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The flag of New Brunswick: The flag of New Brunswick, Canada is a banner modelled after the provincial arms and was adopted by proclamation on February 24, 1965.
The flag has the proportions 8:5; the gold lion on the red field across the top one-third of the flag represents New Brunswick's ties to both the Brunswick region in Germany and (the arms of) the King of England.
Occupying the lower two-thirds of the flag, the Spanish galley was the traditional representation for a ship in heraldry. Its appearance on the flag at sea represented shipbuilding, one of the province's main industries at the time the coat of arms was adopted and throughout much of the province's history.
New Brunswick (French: Nouveau-Brunswick) is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces, and the only officially bilingual province (French and English) in the country. Its capital is Fredericton. The provincial Department of Finance estimates that the province's population in 2006 was 749,168 of which the majority is English-speaking but with a substantial (35%) French-speaking minority of mostly Acadian origin.
New Brunswick is bounded on the north by Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula and Chaleur Bay. Along the east coast, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Northumberland Strait are found. In the south-east corner of the province, the narrow Isthmus of Chignecto connects New Brunswick to peninsular Nova Scotia. The south of the province is bounded by the Bay of Fundy. On the west, the province borders the American state of Maine. The province differs from its neighbours physiographically, climatologically and ethnoculturally. The major river systems in the province include the St. John River, Petitcodiac River, Miramichi River, St. Croix River, Kennebecasis River and the Restigouche River. New Brunswick lies entirely within the Appalachian Mountain range. The eastern and central part of the province consists of the New Brunswick Lowland. The Caledonia Highlands and St. Croix Highlands extend along the Bay of Fundy coast, reaching elevations of 300 metres. The northwestern part of the province is comprised of the remote and more rugged Miramichi Highlands, as well as the Chaleur Uplands and the Notre Dame Mountains with a maximum elevation at Mount Carleton of 820 metres. The total land and water area is 72, 908 kms², 80% of which is forested. The major urban centres lie in the south of the province.
Metropolitan Saint John (Saint John, Quispamsis, Rothesay) and Greater Moncton (Moncton, Riverview, Dieppe) both have urban populations of between 120,000 and 130,000. Greater Fredericton has a census agglomeration population of 85,000. Saint John is one of the largest shipping ports in Canada (in terms of gross tonnage) and has heavy industries in the form of pulp and paper mills and oil refineries. In addition, there are major oil fired and nuclear power plants in the greater Saint John vicinity. Moncton is the fastest growing metropolitan area in the province. Its economy is principally based on transportation (the province's largest airport is located here), distribution, commercial and retail. Moncton has a sizeable francophone Acadian minority (35%) and was the first officially bilingual city in the country. Fredericton, the capital of the province is home to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, and the University of New Brunswick. Canada's largest military base is located in nearby Oromocto.
First Nations in New Brunswick include the Mi'kmaq and Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet). The first European settlers, the Acadians, are today survivors of the Great Expulsion (1755) which drove several thousand French residents into exile in North America, the UK and France for refusing to take an oath of allegiance to King George III during the French and Indian War. American Acadians, who wound up in Louisiana and other parts of the American South, are often referred to as Cajuns.
Many of the English-Canadian population of New Brunswick are descended from Loyalists who fled the American Revolution. This is commemorated in the province's motto, Spem reduxit ("hope was restored"). There is also a significant population with Irish ancestry, especially in Saint John and the Miramichi Valley. People of Scottish descent are scattered throughout the Province with higher concentrations in the Miramichi and in Campbellton. A small population of Danish origin may be found in New Denmark in the northwest of the province.
The Catholic Church (53.4%) is the largest denomination. The three largest Protestant denominations (35.7%) in New Brunswick are the United Church of Canada and the Baptist and Anglican churches. Other Christians (1.4%), other religions (0.8%) and no religious affiliation (8.7%) make of the remainder of the population.
New Brunswick has a modern service based economy dominated by the finance, insurance, health care and educational sectors and this is based out of all three of the principal urban centres. In addition to the above; heavy industry is found in Saint John, Fredericton is dominated by government services, universities and the military and Moncton is a commercial, retail, transportation and distribution centre with important rail and air terminal facilities. The rural primary economy is best known for forestry, mining, mixed farming and fishing. The most valuable crop is potatoes, while the most valuable fish catches are lobster and scallops. Tourism is becoming increasingly important, especially in the Passamaquoddy region (dominated by the resort town of St. Andrews), and in the southeast of the province, centred by Moncton and Shediac. The largest employers are the Irving group of companies, several large multinational forest companies, the Government of New Brunswick, and the McCain group of companies.
10,000 BC - 5001 BC: The Wisconsin Glaciation retreats, ending the Pleistocene Epoch. The Sáqwéjíjk return to their homeland by canoe, following the caribou herds as they move north.
5000 BC - 1 BC: 5000 The Sáqwéjíjk begin calling themselves Níkmaq, a posessive form indicating awareness of their spiritual and collective unity. The concept roughly translates as "my kin friends". 2500 The Augustine mound is built near Metepnákiaq (Red Bank, New Brunswick)
Pre-European: The Aboriginal nations of New Brunswick include the Mi'kmaq (Micmac), Maliseet (Wolastoqiyik - "people of the good river" or St. John) and Passamaquoddy (Panwapskewiyik). The Mi'kmaq territories are mostly in the east of the province. The Maliseets are located along the Wolastoq (St.John river) and the Passamaquoddy tribe is situated in the southwest, around Passamaquoddy Bay. Amerindians have occupied New Brunswick since about 8000-10000 BCE.
French Colonial Era (1604-1759): The first known European exploration of present-day New Brunswick was by French explorer Jacques Cartier in 1534. The next French contact was in 1604, when a party led by Pierre Dugua (Sieur de Monts) and Samuel de Champlain set up a camp for the winter on St.Croix Island between present-day New Brunswick and Maine. The colony was relocated the following year across the Bay of Fundy to Port Royal. Over the next 150 years, other French settlements and seigneuries were founded along the St. John River, the upper Bay of Fundy region and in the Tantramar Marshes at Beaubassin, and finally at St. Pierre (the site of present day Bathurst). The whole Maritime region (as well as parts of Maine) were at that time proclaimed to be part of the French colony of Acadia.
One of the provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713 was the surrender of peninsular Nova Scotia to the British. The bulk of the Acadian population now found themselves residing in the new British colony of Nova Scotia. The remainder of Acadia (including the New Brunswick region) was only lightly populated and poorly defended. To protect their territorial interests in what remained of Acadia, France, in 1750, built two forts (Fort Beausejour and Fort Gaspareaux) along the frontier with Nova Scotia at either end of the Isthmus of Chignecto. A major French fortification (Fortress Louisbourg) was also built on Ile Royale, but the function of this fort was mostly to defend the approaches to New France, and not Acadia.
As part of the Seven Years' War (1756-63), the British extended their control to include all of New Brunswick. Fort Beausejour (near Sackville) was captured by a British force commanded by Lt. Col. Robert Monckton in 1755. The Acadian population from the nearby Beaubassin and Petitcodiac regions was subsequently expelled in the Great Upheaval as was also the Acadian population from peninsular Nova Scotia. Some of the Acadians in the Petitcodiac and Memramcook region escaped and under the leadership of Joseph Broussard continued to conduct guerrilla action against the British forces for a couple of years. Other actions in the war included British expeditions up the St. John River in both 1758 and 1759. Fort Anne (Fredericton) fell during the 1759 campaign and following this, all of present day New Brunswick came under British control.
British Colonial Era (1759-1867): After the Seven Year's War, most of New Brunswick (and parts of Maine) were incorporated as into the colony of Nova Scotia. New Brunswick's relative location away from the Atlantic coastline hindered settlement during the post war period. The coming of the Revolutionary War had little effect on the New Brunswick region. Significant population growth would not occur in the region until Britain convinced refugee Loyalists from New England to settle in the area. With the arrival of the Loyalist refugees in Parrtown (Saint John) in 1783, the need to organise the territory became acute. The British colonial administrators in Halifax felt that the regions west of the Isthmus of Chignecto were too remote to allow for effective governance. As a result, the colony of New Brunswick was created by Sir Thomas Carleton on August 16, 1784.
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, some deported Acadians from Nova Scotia found their way back to "Acadie" where they settled mostly along the eastern and northern shores of the new colony of New Brunswick. Here they lived in relative (and in many ways self imposed) isolation.
The north-western border between Maine and New Brunswick had not been defined by the Treaty of Paris (1783). In the late 1830's, population growth and competing lumber interests forced the need for a definite boundary. In the winter of 1838-39, the situation quickly deteriorated with both Maine and New Brunswick calling out their respective militias. The "Aroostook War" was thankfully bloodless and the boundary was settled by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842.
Immigration to New Brunswick in the early part of the 19th century was from the west country of England and from Scotland, and also from Waterford, Ireland, often having come through or having lived in Newfoundland prior. A large influx of settlers arrived in New Brunswick in 1845 from Ireland as a result of the Potato Famine. Many of these people settled in Saint John or Chatham.
Throughout the 19th century, shipbuilding, both on the Bay of Fundy shore and also on the Miramichi, was the dominant industry in New Brunswick. The Marco Polo, the fastest clipper ship ever built, was launched from Saint John in 1851. Resource-based industries such as logging and farming were also important to the New Brunswick economy.
New Brunswick in Canada (1867-Present): New Brunswick was one of the original provinces of Canada that entered into Canadian Confederation in 1867. The Charlottetown Conference of 1864 had originally been intended only to discuss a Maritime Union, but concerns over the American Civil War as well as Fenian activity along the border led to an interest in expanding the scope of the union. This interest arose from the Province of Canada (formerly Upper and Lower Canada, later Ontario and Quebec) and a request was made by the Canadians to the Maritimers to have the agenda altered. Many residents of the Maritimes wanted no part of this larger Confederation. Many - such as Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley; New Brunswick's best-known Father of Confederation found themselves without a seat after the next election.
Following Confederation, national policies and trade barriers disrupted the historic trading relationship between the Maritime Provinces and New England. The situation in New Brunswick was exacerbated by the Great Fire of 1877 in Saint John and by the decline of the wooden shipbuilding industry. Skilled workers were forced to move to other parts of Canada or to the United States, but as the 20th Century dawned, the province's economy began to expand again. Manufacturing gained strength with the construction of several cotton mills and, in the crucial forestry sector, the sawmills that had dotted inland sections of the province gave way to larger pulp and paper mills. Nevertheless, unemployment remained high and the Great Depression provided another setback. Two influential families, the Irvings and the McCains, emerged from the depression to begin to modernise and vertically integrate the provincial economy.
The Acadians were traditionally isolated from the English speakers that dominated the rest of the province. Government services were often not available in French, and the infrastructure in predominantly francophone areas was noticeably less evolved than in the rest of the province. This changed with the election of premier Louis Robichaud in 1960. He embarked on the ambitious Equal Opportunity Plan in which education, rural road maintenance, and health care fell under the sole jurisdiction of a provincial government that insisted on equal coverage of all areas of the province. County councils were abolished with the rural areas coming under direct provincial jurisdiction. The 1969 Official Languages Act made French an official language.
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