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Create AccountPlace des Arts (PDA). Montreal performing arts complex. One of Canada's largest multidisciplinary arts complexes, it grew from three halls in the 1960s, to four in the 1970s, and five in the 1990s.
Sainte-Scholastique, Quebec, incorporated as a parish in 1834, population 1,618 (2019). The village of Sainte-Scholastique ceased to exist when the land was expropriated in 1969 for the construction of Montreal-Mirabel International Airport. It then became part of the new city of Mirabel.
Every city has a few streets that stand out above the rest. Perhaps they’re a shopping haven, like Vancouver’s Robson Street, or lined with landmarks, like Ottawa’s Sussex Drive. Other roads earned their fame as the site of a rebellion or a gold rush. Below is a list of ten of Canada’s most iconic streets, but there are many more. What street tells the story of your city?
“Freedom and a Farm.” The promise was exciting to the thousands of African Americans, most seeking to escape enslavement, who fought in British regiments during the American Revolutionary War (1775–83). Following the war, they joined tens of thousands of Loyalists — American refugees who had sided with the British. Between 80,000 and 100,000 Loyalists eventually fled the United States. About half came to British North America. The main waves arrived in 1783 and 1784. The territory that now includes the Maritime provinces became home to more than 30,000 Loyalists. Most of coastal Nova Scotia received Loyalist settlers, as did Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island (then called St. John’s Island).
While the Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN) lists nearly 400 art and leisure museums, Canada's major institutions are relatively few in number and often of relatively recent vintage.
Nova Scotia is Canada’s second-smallest province (following Prince Edward Island) and is located on the southeastern coast of the country. The province includes Cape Breton, a large island northeast of the mainland. The name Nova Scotia is Latin for “New Scotland,” reflecting the origins of some of the early settlers. Given its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, Nova Scotia’s economy is largely influenced by the sea, and its harbours have served as military bases during many wars.
Uxbridge, Ontario, incorporated as a township in 1974, population 21,176 (2016 census), 20,623 (2011 census). The township of Uxbridge is located 68 km northeast of Toronto on Highway 47. The town of Uxbridge was amalgamated in 1974 with the townships of Scott and Uxbridge to form a new township in the Regional Municipality of Durham.
Newfoundland, the youngest of the Canadian provinces, joined Confederation in 1949. Some portion of its coast was undoubtedly one of the first parts of the continent seen by Europeans. Its total area is 405, 720 km2, of which Labrador makes up almost three-quarters (294,330 km2). The island of Newfoundland is the easternmost region of Canada, while Labrador is located on the mainland to the northwest. Since John Cabot's arrival on the “new isle” the island has been referred to as Terra Nova, or in English, Newfoundland. Labrador probably received its name from the Portuguese designation, "Terra del Lavradors."
Nova Scotia is part of the Appalachian region, one of Canada seven physiographic regions. The province is primarily a peninsula extending from the country’s mainland. At its northeastern end is Cape Breton Island. Surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Nova Scotia is separated from Prince Edward Island by the Northumberland Strait and from New Brunswick by the Bay of Fundy.
Canada’s oldest and one of its most important arts institutions, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal) has been guided by a commitment to attract people from all walks of life. Established in 1847, originally under the name of Montreal Society of Artists, it became the Art Association of Montreal in 1860. In 1948-49, the association formed a new corporation under its present name. In 1972, it became a semipublic institution, largely funded by grants from different government levels.
The Intercolonial Railway was a rail line that operated from 1872 to 1918, connecting Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Québec and Ontario. The line was Canada’s first national infrastructure project. Plans for its construction date to the 1830s, but the project only gained momentum during the Confederation conferences of 1864 in Charlottetown and Québec City, where construction of the Intercolonial Railway was negotiated for the Maritime colonies’ entry to British North American union. Construction began shortly after Canada became a country in 1867, with most lines completed by the mid-1870s.
Most maps created in the 1500s that relate to Canada are manuscript compilations, often undated and anonymous. They were prepared by European cartographers rather than by explorers. Since cartographers had to work with available material, these maps are at times a perplexing mixture of new information and old, copied from unspecified sources. Any review of the sequence in which Canada was first mapped is therefore somewhat conjectural. (See also History of Cartography in Canada.)
Truro, Nova Scotia, incorporated as a town in 1875, population 12,954 (2021 census), 12,261 (2016 census). The Town of Truro is located along the Salmon River 100 km northeast of Halifax on Cobequid Bay, Minas Basin. The town derives its name from New England settlers and likely honours Truro in Cornwall, England.
In 1858, around 30,000 gold seekers flooded the banks of the Fraser River from Hope to just north of Lillooet in British Columbia’s first significant gold rush. Although it dissipated by the mid-1860s, the Fraser River Gold Rush had a significant impact on the area’s Indigenous peoples and resulted in the Fraser Canyon War. Fears that the massive influx of American miners would lead the United States to annex the non-sovereign British territory known as New Caledonia also resulted in the founding of British Columbia as a colony on 2 August 1858 (see The Fraser River Gold Rush and the Founding of British Columbia). By the mid-1860s, the Fraser Rush collapsed, and British Columbia sank into a recession.
The village of Port Toulouse and its fort are situated in St. Peter's, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Prince Edward Island is Canada's smallest province, making up just 0.1 per cent of Canada’s total land area. It is situated in the Gulf of St Lawrence and separated from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick by the Northumberland Strait. PEI was known to its earliest settlers, the Mi’kmaq as Abegweit, meaning "cradle in the waves,” and was described by Jacques Cartier in 1534 as "the fairest land that may possibly be seen." PEI's deep red soil has always been its most striking feature and, together with the sea, the mainstay of the population since the early 18th century.
The Mississaugas of the Credit are a First Nation based in southwestern Ontario. Their reserve, known as New Credit, occupies just under 6,000 acres (about 24 km2). It straddles Brant and Haldimand Counties and is adjacent to the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve. As of 2022, 957 of the First Nation’s 2,731 members live on reserve (see also Reserves in Ontario).
There are four reserves on Prince Edward Island, held by two First Nations. Three of these reserves, Morell, Rocky Point and Scotchfort, are held by Abegweit First Nation,
while Lennox Island is held by Lennox Island First Nation. PEI is just one of two provinces, the other being Nova Scotia, that is part of the traditional territory of only one
Indigenous people. In both cases, it is the Mi'kmaq. Of PEI’s 1,405 registered Mi'kmaq (2021), 615 live on the four reserves. The reserves vary in size from less than 1 km
2 to 5.4 km2. Both Lennox Island and Abegweit First Nations are headed by Chiefs, who are required to live on-reserve, and Councillors, who may live on- or off-reserve. Elections are held in a three-year and four-year cycle, respectively.
Nova Scotia was one of the four founding provinces of Canada. It joined New Brunswick, Ontario and Quebec in Confederation on 1 July 1867. However, this was mainly because Confederation delivered the Intercolonial Railway to the Maritimes, and because of the efforts of Sir Charles Tupper. His government passed approval for Confederation in the colonial legislature despite popular opposition. (See Confederation’s Opponents.) Confederation was met with mass protests in the colony. Joseph Howe led a two-year effort to repeal the union. (See Repeal Movement.) But Howe finally decided he could do more to help his province by working inside the federal government. He joined the federal Cabinet in 1869.
Mount Royal is a short mountain with a wide base covering ten square kilometres. It is close to the geographic centre of the Island of Montreal. Mount Royal is Montreal’s defining physical feature and a protected site; it was designated a Historic and Natural District by the government of Quebec in 2005. By law, new buildings in Montreal may not be taller than Mount Royal. The mountain occupies a central position, not only in the urban landscape of the city of Montreal, but also in its history, culture and society.
