Atlantic Canada

Atlantic Canada is the world's largest producer of frozen french fries, as it is 43% of their entire agriculture food exports. Atlantic Canada makes about $342,200,000 in revenue from this product alone. Behind potatoes comes their wild blueberries, which is the largest export of the kind in the continent. They also fund the continent in carrots. Most people don't know it, but Atlantic Canada created the first ever chocolate bar. Chocolate confectionary continues to be one of their main exports at 3.1% with $24,600,00 in revenue. But this is just agri-food. Seafood is their biggest food industry, with lobster leading at 30.4% with a whopping $471,100,000 revenue and crab, shrimp and many others not far behind.

Source: A Guide to Atlantic Canadian Agri-Food, Seafood and Beverage Products http://atn-riae.agr.ca/supply/atlantic-e.htm

Mi’Kmaq – The First Nations of Atlantic Canada

The Mi’Kmaq people are native to parts of Atlantic Canada including a large part of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Labrador and New Brunswick. The Mi’Kmaq are a people of Algonquin descent. When the French first came to Atlantic Canada, the Mi’Kmaq sided with them as they allowed them to choose Christianity, the Mi’Kmaq tradition or neither. But when the Acadians were expelled from their homes and the French lost control of the area, the British came in and took over French land.

The Mi’Kmaq suffered deeply as the French and British arrived. Their population was upwards of 30,000 and by 1616 it was believed that they were only 3,000. That is a huge difference in such a short amount of time.
Cape Breton is a place of special importance for the Mi’Kmaq. Their spiritual capital is Mniku in the Bras d’Or Lakes. Cape Breton is also home to the St. Anne Mission, where many Mi’Kmaq visit for pilgrimages.
Famous Mi’Kmaq include Rita Joe, noted poet, and Sandy McCarthy, who was a right winger for the Calgary Flames

All information taken from Wikipedia - Mi’Kmaq

Posting by Kathleen

St. John’s – Capital of Newfoundland

St. John’s is the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador. St. Johns is the biggest city in all of Newfoundland. Although who got their first has been disputed since the beginning of the province, the first permanent settlers, who were English, came to St. John’s in 1605. The city began to grow exponentially because of all of the fishing right off the coasts. In the summer, the province was full of new fishing boats. During the Seven Years War, the French were forced to surrender to the British, and thus St. John’s is an English town.

After the 18th century, St. Johns became less of a fishing spot and more of a town. City-like things such as churches, schools, city buildings were erected, although the main industry of the city was fishing, as well as for seal. During the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, the city served as a naval base.
Now, St John’s still has a prominent fishing industry as well as oil and gas. The city is even home to a few small universities. The population sits around a hundred thousand people.

All information taken from Wikipedia: St. John’s Newfoundland
Entry written by Kathleen

The Guardian – Daily Newspaper in Prince Edward Island

The Guardian wasn’t always called the Guardian. In the 1870’s when the paper was started, the man who founded it was a Presbyterian, so for many years it was called the Presbyterian. Later, the named was changed to The Protestant Union. Around 1887 the paper was given the name Prince Edward Islanders know today. In 1923, the plant where the papers were typed and manufactured was burned down, and for awhile the workers had to work in another paper’s plant. In 2002 the paper was bought by its current owners.
Although there are many weekly papers in Prince Edward Island such as the Patriot, the Examiner and the Herald, the Guardian remains the only paper that is daily – the others are weekly and one (I think) is monthly.

“Today’s Guardian, like the ones of old, still carries plenty of news about politics but coverage is non-partisan, unlike the old days. From 1912 into the 1950s it was unabashedly Conservative in its political leaning, as opposed to its rival the Patriot, which was the Liberal paper of record.”1

Entry written by Kathleen

1 http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?pid=1472

Bay of Fundy – Geography

The geography of the Bay of Fundy is world renowned for its tides, its land and its geography. “Folklore in the Mi'kmaq First Nation claims that the tides in the Bay of Fundy are caused by a giant whale splashing in the water.”2 The tides change about thirteen feet each passing of tide which is due to the way the land was carved by a rift between Pangaea and North American some odd 190 million years ago.  Because of the rift between the supercontinent and a continent that we call home, volcanic activity began to happen all over the province. As a result, basalts from that time formed North Mountain in Nova Scotia and left many of the basin floors brown. The rift created basins and rivers both in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and mountains that we can still see today. Because of the extreme tides, the rivers are only functional when the tides are up and can carry boats back and forth.

2 Wikipedia – Bay of Fundy

Entry written by Kathleen