History & Culture
New Brunswick is Canada's only truly bi-lingual province, and the result of French, British and First Nations influences over the generations means that today our province is a fascinating cross-cultural cocktail.
A mosaic of cultures including Scottish, Irish, British, French Acadian and Mi’kmag blend together to make New Brunswick a wonderful, diverse destination. The powwow drums echo the heartbeat of a civilization as ancient as the forests and as strong as the tides. Spoons clack-clack a toe-tapping rhythm in time to the flying fingers of an Acadian fiddler. The drone of a bagpipe signals the start of a ceilidh, complete with Highland flings. A whirlwind of festivals, fairs and special events celebrate music (from jazz to baroque), theatre, abundant seafood, cuisine and dance: come and visit us and enjoy our “joie de vivre” (love of life).
But how did we get to be this cosmopolitan mix?
It’s likely that Vikings may well have visited the coast of present-day New Brunswick around 1000, the first recorded European exploration here was by Frenchman Jacques Cartier in 1534: he discovered and named the Baie des Chaleurs (between northern New Brunswick and Quebec’s Gaspé peninsula).
Samuel de Champlain and other Europeans began to explore the region in the early 1600s and were met by the Maliseet, Mi’kmaq and Passamaquoddy, aboriginal peoples who inhabited the area and lived along its rivers and coasts (some of their descendants still live here).
Soon after, the whole region (including Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and parts of Maine) was proclaimed to be part of the royal French colony of Acadia. A competing British claim to the region was made in 1621, and the result was the first of a long series of wars.
1713’s Treaty of Utrecht gave what would later become New Brunswick to the French, but in the late 1750s it came back under British control. The British had forcefully expelled much of the region’s Acadian population, some of whom escaped to the remote coastline along the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Baie des Chaleurs. Over the years, these Acadian settlements grew and thrived and today, this region is known as the Acadian Peninsula.
In 1783, looking to re-populate the area, Britain convinced refugees fleeing from persecution in the aftermath of the American Revolution who were loyal to the British Crown (“Loyalists”) to settle here. As a result of the influx of Loyalists, the colony of New Brunswick was officially created on August 16, 1784. To this day, New Brunswick is often called “the Loyalist province”. In addition, some of the displaced Acadians returned from exile to settle in New Brunswick.
New Brunswick was named in honour of the British monarch, King George III, who was descended from the House of Brunswick (Haus Braunschweig in German). Fredericton was declared the capital and named for the king’s son, Prince Frederick.
The 19th century saw much immigration from England, Scotland, and Ireland – particularly as a result of the Irish Potato Famine. Shipbuilding – especially on the Bay of Fundy shore and along the lower Miramichi River – became the dominant industry.
New Brunswick was one of the four original provinces of Canada that entered into Confederation in 1867.
