Rowkin Rovings Blog

Maritimes Here We Come – 17th September 2018

Only one day before we head off over to the eastern coast of Canada to the Maritimes. The Maritimes consists of the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Some people tend to lump in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador but this province actually belongs to Atlantic Canada. This area deserves a separate trip and is north of the Maritimes area by a considerable distance.

The Maritimes is a very interesting area as this is where white mans first settlement truly started in Canada. They say that Canada actually had fur trappers here before official settlement as they would trade with the First Nations people for the beaver pelts. For those not that n the know, Canada was built on the back of the beaver!! The Vikings even dropped by as early as the year 1000.

A little history about the Maritimes region which is very interesting. Canada did not come together as a country until 1st July, 1867. At that stage it consisted of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. Prince Edward Island did not become part of Canada until 1873.

A bit of by the by on territorial evolution of Canada. This is very typical of Canada as they do not tend to make things easy for themselves – let’s not even mention pipelines!!!! Our Canadian brothers will certainly understand that last comment.

Here is the order that Canada’s provinces and territories either joined Confederation or were created within it.

1867 – Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia
1879 – Manitoba
1871 – British Columbia
1873 – Prince Edward Island
1898 – Yukon Territory
1905 – Alberta and Saskatchewan
1949 – Newfoundland – note that they fought in the Second World War under the rule of Britain
1999 – Nunavut

You are wondering why we are going into all this detail. Well, the eastern region of Canada is where it all began and as we travel around the Maritimes area even more history is going to come into play and we think a good root understanding of the political and geographics of Canada is necessary for you to enjoy this portion of the blog.

First immigrants to the Maritimes were from France and called themselves Acadiensis.

British settlement of the Maritimes accelerated throughout the late 18th century and into the 19th century with significant immigration to the region as a result of Scottish migrants displaced by the Highland Clearances and Irish escaping the Great Irish Famine (1845–1849). As a result, significant portions of the three provinces are influenced by Celtic heritages, with Scottish Gaelic (and to a lesser degree, Irish Gaelic).

In the mid 1850’s many black slaves from the US escaped north to Canada and settled not only in the province of Ontario but also the Maritimes. So, as you can, quite the hotch potch of nationalities. As if putting the French and English together isn’t bad enough!!!

So we are not going to baffle you any more with history at this point but we will say it starts to get even more interesting as we travel around this region.

What are we doing with the house and Toque? Well, we collected Simon from the airport who came from Montreal on the 14th September. His partner Joannie arrives on the 2nd October. Some of you will remember these guys from last year as they looked after Toques and Maples for the 4.5 months we were away in Europe and England in 2017. Simon is hoping that as he is here a few weeks earlier than Joannie that Toque will bond with him better than Joannie – a bit of competition here for Toques affections.

Alas this time, as some of you may well know, our beloved, grumpy, feisty and stubborn Miss Maples passed away on the 28th February 2018 so Joannie and Simon will have just the Toque monster to contend with.

Normally we do not blog for such a short trip but the region we are going to is where a lot of international tourists never get to go to and it is not only interesting but spectacularly beautiful. We want to introduce you all to another part our very large Canada 🇨🇦!!!!

When we return to Calgary on the 9th October, we will only be home to change out the suitcases and head off DownUnder to Oz and NZ on the 16th October until early May 2019. For those of you not from DownUnder, you will find this part of the blog interesting and hopefully entertaining as we are visiting every state and territory of Australia apart from Tasmania. From the Aussies point of view you also might find this portion of some interest as you will be seeing this trip through the eyes of a couple of people who have not lived DownUnder for over 15 years and may well shed light on your country from a different angle. The non DownUnderers might also see the lingo change considerably the more time we spend with these Antipodeans.

So, sit back and enjoy our travels from the comfort of your lounge chair or better still, your workplace desk!