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Atlantic Canada and the Maritime Provinces

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second largest country by total area and its common border with the United States to the south and northwest is the world's longest. Those claiming either Scottish or Irish descent make up about 30% of Canada's 32 million population. (2006 census)

Canada is a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories. In turn, these may be grouped into regions: Western Canada, Central Canada, Atlantic Canada, and Northern Canada (the latter made up of the three territories Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut). Eastern Canada refers to Central Canada and Atlantic Canada together. Provinces have more autonomy than territories. Each has its own provincial or territorial symbols.

Atlantic Canada, also known as the Atlantic provinces, is the region of Canada comprising the four provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec: the three Maritime provinces – New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, plus Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Maritime Provinces

The Maritime provinces, also called the Maritimes or the Canadian Maritimes, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Geographically the Maritimes front the Atlantic Ocean and its various sub-basins such as the Gulf of Maine and Gulf of St. Lawrence systems and iis located northeast of New England.

The Maritimes was the first area in Canada to be settled by Europeans and there is speculation that Viking explorers discovered and settled in the Vinland region around 1000 AD. However, it was French explorer Jacques Cartier who made the first detailed reconnaissance of the region for a European power, and in so doing, claimed the region for the King of France. Cartier was followed by nobleman Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts who was accompanied by explorer/cartographer Samuel de Champlain in a 1604 expedition where they established the second permanent European settlement on the North American continent.

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries Britain and France vied for control over the region, culminating in the Seven Years War (1756 to 1763). It was during the course of this war that British administrators in Nova Scotia began the expulsion of the Acadians from their adopted homeland. Many were expelled to Louisiana, but some Acadian families, and sometimes entire communities, escaped British soldiers tasked with their deportation, by hiding for years in hidden forest settlements.

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 having been widely spoken, particularly in Cape Breton, although it is less prevalent today.

Cultural activities are fairly diverse throughout the region, with the music, dance, theatre, and literary art forms tending to follow the particular cultural heritage of specific locales. Notable Nova Scotian folklorist and cultural historian Helen Creighton spent the majority of her lifetime recording the various Celtic musical and folk traditions of rural Nova Scotia during the mid-20th century, prior to this knowledge being wiped out by mass media assimilation with the rest of North America. A fragment of Gaelic culture remains in Nova Scotia but primarily on Cape Breton Island.

Newfoundland and Labrador

Newfoundland and Labrador is located on the Atlantic coast of Canada. This easternmost Canadian province comprises two main parts: Labrador on the mainland off the eastern coast of Quebéc and the island of Newfoundland south of the mainland and northeast of Cape Breton. Although classified as an Atlantic Province, culturally there is little in common with the Maritime Provinces to the south. A former colony and dominion of the United Kingdom, it became the tenth province to enter the Canadian Confederation on 31 March 1949.

The area has a folk musical heritage based on the Irish, English and Scottish traditions that were brought to its shores centuries ago. Though similar in its Celtic influence to neighbouring Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador are more Irish than Scottish, and have more elements imported from English and French music than those provinces. Much of the region's music focuses on the strong seafaring tradition in the area, and includes sea shanties and other sailing songs. Some modern traditional musicians include Great Big Sea, The Ennis Sisters, Shanneyganock, Sharecroppers, and the Irish Descendants.