What can we learn from Nova Scotia's own separatist movement?

When we think about separatist movements in Canada, there's Quebec, of course. And now there's Alberta. It'll all be decided on October the 19th. Your mind, however, likely doesn't jump to Nova Scotia. But yes, Nova Scotia once had its very own separatist movement. Nova Scotians, I think it's safe to say, were overwhelmingly opposed to Confederation. Petitions with tens of thousands of signatures on them from all over the province. The opposition wasn't quiet. It was very loud. I sit here in the chamber of the Nova Scotia legislature, and behind me is a portrait. William Stephens Fielding, Nova Scotia premier from 1884 to 1896. In the 1886 election, he campaigned on leaving Confederation. And guess what? He won. Now, separatism is a big issue right now in this country. But in a way, it's also an issue that was with us from the very beginning. Each year on July 1st, Canadians celebrate. But in 1867, the birth of this country, for some in Nova Scotia, well, it felt more like a funeral than it did a party. Some prominent historians, one in particular, commented to the effect, and I can just about quote him, that there was some opposition to Confederation of Nova Scotia. Well, that's the understatement of the century. It was massive. Nova Scotia's champion of confederation was Conservative Premier Charles Tupper. What irked many in the public, however, is the feeling that they were never really consulted, never given a chance to have a say on an issue that deeply divided the province. It was a question of where people saw their economic future. Was it built on wind and wooden ships, on trade with the West Indies or the United States, or was it based on an industrialized future? with coal-powered railways and steelmaking. So the parts of Nova Scotia with the potential to industrialize, they tended to support Confederation. But districts that traded with the US, they worried it would lead to higher tariffs and a soured relationship with the Americans, and they were against it. There was also, I think, a lot of patriotism. Nova Scotia, remember, had no dealings with Upper and Lower Canadians, so when they were asked to embrace this new political arrangement, they didn't feel any patriotic call to that. Maybe to Britain, and Britain wanted that to happen, but they felt that Nova Scotia was a virtual country that was being smothered. There was a wave of backlash. In an election shortly after Confederation, candidates opposed to Confederation won a huge victory. You might think, with that kind of vote, that extracting Nova Scotia from Canada would be a slam dunk. But there was an obstacle, the British. It was their parliament that had voted to join together Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and what is now Ontario and Quebec. Well, Joseph Howe is one of the most important politicians in Nova Scotia history, and he was firmly against Confederation. So he goes to London on a mission to change minds, a mission that ultimately failed. The British wouldn't budge. And he comes home very dejected, but also recognizing that they're at a dangerous point. There was a real risk that people could have taken up weapons and tried to resist Confederation with force of arms. It had happened within a decade in the United States. Howe is aware that that's a potential, and I think he and a few allies decide that they're going to try to get a slight revision of terms with the Donald government in Ottawa. And that's the path he pursues, and he is castigated for it. by the anti-Confederates. So the separatist movement is effectively defeated, but the separatist sentiment, it lives on. Jump ahead a few years, an economic depression hits in the 1870s, and those better terms Joseph Howe had negotiated with Ottawa, they expired. The province is essentially broke. Then comes along William Fielding, and he becomes liberal premier in 1884. Two years later, there's an election. He resurrects an old issue. He runs a campaign with the support of most of his cabinet on taking Nova Scotia out of Confederation. Fielding was taken seriously. If you're taken seriously by both your supporters and your opponents, you're saying the right thing. The public sentiment at the time was that they took Fielding at his word and he was too clever a politician to tell them otherwise. And, you know, it's hardly unheard of for politicians in government or wanting to remain in government to promise things that they have no intention of doing. The point is, William Fielding knew that pulling Nova Scotia out of Confederation was, by this time, likely impossible. He also knew how to win an election, which he did with a stronger majority. So what happened next with this anti-Confederation push? Well, basically, it all fizzled. What didn't fizzle, however, was William Fielding's career. He remained premier until 1896, and then curiously, perhaps, for an anti-Confederate politician, he made the jump to federal politics and was the finance minister in Ottawa for a total of 19 years. So today, with the sovereigntist Parti Québécois winning the recent election in Quebec and an Alberta referendum on independence. What should we make of this piece of Nova Scotia history, of its opposition to being a part of this country? I would like to see that perhaps people, generally Canadians in particular, appreciate it was not a foregone conclusion. It might have gone a different way. But the history was far more complex, complicated, uneasy, uncertain, and people held quite different views from what they are now assumed to have held at the time. And I think there is a lot to be gained from not pretending that, yes, Nova Scotia was part of Canada, has been part of Canada from day one, but that was not an easy ride. I think it allows us the benefit of hindsight because a separatist movement in Alberta or a separatist movement in Quebec is very likely to provoke hostility in the rest of Canada. People might think of these areas as unpatriotic, as unwilling, not true Canadians, these various criticisms. I think it's really important that you take the long view and see what happened in Nova Scotia in the 1860s and 1880s. That reconciliation is possible, that it's probably better to have dialogue than put up a wall and an echo chamber. Well, these days we're talking a lot about separatism in Quebec, separatism in Alberta. Well, maybe Nova Scotia's history gives us something new to reflect on.