Provinces that never came to pass. Throughout Canadian history, there have been several movements to redraw borders and reorganize provinces for cultural, political, economic, and other reasons. Such plans rarely gain enough support to be realistically considered. Here area a few provinces that never came to pass.
Province: Maritime Union
Year: 1960s and ‘70s
Story: The Maritime Union is an oft-proposed plan to join the three Maritime provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. (Another version this plan, called the Atlantic Union, includes these three plus Newfoundland and Labrador.) While there is already a great deal of cooperation between the Maritimes, the proposed union would consolidate the population of 1.8 million, hypothetically making it the fifth-largest province.
Support for the plan peaked in the 1960s and ’70s, when an economic downturn forced the Maritimes to reconsider how they would acquire and distribute governmental resources. While the idea was publicly debated in all three provinces, the end result was a call for greater efficiency in regional cooperation. Standardization of educational curricula across the Maritimes was a notable outgrowth of these discussions. The concept of the Maritime Union resurfaced in 2012 when three Conservative members of the Senate suggested it as a means of acquiring greater political and economic authority.
Province: Cape Breton Island
Year: 1820s to Present
Story: Currently a part of Nova Scotia, many residents of Cape Breton Island would love to declare their independence and form their own province. Such big ideas are nothing new: They date back to the 1820s, when Britain first added the island to Nova Scotia after a prolonged period of self-rule.
In the year 2000 the movement was reinvigorated after the closing of a major coal mine on the island caused a major economic downturn. With the threat of a second coal mine closing, as well as a large steel mill, residents believed their hardship was caused in large part by Nova Scotia’s fiscal irresponsibility. A group met on November 11, 2000 (Remembrance Day across the Commonwealth of Nations), to discuss the logistics of separation. While they managed to gain the support of two local senators who brought the issue to the Senate, no definitive steps were taken to secure Cape Breton’s independence.
The Mammoth Cheese made at an experimental dairy station in Perth weighed 22,000 pounds.
Year: 1970s
Story: In the 1970s, the Northern Ontario Heritage Party (NOHP) was formed expressly for the purpose of lobbying to separate Northern from Southern Ontario, the most densely populated region in Canada. The movement had its unofficial beginning when the government of Ontario voted for a 7 percent sales tax on heating and electricity, a budgetary idea that didn’t sit well with the residents of the (much colder) north. Upset with what they perceived as Southern Ontario’s dominance over financial and political affairs, the NOHP gathered over 24,000 signatures for a petition demanding the overturn of the tax.
While the government rejected the petition, the party soldiered on, expanding and refining their statement of secession. Their central goal involved the creation of an independent economic state, establishing systems of production utilizing the area’s abundant natural resources. This, they felt, would stem the tide of young Northern Ontario residents moving south in search of work. They hoped to implement this system using environmentally friendly methods and in a sustainable fashion.
Though idealistic in nature, these goals were ultimately a bit beyond the NOHP’s grasp, and the party gradually faded away. In 2010, however, it resurfaced with a more moderate platform.
Province: Province of Montreal
Year: 1960s to Present
Story: Since the mid-twentieth century, there have been several movements to make the non-Francophone regions of the city of Montreal a separate province from Quebec. At points this has dovetailed with the Quebec separatist movement, so that Montreal reserves the right to secede from Quebec if Quebec indeed secedes from Canada.
As with the case of most secessionist movements, the central motive from the outset was financial in nature. In the 1960s many residents felt that Montreal’s mayor, Jean Drapeau, was allocating too many funds generated by the city of Montreal to other parts of the province. Some at the time even suggested joining with the United States as the fifty-first state. The movement has since quieted, though its popularity surges every so often.
It takes eight to 12 birch trees to make a single canoe.
Province: Turks and Caicos Islands
Year: 1917 to 2004
Story: Movements to alter Canada’s political boundaries are not confined to the mainland itself. In 1917 Canadian Prime Minister Robert Borden first suggested the idea of annexing the Turks and Caicos Islands, a British territory in the Caribbean. Interest in the plan waxed and waned for many years, with reassessments in 1974, 1986, and 2004.
Citing the fact that the bulk of international visitors to the islands are Canadian, as well as a long history of trade links between the two countries, supporters from both places say a union could be mutually beneficial. In 2004, in an effort to simplify the process of annexation, the people of Nova Scotia extended an invitation to the Turks and Caicos Islands to join their province should the islands ever join Canada. Other Canadian politicians have suggested building a state-of-the-art port in the Turks and Caicos. While providing a lift to Canada’s international trade, they say such a port would also improve the safety and quality of life for the residents of the islands.
While support for the merger was a remarkably high—90 percent among islanders in the 1990s—today it has fallen to around 60 percent. Still efforts continue to integrate, mostly in the areas of commerce and security.
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JUST LIKE HARRY POTTER
Hyperstealth Biotechnology in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, claimed in 2012 to have created the first real invisibility fabric. The material is a type of camouflage that bends light around the wearer or an object to create the illusion of invisibility. The biotech firm says that the material is lightweight, inexpensive, and uses no batteries, cameras, or projections. President and CEO Bob Cramer has been pitching the product to U.S. and Canadian military. While the company does show mock-ups of the invention on its website, skeptics point out that Hyperstealth has not yet shown its super-secret invention to the public, so there is no actual proof that it exists.
St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal displays the preserved heart of Brother Andre in a glass jar.