New Brunswick
Origin of the Name
History
The area now known as New Brunswick was originally inhabited by nations of the Algonquian linguistic group. The Mi'kmaq welcomed the French under Pierre de Monts and Samuel de Champlain when they first landed in New Brunswick in 1604. The relationship between the First Nations and the French was good from the start. The Mi'kmaq helped the French settlers, who became known as Acadians, adapt to the land. They also helped French troops launch raids on New England.
The Acadians were the first Europeans to settle in present-day New Brunswick. Until the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, when France ceded the area to Great Britain, both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were part of Acadia. However, over the years, France had all but ignored the Acadians, being much more concerned with New France and the increasing value of the fur trade there.
In 1762, a trading community was established at the mouth of the St. John River by Massachusetts merchants. Before the peace of 1763, permanent British settlements were started by New Englanders at Chignecto and in the St. John River Valley. Settlers from Yorkshire, England, who came to Chignecto in the early 1770s, helped defeat an attempt from the rebellious colonies in 1776 to take Chignecto and its strategic Fort Cumberland/Beauséjour.
In 1783, thousands of Loyalist refugees from the American Revolution settled in the western part of Nova Scotia, far from the colony's administrative centre in Halifax. In response to Loyalist demands for their own colonial administration, the British government established the new colony of New Brunswick in 1784.
In 1864, New Brunswick was involved in discussions with the colonies of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland to consider a Maritime union when the Province of Canada was issued an invitation to attend the conference in Charlottetown. The result, three years later, was the creation of the Dominion of Canada.
New Brunswick was among the first four provinces to form the Dominion of Canada at Confederation on July 1, 1867. Promises of increased prosperity, a railway linking New Brunswick to central Canada, and a desire to unite with other British colonies to form a strong country in the face of growing American influence, all encouraged New Brunswick to join Confederation.
Coat of Arms
The upper third of the shield is red with a gold lion, symbolizing New Brunswick's ties to Britain. The lion is also found in the arms of the Duchy of Brunswick in Germany, the ancestral home of King George III. The lower part of the shield displays an ancient galley, most probably a reflection of the importance of shipbuilding and seafaring to New Brunswick in the 19th century. The galley is also based on the design of the province's original great seal, which featured a sailing ship on water.
The shield is supported by two white-tailed deer wearing collars of wampum. From one collar is suspended the Royal Union Flag, from the other the arms of Royalist France, to indicate the province's British and French background. Today, New Brunswick is Canada's only officially bilingual province.
The crest above the shield features an Atlantic salmon leaping from a coronet of gold maple leaves and bearing St. Edward's Crown on its back. The coat of arms' base is a grassy mound with fiddleheads and purple violets, the provincial floral emblem.
Motto
SPEM REDUXIT (Hope restored)
Flag
Floral Emblem
Other Provincial Symbols
- Tartan :
- New Brunswick Tartan
- Tree :
- Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea)
- Bird :
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Official Soil :
- Holmesville Soil Series
- Fishing Fly :
- "Picture Province" Atlantic Salmon Fly
- Acadian Flag
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