be more protectable being further inland.

[@k.b.tidwell]

Geoff, I appreciate the effort you put into these videos. Great job. The background music was appropriate in a way I can't really define, but it felt right.

[@lennonwilson6407]

Enjoyed the video. Feel like Annapolis royal (formally port-royal) nova Scotia deserves a mention as the first permanent European settlement in 1605.

[@UkyoKuonji2010]

I appreciate you giving the geography reason for why we are so less populated, there's more to it than that. We have a lot of things going against us and the Canadian government kept kicking us over and over again. In my province of Newfoundland and Labrador the Resettlement, where a lot of people(like my Grandmother's family) were paid by the government to abandon their homes(or physically take them with us like how some pictures portray). The Moratorium in the early 90's which saw a large workforce lose their jobs overnight(like my Dad). The offshore oil rigs which does not belong to us but some bigwig in the mainland somewhere. There's a lot of things going against us. In Newfoundland and Labrador in particular it's winter for sometimes 8 months out of the year. Our land is almost always covered in a dense blanket of fog. A lot of our land ends with sharp drops straight into the ocean NL in particular is not very fertile land. We settled here for the fish. We get a few months out of the year to do basically the only thing we can do to get money, tourism. A lot of tourist places here are refurbished small fishing plants. After the Moratorium many able-bodied men reeducated and ended up working on the mainland. We have three things that keep this province going: Government, Health Care, and Tourism. Everything else just supports these three things. I didn't mean to make this a bitch-fest but the point is, is that there's a LOT more going on. I didn't even mention that we don't even have a railway system. We did but removed it since the rails and their trains were narrower than the rest of the continent's system.

[@adithyaramachandran7427]

Canada's east coast is mostly sub arctic maritime (With the exception of Nova Scotia Which has a Temperate Climate), while the USA is temperate north of the Carolinas and subtropical from the Carolinas to Florida. Heavy snow for months on end and the risk of year round frost makes it difficult to settle there. Canada's Interior cities dip further south and have a warmer temperate climate with a dedicated sunny, hot, and frost free season. The southernmost point in Canada has a climate similar to Chicago.

[@montgenerejamiemcnelsonson3344]

Also alot of the warmer region like Nova Scotia, has tremendous seasonal lag. I have family in Cape Breton in NS and Mid/Late August is usually the hottest time of year. Also in Cape Breton the winter's can be milder but the early/mid spring is way cooler

[@robfj3414]

Actually, its called the "Golden Horseshoe" because it encompasses both the financial and industrial hearts of the country; Not because of agriculture in particular although it is surrounded by fertile farmland extending throughout South-Central and Southwestern Ontario.

[@USSJeff]

There was the Halifax Explosion which some argue set caused so much damage to the city that it moved growth elsewhere and ruined it's chances of ever becoming a major city.

[@Very_Silly_Individual]

I don't think those people know what they're talking about. Hiroshima got annihilated by a nuclear bomb, and today it's massive.

[@rodchallis8031]

Huh. I live in London, Ontario and thought Halifax was a bigger city than London. I guess with a recent influx of Toronto Real Estate Prices Refugees, London's population increased. We're about the same size now. I still think Halifax should have an NHL franchise. Love to see that.

[@YourMotherForReal]

Yes, London always seemed so small town to me! At least, the people here have a small town mentality 🙃

[@alexkawchuk206]

@@YourMotherForReal the difference is that London has larger cities nearby; Halifax *is* "the large city nearby" for all of the other cities in Atlantic Canada. In practice I think an NHL franchise would do well in Halifax; the biggest stumbling block is that no one would want to commit to building an NHL-ready arena there without the guarantee of a team, and no one would ever commit to starting/moving a franchise there until there was an NHL-ready arena.

[@dixonhill1108]

The actual downtown part of London is tiny, most of London is just an endless expanse of worthless suburb. London barely feels bigger than St.Thomas despite a dozen times the population.

[@rodchallis8031]

@@dixonhill1108 Government of the Developer, By the Developer, and For the Developer.

[@bonbonvegabon]

London is a crime infested conservative town lol@@dixonhill1108

[@mjr_schneider]

This is the reason why people talk about the "Laurentian elites" in Canada instead of the "coastal elites", because there just are no major population centres on the east coast. Which is a shame because it's probably the most beautiful and rich in history part of the country.

[@gwine9087]

I have always lived in Southern Ontatio. I have visited the East Coast, many many times. To me it is the real Canada.

[@Tintan54725]

Hey something that would have been worth mentioning in the video is that Newfoundland has the oldest Viking settlement in the America’s called “L’Anse aux meadows” and that the oldest continuously inhabited community is located in Newfoundland also (st.John’s)

[@revinhatol]

FUN FACT: Cape Breton Island was once a separate colony/province at some rare points.

[@patrickmcneil9180]

That spirit definitely lives here in Cape Breton. It's not what I'd call a mainstream movement, but there is always a least a small noticable clump of people clamouring for provincehood, and even those who don't- in fact I'd say a large majority- identify ourselves as Cape Bretoners before being Nova Scotians.

[@anon8633]

​@@patrickmcneil9180definitely, as someone who is dating a caper....we are mainlanders and they are islanders

[@johnbrowne2170]

@@patrickmcneil9180 I've been to Cape Breton. People just as friendly as Newfoundlanders.

[@marymacleod3027]

FUN FACT: Lac Bras D'or in Cape Breton and the Great Glen Rift of Scotland are part of the same strike slip fault.

[@jonnyminogue]

Great video, and vey informative. This was the one Canada explainer video I've been waiting for JJ McCullough to produce.

[@tubeyou443]

JJ sometimes seems to have a bias against the eastern provinces that I find disappointing. As if he is looking down on them.

[@jonnyminogue]

@@tubeyou443 Totally. He’s a bit of a snob about it

[@whyisthereacitythere6768]

An additional factor was significant migration out of the Canadian Maritimes to coastal New England due to much better job opportunities. Before Confederation Montreal was only about 50% bigger than Halifax due to the coastal city's trade as part of the British Empire. But after Confederation many left the Maritimes for New England. By 1890, Boston had more English speaking Canadian immigrants than any other U.S. city, Cambridge, MA across the river had more Canadian-born immigrants at the time than New York City. By 1920, more Massachusetts residents had been born in Canada than any other state or country besides Mass itself, as was also the case in New Hampshire and Maine. If Nova Scotia had been part of the US, Boston and Portland, ME could have ended up smaller and Halifax bigger.

[@caleboblak]

Amazing informative video, new Canadian subscriber right here!

[@dougchjg2753]

@@caleboblak this is misinformation so many fake facts look at the comments

[@FoxyNewfie]

I think you forgot to mention especially when it comes to Newfoundland Labrador as somebody who lives in St John's myself is that a lot of land is wildlife protected or is unfiltered to build on such as the wreck house area, lot of swamps in marshlands on the island and I think Labrador doesn't need much of an explanation considering you're dealing with what is the land has permafrost and not to mention lots of bog and wetland that's not only protected but impossible build on. Throw a bunch of mountains in there and well land is hard to come by. There's a lot more rural areas that dude or harsh Winters food and supplies can be scarce in winter time so unless you're born in those communities it's not very appealing to a lot of people. If you live in St John's land is even harder to come by in fact there's not much room, most people have expanded into other nearby communities such as Mount Pearl, CBS, torbay , flat rock not a lot of people really like living in the city and prefer more quieter communities and to be closer to Nature it's a lot of people who live here do a lot of hunting and fishing camping ECt. I said I live in St Johns and even we've had grocery shelf empty or shipments of food.for days to weeks to very harsh Winters. So it's not for the faint of heart... although in the summertime tourist seemed to love everything our unique promises have to offer

[@Hsalf904]

This is why we never should have joined Canada. Our geography obviously does not fit with theirs. We were much better off trading with the eastern US, Caribbean and Britain than trying to compete with Upper Canada’s industries. Confederation was originally supposed to be just between the Maritime provinces but then Upper Canada barged in and sweet-talked our representatives while the vast majority of our population was against it and they introduced the National Policy which prevented us from trading with our natural trading partners.

[@favoriteswubby]

My 9th great grandfather was Michel Heche Gallant. He was born abt. 1662 in Nova Scotia area to a French father and his mother was Mk'mac.

[@billdescoteaux]

He is my 7th-great, on my paternal grandmother's side. Michel was born in NS, but his parents died when he was young. His father's boss adopted him, and did a lot of business in Trois-Rivieres, PQ. He would bring Michel with him. Michel was baptized there in 1668. When he grew up. he was one of the first to settle on I'le-St-Jean, which is now PEI. In 1737, he died when he fell through the sea ice. I work with a Gallant, he is my 7th cousin once removed. And BTW, the Descoteaux in Canada originated in Trois-Rivieres with Pierre LeFebvre's son Ange LeFebvre dit Descoteaux, born there in 1658.

[@favoriteswubby]

Well howdy cousin 😀. My mother is a Gallant. As far as I know, all Gallants in Canada and USA are related. My grandfather traced the lineage back in the early 1960s before it was the popular thing to do. I was a little kid and I grew up hearing stories about Michel Heche Gallant.

[@billdescoteaux]

@@favoriteswubby Yes, at most distant, we are eighth cousins twice removed, based on our descendancy from Michel. But as you may know, Acadian descendants may be related in more ways than just one!

[@billdescoteaux]

My Gallants start with my 3rd-great grandmother, my Grammie's great-grandmother Julie Hache dit Gallant, (1817-????) who was the 2nd wife of Germain Chiasson. They were from Margaree, near Cheticamp, Inverness County.

[@KG-xt4oq]

In 1980 at the age of 9 I got to spend the summer in Halifax...essentially all of June and July. I have many fond memories of that summer; visiting Peggy's Cove, taking a ride on a real schooner ship, riding the VIA from one end of the province to the other (I told my friends that I took a train to Australia because one of the stops was a town called Sydney...lol), walking across the street from the apartment building we lived in to the local 'common' to play or watch the softball and cricket games/matches...and many more. Would like to go back one day...

[@robertbruce1887]

Enjoyed this video, very thorough, diverse, & concise. Good point was presenting that although the East Coast of Canada may lack large metropolis's it is a beautiful area with lots to offer. Also a good explanation of the geographical circumstances of how the Eastern half of Canada was settled.

[@HalifaxHercules]

To say that a few Canadians live in the Atlantic Provinces are misleading. In fact, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island have Canada's highest population densities. In the case of Halifax, which is my hometown, they have a population density of 91.3 people per square kilometre. Newfoundland and Labrador is a little different as they have nearly 530,000 people in a geographical area equivalent to Japan. Their population density is especially low outside the Avalon Peninsula area, mostly due to their harsh environment, limited access to arable land outside the Humber Valley Region, and severe climate.

[@myautobiography9711]

Having lived in Canada, I've seen more people from Halifax than those from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. One of my close buddy in high school moved from Halifax all the way to New Westminster BC. It's a big city for Canadians. I've heard the four Atlantic provinces are pushing hard on immigration these days. I wonder how that will turn out to be.

[@drinkmoreagua8984]

Halifax is one of if not the fastest growing city in Canada

[@nowbacktoyourprogram]

It will turn out bad Higher crime Not enough hospitals Not enough doctors Higher housing costs More money for infrastructure More policing.. I guess some people call it progress.

[@myautobiography9711]

@@drinkmoreagua8984 I sure am happy for hearing that.

[@migjager7352]

As a resident of Halifax, I can tell you that it has been a nightmare. I lost my doctor three years ago and have been on an ever-growing waiting list ever since to get a new one. There are currently around 200,000 people in Nova Scotia without a doctor out of 1 million people, and the health services are on the brink of collapse. Despite this, the gov't is waving in thousands of immigrants every month. They want to double the population of the province ASAP but there isn't the infrastructure, the homes or the personnel to accommodate this- it is insane. Traffic in the city is a nightmare. Schools are overcrowded and apartments in the city are as expensive as anywhere in Canada. Ditto for out in the country- no vacancy.

[@UzumakiNaruto_]

*I've heard the four Atlantic provinces are pushing hard on immigration these days. I wonder how that will turn out to be.* It will turn out poorly like it has for the rest of Canada. Its crazy that the Liberal government constantly talks about wanting Canadians to drastically reduce their carbon emissions and yet they have no problems with bringing in hundreds of thousands of more people to create more emissions, not to mention much more resource usage and garbage output. Each Canadian supposedly outputs about 15 metric tons of carbon emissions per person per year. Is it easier to try and get 40 million Canadians to all reduce their emissions by even a couple of tons per year or wouldn't it be far simpler to just not bring in 500,000-1 million new people per year outputting 15 metric tons of emissions and trying to get them to reduce their emissions as well? This is the kind of hypocrisy and insanity that Canadians have to deal with when it comes to their leaders and this doesn't even include all the social, cultural, infrastructure etc. impacts of wanting to bring in 1 to 2 Halifax worth of people into the country every single year. Trudeau is truly the WORST PM OF ALL TIME with all the damage he's done to this nation in such a relative short period of time.

[@Carol-mj2cg]

Thank you for your hard work on these great videos. ❤

[@jeanbolduc5818]

The french had excellent relations with the first nations. They even formed families called Métis (children from first nation and the french). The problems began under the British Empire towards the first nations and the deportation of French Canadians from Acadia to Louisiana destroying the french families . Many French Canadians left Quebec to Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine . In 2023 , more than 10 million Americans are descendant from French Canadian .

[@atodaso1668]

So that's where all the pride crap comes from, the french!

[@thethemm]

It's very cold along the Atlantic coast of Quebec in the winter and especially in Labrador. That could also be a factor in why no major cities developed there.

[@ShamileII]

Watching with interest from central Florida

[@antiowarr9467]

Quebec city is NOT the oldest city in Canada. St. John's Newfoundland is. Also the reason why Newfoundland is not as popular as the other cities in Canada id because the agreement that Canada made with Newfoundland was not done in a fair way by adding things in the agreement after the talks were finish. Newfoundland is the riches place in Canada just the Newfoundland people got screwed out of many things because they were to kind. ALL FACTS

[@DerekRyanTwo]

Not sure where you’re from, but you say “Toronto” like a true Torontonian, nicely done 👏

[@ronquiring7796]

The St. Lawrence and the great lakes. Much easier exploration and transportation than on foot. Combine this with an abundance of fresh water and you have two determining aspects of early settlement.

[@TYRONE_SHOELACES]

I'm from Nova Scotia, born and raised in Sydney, Cape Breton Island, the only city on the island, then moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1993. I went to trade school for every welding course avaiable and once I attained all of them in 1989, I moved to Halifax and have not been out of work for a single day since Feb. 1989. I'm 63 years old and still work in Halifax, making the highest money a pipe welder can make in this area, so Nova Scotia having less people than Montreal is fine by me, less people means safer roads.

[@Very_Silly_Individual]

As long as birth rates go 👆 and immigration goes 👇👇👇👇👇 we'll have a better province, for longer.

[@TYRONE_SHOELACES]

@@Very_Silly_Individual It's too late for waiting for birth rates to "go up". That will take decades for effect. When I was building a family, I could not afford to have more than one child, because the Government made it so expensive to have more than one, so I didn't. But now the Government is spending a million and millions on bringing migrants into the Country for the tax base and blue collor worker, BUT if they had subsidized families back in the 90's, families like MINE, I would have been able to afford to have more than one child, so it's the Governments fault for this loss of birth rates. I wasn't going to add three more children to my household when we were just getting by with only 1. Now, Canada is going to become so diversified that one day soon, there will be a vote for a Prime Minister that wants to abolish ALL alcohol, tobacco and soft drugs from the country, and he will win, because his religion hates alcohol, but since the Country is now 56% THAT religion, our culture will now change. If you bring in a culture of people that hate eating cows, and that culture overpopulates how many natural Canadians that are here, and they vote to make eating cows illegal ... what can you do? ... nothing. People ask why does Trudeau allow so many migrants into Canada ... answer is simple ... there used to be 5 Canadian working for every pensioner, but NOW it's only 2 Canadians working for every Pensioner, so the Pension fund is failing, Canada needs ANYBODY to increase the tax base, but at WHAT cost .. We had a Government that mismanaged our culture, and now our culture will be gone. Our natural culture of Canadians is slowly being replaced by a culture of migrants that have a normal-sized family of 7 to 10 children for EVERY family ... .do the math and see how long it takes for a family of 10 to out populate a Canadian family of 2? .... In France, there are areas of that City that are designated "NO GO" zones for French people, because NO ALCOHOL is allowed in these no-go zones, women are to be dressed a certain way if they want/dare to walk through that area ... the more people who migrate or are born in that area, the WIDER that area becomes, until ...it is NOT just the area affected, but the whole Country, and the natural "Frenchmen", is the minority.

[@EpicDIZ]

Born and raised in Fredericton and our region is truly a gem.

[@ccudmore]

Canada has only 1/10 of the population of the US. So a 500,000 population city in Canada (like Halifax-Dartmouth) could be considered proportionally the equivalent of a 5 million person city in the US (like Boston) Also at 7:59 the graphic appears to show water-based shipments from Ottawa. The Ottawa River is not navigable for freight as there's many rapids along the way.

[@ryantwitter343]

Hahahah it’s not the equivalent of a 5 million city in the US. For one there’s only like 4-5, five million cities in the USA. Boston doesn’t have 5 million. You literally just times it by the difference. Halifax is in Canadas top 12. Take you twelve biggest city and that’s how it’s viewed. Halifax doesn’t FEEL big to Canadians. We go other places.

[@alexkawchuk206]

@@ryantwitter343 Boston is about the 12th-10th largest US metro area (depending what metric you're using). Usually when people talk about "US cities with populations of X million" or whatever they mean the metro area, not the city proper. The *City of Halifax* (~430,000) is not much smaller than the *City of Boston* (~650,000); but very few people would say that Halifax is almost as big as Boston, or that Boston is "about half the size of Calgary".

[@Very_Silly_Individual]

​@@ryantwitter343bro is a 🤡

[@dixonhill1108]

Have no idea what you're tlaking about, Halifax is a major city in Canada. It's comparable to Winnipeg, Quebec City, Kitchener Waterloo, London, Windsor, Victoria and Saskatoon. @@ryantwitter343

[@dixonhill1108]

That's not what he said. Halifax has about 1.25% of Canada's population. That would make it comparable in Size to a Metropolitan area like Seattle. Halifax is a major Canadian city, to suggest otherwise is to claim you've never lived in Canada.@@alexkawchuk206

[@robertbrown5319]

I previously considered Halifax a major Canadian city. Agree that a population of only 465,000 people isn't a lot.

[@Kongohh]

it is a major canadian city, don't let it's size fool you... it's influence is underrated but its definitely major

[@Maxmulham]

That's because it's the main city on the East Coast. Hamilton dwarfs Halifax in terms of population but because Hamilton is not a capital and surrounded by other metro areas like Toronto, Kitchener, and London, it generally is neglected while Halifax sticks out like a sore thumb.

[@BasilMinhas]

@@Maxmulham Even though Halifax has a smaller population than Kitchener

[@Maxmulham]

@@BasilMinhas Kitchener's metro area is bigger than Halifax. You need to include Cambridge and Waterloo.

[@katherinegilks3880]

"Major" isn't just about size; it's about influence. Hamilton, Kitchener, etc. are not major cities, while Halifax, St. John's, Saskatoon, and Thunder Bay are all major cities despite being smaller population-wise. I use the analogy of planets: Jupiter's biggest moons are larger than Mercury, but they are not planets because they orbit Jupiter, while Mercury is a planet because it orbits the sun directly. Halifax is like Mercury, while Hamilton and Kitchener are like Ganymede and Titan.

[@Carnutzjoe]

I get the historical, traditional reasons why the Canadian east coast has a relatively small population but in the 21st century these reasons aren’t that important. The times I have visited Halifax NS, I thought it was beautiful and I considered moving there. I think the Canadian East coast will grow considerably in the years ahead.

[@hlawrencepowell]

Very true.

[@stoometzphoto]

The reason is because The Maritimes of Canada on the East Coast where I live, we are The Shire of Canada and we don’t care about the big folk cities, and we like it better that way.

[@corners3755]

Because its cold! Living in Midcoast Maine, I know downeast Maine gets some pretty gnarly cold weather and have longer winters and shorter summers.

[@matthewtaylor5288]

This video is wildly inaccurate. The ports of Halifax and Saint John were nearly as productive as Ontario and highly industrialized in the 19th century, mainly because the St. Lawrence was iced in for many months of the year. A common complaint of the period was that Ontario's most accessible market was New York and it cost them a fortune to reach it over land, whereas the eastern colonies sold across the Atlantic for a fraction of the cost. However, Atlantic Canada shouldered the majority of the dominion's debt (as is often the case) because the east financed the western colonization. Quebec had its own dynamics. Atlantic Canada signed into Confederation based on two promises: 1)The Dominion would buy our debt and 2) Through the disproportionate anglophone majority in the Senate, our interests would be balanced against our primary trade competitor: Quebec. For this, we gave up our open trade policies for the tariffs that would make Ontario competitive in the New England markets. The second promise was then broken by Wilfrid Laurier's Liberals who built a coalition of Quebecois and Ontarians. This undermined the purpose of the Senate as a governing body, imposed national taxes which extracted further wealth from the untaxed east, and made a national project of opening the St. Lawrence seaway which undermined our economic role in the Dominion. The situation described in this video is a result of these policies, not the root cause.

[@Taeolas]

Just got this video suggested and have some anecdotes from a local. I grew up in New Brunswick and currently live in Fredericton. Firstly, your population stats are a little out of date (though could vary depending on what official numbers you go by). Nova Scotia is well over 1M now and New Brunswick cracked 800k last year and is about 830k now. It will probably crack 1M before the end of the decade. As you implied, the St Laurent is a big factor in why the Atlantic Provinces are stunted, but there are a lot of political elements behind the stunting as well. When Canada was formed, Britain basically forced NB and NS into the Confederation somewhat against their will. And the nascent country wanted to try and promote unity so they broke connections with the rebellious United States. For Quebec and Ontario that wasn't bad, they had lots of land, direct connections to Europe and a lot of interprovincial trade in the early days. For Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (and Newfoundland to some extent), it was horrible; they were both heavy maritime regions that had a lot of north-south trade with New England, and that trade abruptly got cut off for political reasons. Furthermore, there were no real connections to Quebec and the rest of Canada. The closest you really get is the upper reaches of the Saint John River which reaches into the Gaspe and sort've connects to Quebec, but it wasn't easy to get there. (Hell even today the road connection still has a 80km long 2-lane bidirectional highway stretch, though it is being twinned. Most of the route was twinned in the 90's and 2000's). There's only one rail connection that isn't really well maintained either. (Used to be two but one was torn up in the 80's). The fact that Aroostock County in Maine sticks up between Quebec and New Brunswick doesn't help much either; it limits direct routes that might otherwise help link and cross link the region. After confederation until the mid 20th, things weren't too bad. Montreal and Toronto were dominating, but Halifax was holding its own. But after the World Wars, Ottawa focused on the West and Ontario, and basically ignored the Atlantic Canadian provinces. Immigration policies brought new people into southern Ontario, Montreal and Vancouver, while the Oil rush caused Alberta to boom, leaving Atlantic Canada (and SK and Manitoba) to languish in the aftermath. Personally, I feel the french wall of Quebec also was our detriment. English Canadian companies rarely pushed into Quebec, so their maps of Canada basically ended at Kingston/Ottawa (maybe Montreal). They never thought of pushing through Quebec and into the english cities of the Maritimes and Newfoundland. (which did let us get some home grown companies that have grown to global sizes, like the Irvings, Empire (Sobeys), and McCains. In the 2000's, that finally changed. Immigration policies changed, letting provinces (especially the Maritimes) lure in all they could handle and then some. And we started to grow. Shaking off decades of "Elderly, sleepy, Have-not EI-leechers" is a hard reputation to shake, but it started. We saw more investment out here, and major companies really started looking at Halifax (and St John's and Moncton). Before Covid, we were booming with almost unbelievable growth numbers. And during COVID, we weathered the storm better than most areas. We set up the Atlantic Bubble and severely limited who could come in. The lack of connections to the rest of Canada worked to our advantage for a change (We basically have 4 roads that go from New Brunswick to Quebec, and only one is a major road, the rest are basically minor access roads), so it was easy to limit travel that way. Rail and Air travel was already cut off, and the International border was closed so no one was coming from Maine (NB has more connections to Maine than Quebec by the way). How we weathered COVID, along with the shift to Work from Home policies made people notice us, and our sleepy industries really perked up. When we were booming before, we are white hot now and are still. As I mentioned at the start, Nova Scotia cracked 1M last year, and NB cracked 800k soon after, and NB is well on pace to crack 1M before 2030. As far as industry goes, shipping is really picking up, and not just in Halifax. Saint John, New Brunswick has just brought 2 major cargo cranes online and is basically doubling their shipping throughput, and they're investing heavily to further improve it. NB's tri-cities (Moncton/Saint John/Fredericton) were a bit of an albatross for years, as it split our growth alot; but now all three of them are CMAs and the province is really hitting above its weight class. (could you imagine 3 Costco's in a region with only 800k people? All 3 cities have Costcos that are busy all the time) So yeah, you're right, the Saint Laurent was a big reason for Atlantic Canada's stunted growth. But the 2020's seem to be our decade and we're doing our best to make up for lost time. There are a lot of growing pains involved, but by the end of the decade, things will probably look very different. Halifax is growing fast and will probably crack the Top 10 easily. And Moncton is the fastest growing city in the country by a wide margin. As someone who has lived in the region for almost all my life, the difference in how it feels now is VERY different from how it felt in the 80's and 90's, for the significant better. Thanks for reading my essay. :)

[@theoaure3774]

Why do you want the region to grow in population? Canada has a sustainability issue. Majority of the people don't want to live in most of the land, hence why Canada's population resides mainly in a few dense areas. And most of the terrain cannot grow its own food, or at least a good variety of food. Your "boom" will turn into a nightmare. It's what has happened to Toronto and Vancouver. I can't believe these 2 places continuously poll high in favoured cities across the globe, since most people who were born and raised there don't expect to be able to afford homes there. Very few people, when push comes to shove, actually like Toronto. They're just living there because they're stuck. They earn more there than if they were to switch jobs elsewhere, but the housing cost is so absurd now that the extra pay means nothing in practice. The rising pop will help current homeowners in the east. It's basically a much more valuable retirement plan to just sit on the home and wait for it to go up. But then, your children and your grandchildren will find it too hard to afford a place there, meaning they'll be priced out of their own neighbourhoods.

[@arbremonde13]

Without watching the video, as a French canadian from quebec, my answer to that is that the population is mostly located around the st. Lawrence River avec the Ontario peninsula, because that's where our ancestor established themselves during the 18th and 19th century

[@quatreunhuit]

Ouin, mais j'imagine qu'il veut savoir pourquoi ils se sont établie davatange au bord du St-Laurent que dans les maritimes.

[@sergelacasse923]

Tant qu’à y aller, saviez-vous que Halifax a été créée au détriment de Gaspé comme port principal d’entrée? Oui Halifax n’était qu’un village aussi. Parce que Gaspé n’était pas dans les plans politiques (trop français) et trop au Québec… même à l’époque. C’était dans la controverse. La vraie histoire, au parlement d’Ottawa, a désigné Halifax. Gaspé était la ville choisie. Mais ça n’a pas passé au parlement. Aujourd’hui Gaspé aurait 403,000 habitants, et Halifax 18,000 si la logique maritime et du transport terrestre avait été soutenue.

[@alexkawchuk206]

@@sergelacasse923 la population de la Ville de Québec dans les années 1860s était environ 2x la population d'Halifax; ce n'était pas un "village" lol. Halifax en 1861 était environ 25 000; je ne comprend pas pourquoi on estimerait que cela aurait été réduit à 18 000 en 2023...

[@Wayne-yo6ej]

One point not mentioned was that in 1867, newly formed Canada cut traditional trade routes from Nova Scotia to New England and forced trade through Ontario.

[@chuckvoss8833]

Northern Quebec and Labrador is dark, -50 Celsius winters, very short summers. Mostly bedrock. Small spruce trees. Harsh.

[@DoktorApplejuceAbridged]

I mean, in the context of the United States, Halifax isn't a major city, but in the context of Canada, I'd definitely say it is. (Also, correction at 3:19 - it's referred to as the French and Indian war in the US, but it's still the 7 Years War in Canada)

[@peepeetrain8755]

yeah, 400k seems pretty big. Just the difference betweem USA vs Canada on how they view city sizes, if iqaluit and whitehorse are province capitals, the size and importance of cities are definitely skewed even me from Australia views cities over 100k as major cities as they are sometimes the only city nearby

[@minimaxmiaandme.4971]

Many Canadians are returning to live in the Maritimes (East Coast) after living in the West. It used to be just a fishing industry but now has changed to so many other industries and young people are moving back. It is a wonderful place to visit and in fact, a brother moved out there recently on 40 acres of land that my parents had purchased. Can be a bit harsh in the winter though. 🇨🇦

[@tedebayer1]

they're returning mostly because the housing costs are half or less.... other communities have priced home ownership out of reach... the thought crossed my mind more than once, and my sister moved to NB at retirement.

[@pascaldeslongchampsmoncton1490]

The many industries you talk about, are not really industries, they are fishing and tourism, other than that the economy is mostly base on services, we don't produce much over here. There's no big corporations or businesses.

[@dixonhill1108]

The quality of living is better on the coast than it is in Alberta. Alberta isn't Vancouver the appeal was pretty limited.@@tedebayer1

[@leolopez_0728]

Weird but, when I first came to live and work in Halifax Nova Scotia, I was surprised that it did not have major league team or NOT even a stadium! It has a hockey arena but that is expected in a hockey crazy country like Canada. Also there are very few high rise buildings and very few freeways, it has population of barely only 465,000 about the same as Raleigh North Carolina that does have an NHL team. But it's people, weather and laid back lifestyle are very nice to have and live in.

[@lavendermenace8078]

Part of it is we just haven’t had the money in Halifax or Nova Scotia to pay for or be incentivized to have. More high rises are being built since the pandemic started, but zoning and restrictions just based on how the city was built limit the ability for high rises downtown especially. While developers are trying to install a bunch of higher rises (I don’t think most here go above 12) there has been pushback from the community as their tearing up a lot of historic properties and removing the character of the city. When tourists look up Nova Scotia a lot of the pictures you will see are multi coloured older wood shingle homes, which traditionally were painted to match a fishing boat because they had excess paint, but it became popular across the province. So you will see older homes with purple wood siding and teal trim, or lime green with orange, magenta, pastel purple, basically any colour and any combination. It adds a lot of character, no house is the same, and the colour is beautiful all year which helps with the winter months being kinda white grey and depressing. Newer builds aren’t keeping up the tradition it is slowly becoming boring and indistinguishable from any other city. This issue is becoming worse with greedy developers who’s large luxury apartment buildings sit mostly vacant even with the housing crisis cause no one can afford to live there. So while we have a housing crisis these kind of buildings are not likely to be common here anytime soon

[@dixonhill1108]

You need about a million people in your Metro to get any major league sports franchise. Halifax has about half that. Raleigh has over a million in its market/metro, a municipality population means virtually nothing.

[@retrovoid3301]

Born and raised in Newfoundland. i love the province but unfortunately no work there sadly, i had to move across canada to alberta for work. miss the views, walking trails, all my family. i would move all over again though. was really struggling in newfoundland but im doing so much better out this way!

[@bonbonvegabon]

I left NL in 1998 for Toronto because they were no jobs back then and there are still no jobs there

[@LoveStallion]

I think this video might be missing a few key points. The importance of the St. Lawrence River cannot be overstated, but Geoff even says part of the appeal was easy access to the Great Lakes - but overlooks that until the Welland Canal was built, you couldn't really get past Niagara Falls without unloading a ship and loading onto another one at Lake Erie. Early settlers didn't have unfettered water access from Quebec City to Duluth. The Maritimes' beautiful terrain also means they aren't well suited for agriculture. I'm surprised there was no mention of the fishing industry, which can be a driver, but as others have noted, processing was based in the U.S. and couldn't be scaled enough for growth. A good analog to the Maritimes is Maine, which might as well be part of them - rugged, forested, no huge cities, etc.