New Brunswick province

New Brunswick is one of the four Atlantic provinces of Canada. Forests cover about 85 percent of the land in New Brunswick and the manufacture of lumber, paper, and other forest products is important to the province's economy. New Brunswick also has rich farmland in the St John River Valley. Mineral deposits have been discovered in the northeastern part of the province and the province's rivers have been harnessed to provide electricity. Much of New Brunswick's early settlement came from American colonists who left after the American Revolution. Some 14,000 of these, known as United Empire Loyalists, began arriving in 1783. New Brunswick was one of the original provinces of the Canadian Confederation. One of its best known natural features is the Bay of Fundy, which it shares with Nova Scotia.

One of the three Maritime provinces, and included as one of the four Atlantic provinces, of Canada, bounded on the north by the Province Quebec and Chaleur Bay, on the east by the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and Northumberland Strait, on the south east by Nova Scotia, on the south by the Bay of Fundy, and on the west by the state of Maine. The province is joined to Nova Scotia by the narrow Isthmus of Chignecto. New Brunswick entered the Canadian Confederation on July 1, 1867, as one of the four original provinces. The province has traditionally had an economy based on the exploitation of its natural resources. In the early 1990's forestry and mineral industries remained important, but services and manufacturing were the dominant sectors. The province is named for the British royal family of Brunswick-Lüneburg (the house of Hannover). New Brunswick is called the Loyalist Province.

Communications
In the early 1990's New Brunswick was served by a comprehensive communications system, which included 12 commercial AM radio stations, 7 commercial FM radio stations, and 4 commercial television stations. The first radio station in the Atlantic provinces, CFNB, began broadcasting in Fredericton in 1923. In the early 1990's the province had four English-language daily newspapers and one French-language daily; their combined daily circulation was 148,100. New Brunswick's first newspaper, the Royal Saint John Gazette and Nova Scotia Intelligencer, began publication in 1783. Today the leading papers are the Daily Gleaner, of Fredericton; the Telegraph-Journal, of Saint John; the Times-Transcript, of Moncton; and L'Acadie Nouvelle, of Caraquet.

Economy
Like much of Canada and especially like the other Atlantic provinces, New Brunswick has had, since its earliest settlement, an economy that is closely tied to its natural resources. Forestry products (including manufactured items) have been New Brunswick's economic mainstay throughout its history. Both fishing and agriculture have declined in significance. Since the discovery of extensive base metal ore deposits in the 1950's, mineral production has increased dramatically. With the growth of service industries and specialized manufacturing, the province has a wider employment base than ever before.

Transportation in New Brunswick is served by a network of some 20,620 km (some 12,815 mi) of roads and highways. In addition, 1097 km (682 mi) of mainline railroad tracks cross the province. Because it is on the mainland of North America, New Brunswick relies less on water transportation than do the other Atlantic provinces. Saint John, however, is a major seaport, and it is also the terminus of the two major national railroad systems. Ice free in the winter months, the port handles 90% of the province's import and export traffic. Moncton has the busiest airport; Fredericton and Saint John also have major air terminals.

Energy in the form of Electricity generating plants in New Brunswick have a total capacity of about 3.5 million kw and produce about 15.8 billion kwh of electricity each year. Of the four Atlantic provinces, New Brunswick has the only nuclear installation; nuclear energy accounts for about one-third of the electricity generated in the province, and hydropower supplies about 19%. New Brunswick sells substantial amounts of electricity to other provinces and to the U.S. The largest thermal plant is found at Belldune, the biggest hydroelectric station at Mactaquac, and the lone nuclear installation at Point Lepreau, on the Bay of Fundy.

Education & Culture
New Brunswick has a strong cultural and educational heritage that reflects the influences of both its French-speaking and English-speaking populations. Education. In 1816 the New Brunswick colonial legislature passed a law providing for the establishment of primary schools in all counties. The province's modern public school system was established in 1871. In the early 1990's New Brunswick had 450 elementary and secondary schools with a combined annual enrollment of 141,650 students. There were few private schools. In the same period the province had 13 institutions of higher education, with about 22,450 students. Leading higher education institutions in New Brunswick include the University of New Brunswick (1785), at Fredericton, Canada's oldest university; Mount Allison University (1840), at Sackville; and the French-language Université de Moncton (1864), at Moncton.

Cultural Institutions
Libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions are concentrated in Fredericton and Saint John. Major museums include the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and the Provincial Archives, both at Fredericton; the New Brunswick Museum, with historical collections, at Saint John; and the Musée Acadian at the Université de Moncton. Prominent libraries include the Harriet Irving Library of the University of New Brunswick at Fredericton, and the New Brunswick Museum Library, at Saint John. Also of note is the provincial legislative library, at Fredericton. Symphony New Brunswick is based in Saint John, and Theatre New Brunswick has its headquarters at the Playhouse in Fredericton. Acadian cultural activities are coordinated by Le Centre de Promotion et de Diffusion de la Culture, at Moncton Historical Sites. Fort Beauséjour National Historic Park, east of Sackville, is the site of an 18th-century French fort. Remains of British defensive sites include the Martello Tower west of Saint John and the Saint Andrews Blockhouse, dating from the early 19th century. At Saint John are several historic structures, including houses that were built by Loyalists.

Sports & Recreation
The scenic forests and rivers of New Brunswick furnish excellent opportunities for hunting, fishing, and boating. The province's salmon streams are particularly well known. Winter sports are also popular.

Mineral Resources
The most important mineral resources are found near Bathurst. Ores here contain zinc, lead, copper, cadmium, bismuth, gold, and silver. Gypsum is found near Havelock, and small coal deposits are located near Grand Lake.

History
The French mariner Jacques Cartier visited the east coast of the region constituting present-day New Brunswick in 1534. He and other early explorers found two Indian tribes in the region, the Malecite and the Micmac. In 1604 the French explorers Samuel de Champlain and Pierre du Guast, sieur de Monts, established the first French settlement on an island at the mouth of the Saint Croix River. The settlement was abandoned the next year, but after 1631, when the French constructed Fort La Tour on the site of modern Saint John, colonists moved into the coastal area along the Bay of Fundy.

The New Brunswick region then formed part of the French province of Acadia. Warfare between the French and British flared intermittently between 1689 and 1763. Great Britain obtained possession of mainland Acadia in 1713 under the terms of the Peace of Utrecht, the agreement ending the War of the Spanish Succession, but the French insisted that New Brunswick was not included. In 1755 the British defeated French forces at Fort Beauséjour and extended effective British rule to New Brunswick. In the same year, when the British expelled the Acadians from Nova Scotia, some 500 of the deportees settled in New Brunswick, substantially augmenting its population. In 1762 the first British settlement in New Brunswick was established at Saint John. Many British Loyalists fled there from the American colonies during and after the American Revolution, and in 1784 New Brunswick, which had been administered as a part of Nova Scotia, became a separate colony. After the Napoleonic Wars many British immigrants came to New Brunswick, and the colony entered a period of prosperity based on fishing, shipbuilding, and lumbering.

In 1867 New Brunswick joined with Nova Scotia, Lower Canada (Quebec), and Upper Canada (Ontario) to form the Dominion of Canada under the terms of the British North America Act. Railroad building followed confederation. The Intercolonial Railway (now the Canadian National Railway), linking New Brunswick and Nova Scotia with Montreal, was completed in 1876. The Canadian Pacific Railway line from Montreal to Moncton, by way of northern Maine, was finished before the close of the century. Other local lines were built, some before confederation. Agriculture and the timber trade declined in the late 19th century. Contributory causes were the opening up of the western grain country, the industrialization of central Canada, and tariff restrictions that cut New Brunswick off from its natural trade channels to the U.S. and Europe. The long freight haul to the central Canadian markets inhibited trade in that direction.

The provincial economy slowly recovered during the 20th century. The introduction of the pulp and paper industry brought new life and a more stable character to lumbering. Agriculture gained greatly with the cultivation of potatoes for export. The fishing industry expanded, and methods of fishing were improved. New industries appeared, particularly those aimed at supplying provincial needs. The exploitation of hydroelectric resources, mining discoveries, and the general growth of Canada as a whole helped to improve economic conditions.

Liberal Premier Louis J. Robichaud (1925- ), an Acadian, took office in 1960 and established the official equality of the French and English languages. This action was in recognition of the growth in the Acadian segment to about 39 percent of the population by 1961. Robichaud also pursued, often with federal assistance, a strategy of industrialization to create the jobs necessary to bring living standards up to the national average. His Progressive Conservative party successor, Richard Bennett Hatfield (1931-), premier from 1970 to 1987, continued Robichaud's policies of development.

The failure of some enterprises, notably a government-backed automobile manufacturing plant, a waning federal enthusiasm for subsidized development, a 5-year ban on commercial salmon fishing, and a slump in the lumbering industry slowed economic progress. At the same time, construction of a new container facility made Saint John the rival to Halifax as Canada's year-round port in the east. In the 1987 election the Liberals, led by Frank McKenna (1948- ), swept all 58 seats in the legislature. McKenna was a leading opponent of the Meech Lake accord (calling for the recognition of Quebec as a "distinct society" within the Dominion); he eventually modified his stand to avoid alienating Quebec. He won another massive majority in 1991, but the new Confederation of Regions party, which was critical of both French power and social change, captured eight seats perhaps an indication of rising ethnic tensions in New Brunswick

Land & Resources
New Brunswick, with an area of 73,440 sq km (28,355 sq mi), is the eighth largest province in Canada; approximately 2% of the land area is owned by the federal government. The province is roughly elliptical in shape, and its extreme dimensions are about 370 km (about 230 mi) from north to south and about 305 km (about 190 mi) from east to west. Elevations range from sea level to 820 m (2690 ft) atop Mt. Carleton. The province has a total shoreline of 2269 km (1410 mi).

Physical Geography
Most of the prominent physical features of New Brunswick are aligned in a southwest to northeast direction. The Maritime Plain, a triangular region with its base along the Northumberland Strait, covers about one-third of the province. This region is flat to gently undulating and lies mostly below 152 m (500 ft) in elevation. It is underlain by sedimentary rocks and has soils built on relatively stone-free glacial deposits. The New Brunswick Highlands region extends from Chaleur Bay southwest and then along the coast of the Bay of Fundy. This region is highest in the north, where the average elevation exceeds 610 m (2000 ft); the province's highest peak, Mt. Carleton, is here. The area along the Bay of Fundy has elevations that range from about 305 to 425 m (about 1000 to 1400 ft). Much of the highland region is underlain by hard granitic rocks and has thin, stony soils. The lower Saint John River. cuts through this region, and its narrow lowlands contain fertile soil. To the northwest lies the Chaleur Uplands, a plateau like region with an average elevation of about 305 m (about 1000 ft) and soils similar to those of the New Brunswick Highlands. A small portion of the Notre Dame Mts. is in the extreme northwest. This region has a more rugged terrain.

Rivers & Lakes
The province's major rivers and its many smaller streams radiate outward from the interior highlands. The most important stream, the St. John River, rises in Maine and flows southeast to the Bay of Fundy. The extremely high tides of the Bay of Fundy flow upstream, causing the famous phenomenon known as the reversing falls of Saint John. Other major rivers include the Restigouche, which has headwaters in the Chaleur Uplands and empties into Chaleur Bay, and the Miramichi, which cuts across the Maritime Plain to its outlet on the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Many small lakes and a few larger ones occur in the glaciated upland regions. The largest natural lake is Grand Lake, which is only 2 m (7 ft) above sea level, even though it is more than 70 km (43 mi) from the open sea. Several reservoirs have been formed behind dams on the St. John River.

Climate
The north half of New Brunswick has a distinctly continental climate, with cold winters and warm summers. The south half has a more moderate maritime climate, with milder winters and slightly cooler summers. The average annual temperature ranges from 2.8° C (37° F) in the north to 5° C (41° F) in the south. The recorded temperature has ranged from -47.2° C (-53° F) in 1955, at Sisson Dam in the northwest, to 39.4° C (102.9° F) in 1935, at Nepisiguit Falls in the northeast. The average annual precipitation ranges from 889 mm (35 in) in the north to 1143 mm (45 in) in the south. Precipitation is fairly evenly distributed throughout the year. Fog is common in the spring and early summer along the Bay of Fundy coast.

Government & Politics
New Brunswick has a parliamentary form of government. Executive. The lieutenant governor, the nominal head of government, is appointed, usually for five years, by the federal government. Actual power is held by the premier, who typically leads the strongest party in the legislature. The premier selects executive council (cabinet) ministers from among the members of the legislature.

The unicameral Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick consists of 58 members popularly elected for a maximum of five years, subject to earlier dissolution.

The highest court in the province, the Court of Appeal, consists of a chief justice and five other judges. The Court of Queen's Bench includes a trial division, with a total of 20 judges, and a family division, with 8 judges. All superior and district court judges in New Brunswick are appointed for life by the federal government (that is, by the governor-general in council). Minor cases are tried in provincial courts, with judges who are appointed by the provincial government.

Since 1967 counties have been replaced by the provincial government as the principal agent of local administration. Incorporated areas include 6 cities, 27 towns, and 84 villages, all of which have elective clerks and councils. National Representation. New Brunswick is represented in the Parliament of Canada by ten senators, appointed for life by the federal government, and ten elected members of the House of Commons.

In federal and provincial politics New Brunswick has, in the 20th century, been controlled for about equal periods by the Liberal and Conservative (now Progressive Conservative) parties. Although independents have occasionally been elected to Parliament from New Brunswick, third parties have traditionally had little impact on either the federal or provincial level. An exception is the Confederation of Regions party, which finished second to the Liberals and ahead of the Progressive Conservatives in the September 1991 elections.

Population
As of July 1, 2000, about 757,000 souls are proud to call New Brunswick home, and most of them live along the coasts and in the river valleys. Based on 1996 census results, about 33 per cent of them are French-speaking, and New Brunswick is Canada's only official bilingual province. Saint John is the province's oldest and largest city with a population of 72,494. Moncton is home to 59,313. Fredericton, the capital, has a population of about 46,507. Bathurst's population is about 13,815; Edmundston's is 11,033 and Campbellton's is 8,404. Miramichi, established on Jan. 1, 1995, incorporates the towns of Chatham and Newcastle and several other communities and boasts a population of about 19,241.

The information above were taken from the New-Brunswick.net

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