1.
Westmount, Quebec
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Westmount is an affluent suburb on the Island of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It is an enclave of the city of Montreal, with a population of 19,931 as of the Canada 2011 Census. Westmount is home to schools, an arena, a pool, a public library, the city operates its own electricity distribution company Westmount Light & Power. The city is also the location of two Canadian Forces Primary Reserves, The Royal Montreal Regiment and 34th Signals Regiment, traditionally, the community of Westmount has been a wealthy and predominantly anglophone enclave, having been at one point the richest community in Canada. It now competes with the Vancouver neighborhoods of Shaughnessy, and Kerrisdale, and the Toronto neighborhoods of Lawrence Park, Forest Hill, Rosedale, a former farmhouse from this era, Hurtubise House, still stands and is currently under renovation. The Village of Côte St-Antoine was first incorporated in 1874 and it later became the Town of Côte St-Antoine. It was renamed Westmount, in 1895, reflecting the location of the city on the southwest slope of Mount Royal. During the twentieth century, Westmount became a wealthy Montreal suburb, in the twentieth century, Westmount was home to some of Montreals wealthiest families including the Bronfmans and the Molsons. This made the city a symbolic targets of Front de libération du Québec terrorist bombings in the 1960s, following the death of former Quebec Premier René Lévesque in 1987, the city of Montreal renamed Dorchester Boulevard to René Lévesque Boulevard. After the city of Montreal changed the name, Westmount retained the name of Dorchester on their portion, when asked for comment, Quebec Premier Bernard Landry said the minister had his full support and that the opposition was little more than Quebec bashing. On January 1,2002, as part of the 2002–2006 municipal reorganization of Montreal, it was merged into the city of Montreal, however, after a change of government and a 2004 referendum, it was re-constituted as an independent city on January 1,2006. The city is roughly 4 km2, and occupies an area of land on the face of the southern peak of Mount Royal. The city, most of which is on terrain, extends from the summit to the end of the narrow plateau at the foot of the mountain. Most of the city is residential, homes increase in size and value toward the top of the mountain, with the largest and most expensive being on or near Summit Circle. There are several parks within the city, including King George Park, a forest area is located at Westmount Summit, within Summit Circle. The landscaping design was undertaken in 1912 by M. J. Manning, and comprises large playing fields at the east and south sides, the central area contains an extensive playground, foot paths, ponds and wading pools, and tennis courts. Westmount Public Library, built in 1897, Victoria Hall, Municipal Since regaining its status as a city, Westmount is governed by a City Council made up of a mayor and eight district councillors. The current mayor of Westmount is Peter Trent, in addition to the local city council, Westmount is represented by its mayor on the Montreal Agglomeration Council
2.
Montreal
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Montreal, officially Montréal, is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec and the 2nd-most populous in Canada as a whole. Originally called Ville-Marie, or City of Mary, it is believed to be named after Mount Royal, the city has a distinct four-season continental climate, with warm-to-hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In 2016, Montreal had a population of 1,704,694, Montreals metropolitan area had a population of 4,098,927 and a population of 1,958,257 in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included. Legally a French-speaking city,60. 5% of Montrealers speak French at home,21. 2% speak English and 19. 8% speak neither, Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with 56% of the population able to speak both official languages. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world after Paris, historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population and economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s. It remains an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, culture, tourism, gaming, film, Montreal was also named a UNESCO City of Design. In 2009, Montreal was named North Americas leading host city for international events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress. According to the 2015 Global Liveability Ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit, in the 2017 edition of their Best Student Cities ranking, Quacquarelli Symonds ranked Montreal as the worlds best city to study abroad. Also, Montreal has 11 universities with 170,000 students enrolled, the Greater Montréal region has the highest number of university students per capita among all metropolitan areas in North America. It is the only Canadian city to have held the Summer Olympics, currently, the city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs festival. In 2012, Montreal was ranked as a Beta+ world city, in Kanien’kéha, or Mohawk language, the island is called Tiohtià, ke Tsi or Ka-wé-no-te. In Anishinaabemowin, or Ojibwe language, the land is called Mooniyaang, though the city was first named by French colonizers Ville Marie, or City of Mary, its current name comes from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The most popular theory is that the name derives from Mont Réal, Cartiers 1535 diary entry, naming the mountain, according to the Commission de toponymie du Québec and the Geographical Names Board of Canada, Canadian place names have only one official form. Thus, Montreal is officially spelled with an accent over the e in both English and French. In practice, this is limited to governmental uses. English-speaking Montrealers, including English-language media, regularly omit the accent when writing in English, archaeological evidence demonstrates that First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago. By the year AD1000, they had started to cultivate maize, within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villages. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at locations in the valley since at least the 14th century
3.
Quebec
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Quebec is the second-most populous province of Canada and the only one to have a predominantly French-speaking population, with French as the sole provincial official language. Quebec is Canadas largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division and it also shares maritime borders with Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Quebec is Canadas second-most populous province, after Ontario, most inhabitants live in urban areas near the Saint Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, the capital. Approximately half of Quebec residents live in the Greater Montreal Area, the Nord-du-Québec region, occupying the northern half of the province, is sparsely populated and inhabited primarily by Aboriginal peoples. Even in central Quebec at comparatively southerly latitudes winters are severe in inland areas, Quebec independence debates have played a large role in the politics of the province. Parti Québécois governments held referendums on sovereignty in 1980 and 1995, in 2006, the House of Commons of Canada passed a symbolic motion recognizing the Québécois as a nation within a united Canada. These many industries have all contributed to helping Quebec become an economically influential province within Canada, early variations in the spelling of the name included Québecq and Kébec. French explorer Samuel de Champlain chose the name Québec in 1608 for the colonial outpost he would use as the seat for the French colony of New France. The province is sometimes referred to as La belle province, the Province of Quebec was founded in the Royal Proclamation of 1763 after the Treaty of Paris formally transferred the French colony of Canada to Britain after the Seven Years War. The proclamation restricted the province to an area along the banks of the Saint Lawrence River, the Treaty of Versailles ceded territories south of the Great Lakes to the United States. After the Constitutional Act of 1791, the territory was divided between Lower Canada and Upper Canada, with each being granted an elected legislative assembly, in 1840, these become Canada East and Canada West after the British Parliament unified Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada. This territory was redivided into the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario at Confederation in 1867, each became one of the first four provinces. In 1898, the Canadian Parliament passed the first Quebec Boundary Extension Act that expanded the provincial boundaries northward to include the lands of the aboriginal peoples. This was followed by the addition of the District of Ungava through the Quebec Boundaries Extension Act of 1912 that added the northernmost lands of the Inuit to create the modern Province of Quebec. In 1927, the border between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador was established by the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Located in the part of Canada, and part of Central Canada. Its topography is very different from one region to another due to the composition of the ground, the climate. The Saint Lawrence Lowland and the Canadian Shield are the two main regions, and are radically different
4.
Order of St Michael and St George
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It is named in honour of two military saints, St Michael and St George. People are appointed to the Order rather than awarded it, British Ambassadors to foreign nations are regularly appointed as KCMGs or CMGs. It is the award for members of the FCO. The Orders motto is Auspicium melioris ævi and its patron saints, as the name suggests, are St. Michael the Archangel, and St. George, patron saint of England. One of its symbols is that of St Michael trampling over. The third of the aforementioned Orders—which relates to Ireland, no longer fully a part of the United Kingdom—still exists but is in disuse, the last of the Orders on the list, related to India, has also been in disuse since that countrys independence in 1947. In 1864, however, the protectorate ended and the Ionian Islands became a part of Greece, accordingly, numerous Governors-General and Governors feature as recipients of awards in the order. In 1965, the order was open for women, with Evelyn Bark becoming the first CMG, the British Sovereign is the Sovereign of the Order and appoints all other members of the Order. The next-most senior member is the Grand Master, the office was formerly filled by the Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands, now, however, Grand Masters are chosen by the Sovereign. Members of the Royal Family who are appointed to the Order do not count towards the limit, the Orders King of Arms is not a member of the College of Arms, like many other heraldic officers. The Usher of the Order is known as the Gentleman Usher of the Blue Rod, he not, unlike his Order of the Garter equivalent. On the left side is a representation of the star, the mantle is bound with two large tassels. The collar, worn only by Knights and Dames Grand Cross, is made of gold and it consists of depictions of crowned lions, Maltese Crosses, and the cyphers SM and SG, all alternately. In the centre are two winged lions, each holding a book and seven arrows, at less important occasions, simpler insignia are used, The star is an insignia used only by Knights and Dames Grand Cross and Knights and Dames Commanders. It is worn pinned to the left breast, the Knight and Dame Grand Cross star includes seven-armed, silver-rayed Maltese Asterisk, with a gold ray in between each pair of arms. The Knight and Dame Commanders star is a slightly smaller eight-pointed silver figure formed by two Maltese Crosses, it does not include any gold rays, in each case, the star bears a red cross of St George. In the centre of the star is a blue ring bearing the motto of the Order. Within the ring is a representation of St Michael trampling on Satan, the badge is the only insignia used by all members of the Order, it is suspended on a blue-crimson-blue ribbon
5.
Parliament Hill
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Parliament Hill, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa, Ontario. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings is the home of the Parliament of Canada and has elements of national symbolic importance. Parliament Hill attracts approximately 3 million visitors each year, law enforcement on parliament hill and in the parliamentary precinct is the responsibility of the Parliamentary Protective Service. Since 2002, an extensive $1 billion renovation and rehabilitation project has been underway throughout all of the precincts buildings, Parliament Hill is a limestone outcrop with a gently sloping top that was originally covered in primeval forest of beech and hemlock. After Ottawa—then called Bytown—was founded, the builders of the Rideau Canal used the hill as a location for a military base, a large fortress was planned for the site, but was never built, and by the mid 19th century the hill had lost its strategic importance. On 7 May, the Department of Public Works issued a call for proposals for the new parliament buildings to be erected on Barrack Hill. After the entries were narrowed down to three, Governor General Sir Edmund Walker Head was approached to break the stalemate, and the winners were announced on 29 August 1859. The team of Thomas Stent and Augustus Laver, under the pseudonym of Stat nomen in umbra, won the prize for the second category, $300,000 was allocated for the main building, and $120,000 for each of the departmental buildings. Ground was broken on 20 December 1859, and the first stones laid on 16 April of the following year, the construction of Parliament Hill became the largest project undertaken in North America to that date. By early 1861, Public Works reported that $1,424,882, two years later, the unfinished site hosted a celebration of Queen Victorias birthday, further cementing the areas position as the central place for national outpouring. The site was still incomplete when three of the British North American colonies entered Confederation in 1867, with Ottawa remaining the capital of the new country, thus, the offices of parliament spread to buildings beyond Parliament Hill even at that early date. The British military gave a nine-pound naval cannon to the British army garrison stationed in Ottawa in 1854 and it was purchased by the Canadian government in 1869 and fired on Parliament Hill for many years as the Noonday Gun. By 1876, the structures of Parliament Hill were finished, along with the surrounding fence, fire destroyed the Centre Block on 3 February 1916. Eleven years later, the new tower was completed and dedicated as the Peace Tower, the Queen was back on Parliament Hill on 17 April 1982, to issue a royal proclamation of the enactment of the Constitution Act that year. In April 1989, a Greyhound Lines bus with 11 passengers on board travelling to New York City from Montreal was hijacked by an armed man, a standoff with police ensued and lasted eight hours, though three shots were fired, there were no injuries. The following year, Queen Elizabeth IIs Golden Jubilee was marked on 13 October, on 22 October 2014, several shooting incidents occurred around Parliament Hill. A gunman, after shooting a Canadian Army soldier mounting the ceremonial guard at the National War Memorial. There, he was killed in a shootout with RCMP officers, the gunman also injured one House of Commons constable, who was shot in the foot
6.
John A. Macdonald
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Sir John Alexander Macdonald GCB KCMG PC PC QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a career which spanned almost half a century. He drank heavily, and in 1873 was voted out during the Pacific Scandal, economic growth was slow during his years in office, as Canada verged on stagnation, many residents migrated to the fast-growing United States. He fought to block efforts to take power back from Ottawa. His most controversial move was to approve the execution of Métis leader Louis Riel for treason in 1885, Macdonald was born in Scotland, when he was a boy his family immigrated to Kingston in the colony of Upper Canada. As a lawyer he was involved in several cases and quickly became prominent in Kingston. By 1857, had become premier under the unstable political system. Macdonald was the figure in the subsequent discussions and conferences, which resulted in the British North America Act. Macdonald was the first Prime Minister of the new nation, and served 19 years, John Alexander Macdonald was born in Ramshorn parish in Glasgow, Scotland, on January 11,1815. His father was Hugh Macdonald, a merchant, who had married Johns mother, Helen Shaw. John Alexander Macdonald was the third of five children, after Hugh Macdonalds business ventures left him in debt, the family immigrated to Kingston, in Upper Canada, in 1820, where there were already a number of Macdonald relatives and connections. The Macdonalds initially lived with family, but then resided over a store which Hugh Macdonald ran. Soon after their arrival, Johns younger brother James died from a blow to the head by a servant who was supposed to look after the boys, after Hughs store failed, the family moved to Hay Bay, west of Kingston, where Hugh unsuccessfully ran another shop. His father, in 1829, was appointed a magistrate for the Midland District, John Macdonalds mother was a lifelong influence on her son, helping him in his difficult first marriage and remaining a force in his life until her 1862 death. When he was aged 10, his family scraped together the money to him to Midland District Grammar School in Kingston. Macdonalds formal schooling ended at 15, a common school-leaving age at a time when children from the most prosperous families were able to attend university. Nevertheless, Macdonald later regretted leaving school when he did, remarking to his secretary Joseph Pope that if he had attended university, Macdonalds parents decided he should become a lawyer after leaving school. As Donald Creighton wrote, law was a broad, well-trodden path to comfort, influence and it was also the obvious choice for a boy who seemed as attracted to study as he was uninterested in trade
7.
Queen Victoria
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Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she adopted the title of Empress of India. Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, both the Duke of Kent and King George III died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne aged 18, after her fathers three brothers had all died, leaving no surviving legitimate children. The United Kingdom was already a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign held relatively little direct political power. Privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments, publicly, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together, after Alberts death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength and her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. Her reign of 63 years and seven months is known as the Victorian era and it was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover and her son and successor, Edward VII, belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the line of his father. Victorias father was Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, until 1817, Edwards niece, Princess Charlotte of Wales, was the only legitimate grandchild of George III. Her death in 1817 precipitated a crisis that brought pressure on the Duke of Kent. In 1818 he married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, a widowed German princess with two children—Carl and Feodora —by her first marriage to the Prince of Leiningen and her brother Leopold was Princess Charlottes widower. The Duke and Duchess of Kents only child, Victoria, was born at 4.15 a. m. on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Victoria was christened privately by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, on 24 June 1819 in the Cupola Room at Kensington Palace and she was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria, after her mother. Additional names proposed by her parents—Georgina, Charlotte, and Augusta—were dropped on the instructions of the Dukes eldest brother, George, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Kent married on the same day in 1818, but both of Clarences daughters died as infants. Victorias father died in January 1820, when Victoria was less than a year old, a week later her grandfather died and was succeeded by his eldest son, George IV. The Duke of York died in 1827, when George IV died in 1830, he was succeeded by his next surviving brother, William IV, and Victoria became heir presumptive
8.
George V
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George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. He was the son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. From the time of his birth, he was third in the line of succession behind his father and his own brother, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence. From 1877 to 1891, George served in the Royal Navy, on the death of his grandmother in 1901, Georges father became King-Emperor of the British Empire, and George was created Prince of Wales. He succeeded his father in 1910 and he was the only Emperor of India to be present at his own Delhi Durbar. His reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, the Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords. In 1917, George became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, in 1924 he appointed the first Labour ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations. He had health problems throughout much of his reign and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son. George was born on 3 June 1865, in Marlborough House and he was the second son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Albert Edward and Alexandra. His father was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and he was baptised at Windsor Castle on 7 July 1865 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Longley. As a younger son of the Prince of Wales, there was expectation that George would become king. He was third in line to the throne, after his father and elder brother, George was only 17 months younger than Albert Victor, and the two princes were educated together. John Neale Dalton was appointed as their tutor in 1871, neither Albert Victor nor George excelled intellectually. For three years from 1879, the brothers served on HMS Bacchante, accompanied by Dalton. They toured the colonies of the British Empire in the Caribbean, South Africa and Australia, and visited Norfolk, Virginia, as well as South America, the Mediterranean, Egypt, Dalton wrote an account of their journey entitled The Cruise of HMS Bacchante. Between Melbourne and Sydney, Dalton recorded a sighting of the Flying Dutchman, after Lausanne, the brothers were separated, Albert Victor attended Trinity College, Cambridge, while George continued in the Royal Navy. He travelled the world, visiting many areas of the British Empire, during his naval career he commanded Torpedo Boat 79 in home waters then HMS Thrush on the North America station, before his last active service in command of HMS Melampus in 1891–92. From then on, his rank was largely honorary
9.
Alexander Mackenzie (politician)
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Alexander Mackenzie PC, was a building contractor and newspaper editor, and was the second Prime Minister of Canada, from November 7,1873 to October 8,1878. Mackenzie was born in Logierait, Perthshire, Scotland, the son of Mary Stewart and he was the third of ten children. At the age of 13, Mackenzies father died, and he was forced to end his formal education in order to support his family. At the age of 20 he apprenticed as a stonemason and immigrated to Canada in 1842 to seek a life as well as to follow his sweetheart. Shortly thereafter, he converted from Presbyterianism to Baptist beliefs, in 1853, he married Jane Sym. In Canada, Mackenzie continued his career as a stonemason, building structures that still stand today. He began working as a contractor, earning a reputation for being a hard working. Mackenzie involved himself in politics almost from the moment he arrived in Canada and he campaigned relentlessly for George Brown, owner of the Reformist paper The Globe in the 1851 election, helping him to win a seat in the assembly. In 1852 Mackenzie became editor of another reformist paper, the Lambton Shield, as editor, Mackenzie was perhaps a little too vocal, leading the paper to a suit of law for libel against the local conservative candidate. The paper lost the suit and was forced to fold due to financial hardship, Mackenzie was elected to the Legislative Assembly as a supporter of George Brown in 1861. Mackenzie formed a government and asked the Governor General to call an election for January 1874, the Liberals won, having garnered 53. 8% of the popular vote. The voter support of 53. 8% remains the record in Canada for all federal elections, Mackenzie remained prime minister until the 1878 election when Macdonalds Conservatives returned to power with a majority government. It was unusual for a man of Mackenzies humble origins to such a position in an age which generally offered such opportunity only to the privileged. Lord Dufferin, the current Governor General, expressed misgivings about a stonemason taking over government. But on meeting Mackenzie, Dufferin revised his opinions, However narrow and inexperienced Mackenzie may be, I imagine he is an upright, well-principled. Mackenzie also served as Minister of Public Works and oversaw the completion of the Parliament Buildings, proving Dufferins reflections on his character to be true, Mackenzie disliked intensely the patronage inherent in politics. Nevertheless, he found it an evil in order to maintain party unity. In keeping with his ideals, Mackenzie refused the offer of a knighthood three times, and was thus the only one of Canadas first eight Prime Ministers not to be knighted
10.
Evangeline
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Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie is an epic poem by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, written in English and published in 1847. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, the idea for the poem came from Longfellows friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Longfellow used dactylic hexameter, imitating Greek and Latin classics, though the choice was criticized and it became Longfellows most famous work in his lifetime and remains one of his most popular and enduring works. The poem had an effect in defining both Acadian history and identity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. More recent scholarship has revealed the historical errors in the poem and the complexity of the Expulsion and those involved, which the poem ignores. The poem then follows Evangeline across the landscapes of America as she spends years in a search for him, finally she settles in Philadelphia and, as an old woman, works as a Sister of Mercy among the poor. While tending the dying during an epidemic she finds Gabriel among the sick, Hawthorne and Longfellow had attended Bowdoin College together, though they were not friends at the time. Hawthorne was not interested in fictionalizing it so Longfellow turned it into a poem after months of studying the histories of Nova Scotian families. He noted his reliance on sources in his journal on January 7,1847, Went to the library and got Watsons Annals of Philadelphia. Also, Darbys Geographical Description of Louisiana and these books must help me through the last part of Evangeline, so far as facts and local coloring go. But for the form and the poetry, —they must come from my own brain, Evangeline was published in book form on November 1,1847, and by 1857 it had sold nearly 36,000 copies. During this time, Longfellows literary payment was at its peak, for Evangeline, he received a net of twenty-five and sixteenths per cent royalties, believed to be an all-time high for a poet. Longfellow said of his poem, I had the fever a long time burning in my own brain before I let my hero take it, Evangeline is so easy for you to read, because it was so hard for me to write. The poem is written in unrhymed dactylic hexameter, possibly inspired by Greek and Latin classics, including Homer and he also had recently, in 1841, translated The Children of the Lords Supper, a poem by Swedish writer Esaias Tegnér, which also used this meter. Evangeline is one of the few compositions in that meter which is still read today. Some criticized Longfellows choice of dactylic hexameter, including poet John Greenleaf Whittier, Longfellow was conscious of the potential criticism. When sending a copy of the poem to Bryan Procter, Longfellow wrote, in fact, I could not write it as it is in any other, it would have changed its character entirely to have put it into a different measure. As an experiment, Longfellow reassured himself that he was using the best meter by attempting a passage in blank verse, the name Evangeline comes from the Latin word evangelium meaning gospel
11.
Joseph Howe
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Joseph Howe, PC was a Nova Scotian journalist, politician, public servant, and poet. Howe is often ranked as one of Nova Scotias most admired politicians and his skills as a journalist. He was born the son of John Howe and Mary Edes at Halifax and inherited from his loyalist father a love for Great Britain. At age 23, the self-taught but widely read Howe purchased the Novascotian, soon making it into a popular and he reported extensively on debates in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly and travelled to every part of the province writing about its geography and people. In 1835, Howe was charged with libel, a serious criminal offence, after the Novascotian published a letter attacking Halifax politicians. Howe addressed the jury for more than six hours, citing example after example of civic corruption, the judge called for Howes conviction, but swayed by his passionate address, jurors acquitted him in what is considered a landmark case in the struggle for a free press in Canada. The next year, Howe was elected to the assembly as a reformer, beginning a long. He was instrumental in helping Nova Scotia become the first British colony to win government in 1848. He served as premier of Nova Scotia from 1860 to 1863, having failed to persuade the British to repeal Confederation, Howe joined the federal cabinet of John A. Macdonald in 1869 and played a major role in bringing Manitoba into the union. Howe became the third Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia in 1873, the Howe family was of Puritan stock from Massachusetts. Howe arrived at Halifax in 1779 and set up a printing shop, in 1801, Howe was rewarded for his loyalty by appointment as the Kings Printer and in 1803 he became deputy postmaster for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. In 1798, he had married Mary Edes, their son Joseph was born at Halifax on December 13,1804. Like many lads of that time, Joseph Howe attended the Royal Acadian School before beginning an apprenticeship and he married Catherine Ann Susan McNab on February 2,1828. That same year he went into the business himself with the purchase of the Nova Scotian. Howe acted as its editor until 1841, turning the paper into the most influential in the province and his name ranks as perhaps the greatest in Canadian journalism. On January 1,1835, Howes Novascotian published a letter accusing Halifax politicians. The outraged civic politicians had Howe charged with libel, a serious criminal offence. Howes case seemed hopeless since truth was not a defence, the prosecution had only to prove that Howe had published the letter
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