New Brunswick

Encyclopedia : N : NE : NEW : New Brunswick

This article is about the Canadian province; for the city in New Jersey, see New Brunswick, New Jersey.

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Geography

The total land and water area of the province is approximately 70,000 square kilometres. About 80% of the province is forested, with the other 20% consisting of agricultural land and urban areas. The major urban centres lie in the south of the province. The bulk of the arable land is found in the Upper St. John River Valley, with lesser amounts of farmland found in the southeast of the province.

While New Brunswick is one of Canada's Maritime Provinces, it differs from its neighbours both ethnoculturally and physiographically. Both Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island are either wholly or nearly surrounded by water and the ocean therefore tends to define their climate, economy and culture. New Brunswick on the other hand, although having a significant seacoast, is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean proper and has a large interior which is removed from oceanic effects. New Brunswick therefore tends to be defined by its rivers rather than its seacoast.

The major river systems in the province include the St. John River, Petitcodiac River, Miramichi River, St. Croix River and the Restigouche River. The St. John River is thought to be the second longest river on the North American eastern seaboard between the St. Lawrence River and the Mississippi River.

New Brunswick lies entirely within the Appalachian Mountain range, a chain of ancient, eroded mountains which have created river valleys and low, gently rolling hills throughout large parts of the province. The eastern and central part of the province consists of the New Brunswick Lowland, whereas the Caledonia Highlands and St. Croix Highlands extend along the Bay of Fundy coast, reaching elevations of 300 metres. The northwestern part of the province is comprised of the remote and more rugged Miramichi Highlands, Chaleur Uplands, and the Notre Dame Mountains with a maximum elevation at Mount Carleton of 820 metres.

10 largest municipalities by population

Municipality	2001	1996
Saint John	69 661	72 494
Moncton	61 046	59 313
Fredericton	47 560	46 507
Miramichi	18 508	19 241
Edmundston	17 373	17 876
Riverview	17 010	16 684
Dieppe	14 951	12 497
Quispamsis	13 757	13 579
Bathurst	12 924	13 815
Rothesay	11 505	11 470

The major urban areas of the province are Metropolitan Saint John (Saint John, Quispamsis, Rothesay) and Metropolitan Moncton (Moncton, Riverview, Dieppe). Both of these census metropolitan areas have urban populations between 120,000 and 130,000. Greater Fredericton (the provincial capital) has a census agglomeration population of 85,000.

The population of New Brunswick is majority English-speaking but with a substantial (35%) French-speaking minority called Acadians (from "Acadia", the former name of this region during the French colonial period). Most Acadians migrated to the area from the Vienne region of France. New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province in Canada.

History

Early European settlement

The first British claim to New Brunswick was in 1621, when Sir William Alexander was granted, by King James I, all of present-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and part of Maine. The entire tract was to be called '"Nova Scotia", Latin for "New Scotland". Naturally, the French did not take kindly to the English claims. France however gradually lost control of Acadia in a series of wars during the 18th century.

One of its provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, which formally ended the War of the Spanish Succession, was the surrender of peninsular Nova Scotia to the English crown. All of what would later become New Brunswick, as well as "Île St-Jean" (Prince Edward Island) and "Île Royale" (Cape Breton Island) would remain under French control.

The bulk of the Acadian population now found themselves residing in the new British colony of Nova Scotia. The remainder of Acadia including the New Brunswick region was only lightly populated, with major Acadian settlements in New Brunswick only found in the Beaubassin (Tantramar), Memramcook, and Petitcodiac regions as well as at Fort la Tour (Saint John) and Fort Anne (Fredericton).

During the Seven Years' War (1756-63), the British extended their control to include all of New Brunswick. Fort Beausejour (near Sackville) was captured by an English force commanded by Lt. Col. Robert Monckton at the very beginning of the war in 1755. Acadians from the nearby Beaubassin and Petitcodiac regions were subsequently expelled just as had the Acadians from peninsular Nova Scotia been deported earlier the same year. Other skirmishes followed and Fort Anne (across from present-day Fredericton) fell in 1759. Following this, all of present day New Brunswick came under British control. France ultimately lost control of its North American empire after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec in 1759.

A British colony

Significant population growth would not occur until after the American Revolution, when Britain convinced refugee Loyalists from New England to settle in the area by giving them free land. (It should be noted that most of the pre-existing settlers in New Brunswick (prior to the arrival of the Loyalists) actually favoured the American rebels, and it is conceivable that, if a little better organized, New Brunswick could have been the "fourteenth colony"). In particular, Jonathan Eddy and his "rangers" harassed and laid siege to the British garrison at Fort Cumberland (the renamed Fort Beausejour) during the early parts of the American Revolution. It was only after the arrival of a relief force from Halifax that the siege was lifted.

With the arrival of the Loyalist refugees in Parrtown (Saint John) in 1783, the need to organize the territory politically became acute. The newly arrived Loyalists felt no allegiance to Halifax and wanted to separate from Nova Scotia to isolate themselves from the democratic, republican influences existing in that city. They felt that the government of Nova Scotia represented a Yankee population which had been sympathetic to the American Revolutionary movement, and which disparaged the intensely anti-American, anti-republican attitudes of the Loyalists. "They [the loyalists]," Colonel Thomas Dundas wrote from Saint John, New Brunswick, December 28, 1786, "have experienced every possible injury from the old inhabitants of Nova Scotia, who are even more disaffected towards the British Government than any of the new States ever were. This makes me much doubt their remaining long dependent." [Clark 150-51]

The British administrators of the time, for their part, felt that the colonial capital (Halifax) was so distant from the developing territories to the west of the Isthmus of Chignecto that the colony of Nova Scotia should be split. The Province of New Brunswick was therefore officially created by Sir Thomas Carleton on August 16, 1784.

New Brunswick was named in honour of the British monarch, King George III, who was descended from the House of Brunswick (Haus Braunschweig in German, derived from the city of Braunschweig, now Lower Saxony). Fredericton, the capital city, was likewise named for George III's second son, Prince Frederick Augustus, Duke of York.

The choice of Fredericton as the colonial capitol shocked the residents of the larger Parrtown (Saint John). The reason given was because Fredericton's inland location meant it was less prone to enemy (i.e. American) attack. Saint John did, however, become Canada's first incorporated city. Saint John also found itself home to the American traitor Benedict Arnold, whose shady local business dealings meant that local Loyalists also came to revile him.

Some of the deported Acadians from Nova Scotia found their way back to "Acadie" during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They settled mostly in coastal regions along the eastern and northern shores of the new colony of New Brunswick. There they lived in relative (and in many ways self imposed) isolation as they tried to maintain their language and traditions.

The War of 1812 had little effect on New Brunswick. Forts such as the Carleton Martello Tower in Saint John and the St. Andrews Blockhouse were constructed, but no action was seen. Locally, New Brunswickers were on good terms with their neighbours in Maine and the rest of New England. There was even one incident during the war where the town of St. Stephen lent its supplies of gunpowder to Calais, Maine, across the river, for the Fourth of July Independence Day celebrations.

Further north along the Maine-New Brunswick border, the boundary was disputed. Officials in London and Washington, D.C. stated their claims, but many local residents did not care one way or the other, even after they were pushed to state their preference by British magistrates. When one resident of Edmundston was asked which side he supported, he replied "the Republic of Madawaska". The name is still used today and describes the northwestern corner of the province. The boundary dispute, known as the Aroostook War, was settled in 1842.

Immigration in the early part of the 19th century was mostly from the west country of England and from Scotland, but also from Waterford, Ireland often having come through or lived in Newfoundland prior. A large influx of settlers came to New Brunswick in 1845 from Ireland as a result of the Potato Famine. Many of these people settled in Saint John or Chatham, which to this day calls itself the "Irish Capital of Canada". The Catholic population often clashed with the existing Protestant residents, coming to a head with a gun battle in Saint John in 1849.

Throughout the 19th century, shipbuilding, both on the Bay of Fundy shore and on the Miramichi, was the dominant industry in New Brunswick. The Marco Polo, arguably the fastest clipper ship ever built was launched from Saint John in 1851. Resource-based industries such as logging and farming were also important to the New Brunswick economy. From the 1850's through to the end of the century, several railways were built across the province, making it easier for these inland resources to make it to markets elsewhere. Moncton, previously a sleepy agricultural community and later a shipbuilding centre became the railway hub for the colony and later for the entire Maritime Provinces. Moncton would subsequently grow rapidly and would challenge Saint John for economic dominance.

New Brunswick in Canada

Following Confederation, New Brunswick suffered the effects of an economic downturn. New national policies and trade barriers as a result of Confederation disrupted the historic trading relationship between the Maritime Provinces and New England. The situation in New Brunswick was worsened by the Great Fire of 1877 in Saint John and by the decline of the wooden sailing shipbuilding industry. Finally, the global recession sparked by the Panic of 1893 significantly affected the local export economy. Many skilled workers moved west to other parts of Canada or south to the United States, but as the 20th Century dawned, the province's economy began to expand again. Manufacturing gained strength with the construction of several cotton mills across the province and, in the crucial forestry sector, the sawmills that had dotted inland sections of the province gave way to larger pulp and paper mills. Nevertheless, unemployment remained relatively high and the Great Depression provided another setback. Two influential families, the Irvings and the McCains, emerged from the depression to begin to modernize and vertically integrate the provincial economy.

The Acadians, who had mostly fended for themselves on the northern and eastern shores, were traditionally isolated from the English speakers that dominated the rest of the province. Government services were often not available in French, and the infrastructure in predominantly French areas was noticeably less evolved than in the rest of the province. This changed with the election of premier Louis Robichaud in 1960. He embarked on the ambitious Equal Opportunity Plan in which education, rural road maintenance, and health care fell under the sole jurisdiction of a provincial government that insisted on equal coverage of all areas of the province. County councils were abolished with rural areas outside cities, towns and villages coming under direct provincial jurisdiction. The 1969 Official Languages Act made French an official language, on par with English. Linguistic tensions rose on both sides, with the militant Parti Acadien enjoying brief popularity in the 1970s and anglophone groups pushing to repeal language reforms in the 1980s, but tensions had all but disappeared by the 1990s.

Cities

• Saint John
• Moncton
• Fredericton
• Miramichi
• Edmundston
• Dieppe
• Bathurst
• Campbellton

Saint John skyline

The Restigouche River showing the J.C. Van Horne Bridge in Campbellton

Saint John is a port city, with heavy industry in the form of pulp and paper, oil refineries, and drydocks, all owned by the family of the late K.C. Irving. The Irving family also controls much of the province's economy and three of its four daily English language newspapers. Saint John is conventionally written out in full, to distinguish it from St. John's, the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador, with which it is commonly confused by those outside of the Atlantic Provinces.

Moncton is the second largest city in New Brunswick and its metropolitan area is the fastest growing urban population in the province. It is principally a transportation, distribution, commercial and retail centre. Moncton has a sizeable francophone Acadian minority (35%) and is considered by the Acadians to be their unofficial "capital". The majority of Moncton's recent growth is traced to economic policies which has led to depopulation in the northeastern area of the province.

Fredericton, in addition to being the capital of the province, is a genteel university town, and home to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Theatre New Brunswick, the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame, and other amenities, including Christ Church Cathedral, whose foundation is the oldest in Canada or the United States. [Fredericton is nicknamed the "City of Stately Elms". It has boasted of the largest stand of elms outside of Central Park since Dutch Elm Disease devastated this species in the early twentieth century.

Politics

There are two dominant political parties in New Brunswick, the Liberal Party and the Progressive Conservative Party. The New Democratic Party has held seats in the Legislative Assembly, but has never been overly popular with the electorate. From time to time, other parties such as the Confederation of Regions Party have held seats in the legislature, but only on the strength of a strong protest vote. As such, New Brunswick essentially operates as a two-party system.

The dynamics of New Brunswick politics are notably different from those of other provinces in Canada. The lack of a single dominant urban centre in the province means that government has to be responsive to issues affecting all areas of the province. In addition, the presence of a large francophone minority dictates that consensus politics is necessary, even when there is a majority government present. In this manner, the ebb and flow of New Brunswick provincial politics tends to parallel the situation on the federal stage more closely than in any other province.

Over the course of the last 50 years, there has been a distinct tendency for the province to elect youthful dynamic leaders and give them long tenures with strong majorities. All recent leaders have been bilingual. This combination of attributes tends to make New Brunswick Premiers influential players on the federal stage. The current Premier Bernard Lord (Progressive Conservative) is touted as a potential leader of the Conservative Party of Canada should Prime Minister Stephen Harper withdraw from politics. Former Liberal Premier Frank McKenna had been considered to be the front-runner to succeed Prime Minister Paul Martin but he chose in the end not to run.[link]

Economy

Education

The New Brunswick Community College system has campuses in all regions of province. There is a comprehensive system of both French and English campuses offering basically parallel programs. Each campus however tends to have areas of concentration to allow for specialization. There are also specialized training colleges that are private and not part of the NBCC system. An example of this would be the Moncton Flight College.

There are four publicly funded secular universities in the province. These include:

• The University of New Brunswick was founded as King's College in Fredericton in 1785 with Anglican affiliation. Today it is a medium-sized public English comprehensive university with its principal campus in Fredericton and a satellite campus in Saint John and a student body of about 12,000. It is the oldest public post-secondary education institution in North America.
• St. Thomas University was founded in Chatham in 1910 with Catholic affiliation. Today it is a small public English undergraduate university located in Fredericton with a student body of about 3,000. The university's liberal arts program is complemented by professional programs in education and social work.
• Mount Allison University was founded in Sackville in 1839 with Methodist and subsequently United Church affiliation. Today it is a small public English undergraduate university with a student body of about 2,200 still located in Sackville. Faculties include Arts, Science, Commerce, Music and Fine Arts. The Maclean's magazine survey of Canadian universities has ranked Mount Allision as one of the best in the undergraduate university category since the survey was begun. Mount Allison produces a Rhodes Scholar about once every two years on the average, and was the first university in the British Empire to grant a Bachelor's degree to a woman.
• The Université de Moncton system was founded in 1963 and is comprised from founding Catholic colleges which were located in Memramcook, Bathurst and Edmundston. Today it is a medium-sized public French comprehensive university with its principal campus in Moncton and satellite campuses in Edmundston and Shippagan. The student body is about 5,500.

• Atlantic Baptist University, located in Moncton, is a small liberal arts university with a student body of over 700. The school was founded in 1949, became degree granting in 1970 and received its full university designation in 1996. Degrees are offered in Arts, Science, Education and Religious Studies. The school is operated by the Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches.
• St. Stephen's University, located in St. Stephen, is a very small non denominational religious based university. The school was founded in 1975 and received its university designation in 1998. At present, the only degrees available are in Arts and Ministry.

People

Many of the English-Canadian population of New Brunswick are descended from United Empire Loyalists who fled the American Revolution. This is commemorated in the province's motto, Spem reduxit ("hope was restored"). There is also a significant population of Irish ancestry, especially in Saint John and the Miramichi Valley. People of Scottish descent are scattered throughout the Province with higher concentrations in the Miramichi and in Campbellton. A small population of Danish origin may be found in New Denmark in the northwest of the province.

See also

• Famous people from New Brunswick

Tourism

The world famous Hopewell Rocks are among the most important tourist attractions in New Brunswick.

The province has a number of outstanding tourist attractions. These include the New Brunswick Museum, Fundy National Park, Kouchibouguac National Park, Mactaquac Provincial Park, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, King's Landing Historical Settlement, Hartland's Longest Covered Bridge in the World, Village Historique Acadien, Les Jardins de la Republique, La Pays de la Sagouine, La Dune de Bouctouche, Fortress Saint John, Saint John Reversing Falls, Imperial Theatre, St. Andrews-by-the-Sea, Hopewell Rocks, Cape Enrage, Magnetic Hill Zoo, Crystal Palace, Cape Jourimain National Wildlife Preserve, Sackville Waterfowl Park, and the 35-mile Fundy Hiking Trail.

Media outlets

The three English-language dailies and the majority of the weeklies are owned and operated by Brunswick News, a subsidiary of J.D. Irving which also owns two radio stations. The other major media group in the province is Acadie Presse, which publishes L'Acadie Nouvelle and prints some of the smaller papers in the province, including the largest student paper - and Canada's oldest - the University of New Brunswick's The Brunswickan.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has various news bureaus throughout the province, but its main anglophone television and radio operations are centred in Fredericton. The CBC French service is based in Moncton. Global Television maintains its New Brunswick base in Saint John with news and sales bureaus in Fredericton and Moncton. CTV is based in Moncton but has news bureaus in Fredericton and Saint John.

There are many private radio stations in New Brunswick with each of the three major cities having a dozen or more stations. Most smaller cities and towns also have one or two stations.

Demographics

Population of New Brunswick since 1851

Ethnic Origin

The information at left is from the [2001 Canadian Census]. The percentages add to more than 100% because of dual responses (e.g. "French-Canadian" generates an entry in both the category "French" and the category "Canadian".) Groups with greater than 5,000 responses are included.

Religion

• 53.4% Roman Catholic
• 35.7% Protestant
• 1.4% other Christian
• 0.8% other religions
• 8.7% no religion

Facts

• The provincial flower is the purple violet. The provincial bird is the black-capped chickadee, in common with the American state of Maine.
• Entered Confederation: July 1, 1867
• Employment rate: 52.4%
• Urban population: 48.8%
• GDP per capita: $20 833
• Area: 28,150 square miles
• Agriculture: Dairy farming, Potatoes, oats, hay, clover, berries, and fruit
• Industries
• * Mining:
• ** zinc
• ** lead
• ** silver
• ** cadmium
• ** copper
• ** bismuth
• ** coal
• ** gold
• ** potash
• ** gypsum
• * Energy:
• ** natural gas
• ** oil refining
• ** nuclear
• ** fossil fuel
• ** hydro-electricity
• * Forestry:
• ** pulp and paper
• ** lumber;
• * Manufacturing:
• ** frozen food (agriculture and seafood)
• ** metallurgy
• * Services:
• ** information technology
• ** health services
• ** education
• ** financial services
• Land Features - Mount Carleton - Highest point (2,680 ft.); Appalachian Mountains.
• Water Features - Bay of Fundy, Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Northumberland Strait, Chaleur Bay, St. John River, Southwest Miamachi River, Restigouche River

Map

References

• L. W. Bailey and D. R. Jack, Woods and Minerals of New Brunswick, (Fredericton, 1876)
• William H Benedict. New Brunswick in history (2001)
• S. D. Clark; Movements of Political Protest in Canada, 1640-1840 University of Toronto Press. 1959.
• Tim Frink. New Brunswick: A short history (1997)

• W. Reavley Gair and Reavley W. Gair. A Literary and Linguistic History of New Brunswick (1986)
• James Hannay, History of New Brunswick, (St. John, 1909)
• William Kingsford, History of Canada, (London, 1887-98)
• Greg Marquis; "Commemorating the Loyalists in the Loyalist City: Saint John, New Brunswick, 1883-1934" Urban History Review, Vol. 33, 2004
• M. H. Perley, On the Early History of New Brunswick, (St. John, 1891)
• A. R. C. Selwyn and G. M. Dawson, Descriptive Sketch of the Physical Geography and Geology of the Dominion of Canada, (Montreal, 1884)
• Robert Summerby-Murray; "Interpreting Deindustrialised Landscapes of Atlantic Canada: Memory and Industrial Heritage in Sackville, New Brunswick" The Canadian Geographer, Vol. 46, 2002
• William Menzies Whitelaw; The Maritimes and Canada before Confederation Oxford University Press, 1934
• A. B. Willmott, The Mineral Wealth of Canada, (London, 1898)

See also

• Canada
• Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick
• List of cities in Canada
• List of New Brunswick premiers
• List of New Brunswick lieutenant-governors
• List of communities in New Brunswick
• List of New Brunswick counties
• List of New Brunswick general elections
• List of Canadian provincial and territorial symbols
• List of New Brunswick rivers
• List of schools in New Brunswick
• Music of New Brunswick
• Scouting in New Brunswick

External links

• [Maritime provinces history & culture -- links]
• Symbols of New Brunswick [link]
• [New Brunswick Covered Bridges]
• [New Brunswick Lighthouses]

Provinces and territories of Canada
Provinces: British Columbia | Alberta | Saskatchewan | Manitoba | Ontario | Quebec | New Brunswick Nova Scotia | Prince Edward Island | Newfoundland and Labrador
Territories: Yukon | Northwest Territories | Nunavut

[[zh-min-nan:New Brunswick]]

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