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Nova Scotia Book of Everything
From the number of kilometers of coastline to the stories behind those weird place names (hello Ecum Secum) to profiles of Joe Howe and Alexander Keith, there is no book as comprehensive as the Nova Scotia Book of Everything. There is also no book more fun. Well-known Nova Scotians like Premier Rodney MacDonald weigh in on subjects like the five Nova Scotians he admires most; Ashley MacIssac tells us his five greatest Nova Scotians; Joel Plaskett gives up his favourite hangouts. The worst weather, Nova Scotia slang, the greatest crimes…it’s all here!
Whether you are a life long resident or visiting for the first time, there simply is no other book that delivers the goods. If you love Nova Scotia, you’ll love the Nova Scotia Book of Everything.
Whether you are a life long resident or visiting for the first time, there simply is no other book that delivers the goods. If you love Nova Scotia, you’ll love the Nova Scotia Book of Everything.
192 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2008
3 people are currently reading
5 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 30, 2025
Nova Scotia Book of Everything
John MacIntyre
Joseph Howe opposed Confederation on the grounds that the demands of Upper Canada would strangle the Nova Scotia economy and how right he was. Tariffs blocked us from our natural trading partners in New England and the process continues with the loss of apple sales to Britain reducing Annapolis Valley apples to juice.
The noble profession of Rum-Running.
Upon his retirement the High Sheriff of Lunenburg published a book about his rum running days.
The triangle was the Grand Banks, Boston to sell the catch, the Islands to load up with Rum and then back to a foggy NS inlet.
Family lore says 500 gallons of Rum were once stored under my great-uncle’s threshing floor.
Imagine taking the family to watch a public hanging!
As an inducement to tourism devoting twenty pages to crime may not have been the best move.
And we continue to air dirty laundry
Racism.
In the Deep South poor white trash couldn’t find work because slave labour was free. Once freed former slaves accepted lower wages. Employers promoted racism lest their workers find common cause.
Blacks freed during various conflicts with the former 13 colonies were not wanted back in Britain so the were dumped on other colonies. To this day many bars in Halifax will not serve Blacks. A recent Halifax Transit Map recorded a stop labelled Niggerville. Shelburne and Queens County are natural rock gardens where white residents barely eked out an existence. A few thousand former slaves were highly unwelcome.
Cornwallis issued bounties on wolves and Indians. The wolves disappeared but the enmity created by the latter bounty exists to this day. My mother’s schoolmarm cousin carried a rifle when she walked the woodland trails. Land acknowledgements have become a feature of most corporate websites today and are recited in churches guilted by their association with residential schools. Wars have broken out on wharves where Natives engage in lobster fishing.
“I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents."
Exodus 34:7
To end on a comic note, the old Indian was asked how he predicted the severity of the coming winter, I go check the size of the white man’s woodpile.
John MacIntyre
Joseph Howe opposed Confederation on the grounds that the demands of Upper Canada would strangle the Nova Scotia economy and how right he was. Tariffs blocked us from our natural trading partners in New England and the process continues with the loss of apple sales to Britain reducing Annapolis Valley apples to juice.
The noble profession of Rum-Running.
Upon his retirement the High Sheriff of Lunenburg published a book about his rum running days.
The triangle was the Grand Banks, Boston to sell the catch, the Islands to load up with Rum and then back to a foggy NS inlet.
Family lore says 500 gallons of Rum were once stored under my great-uncle’s threshing floor.
Imagine taking the family to watch a public hanging!
As an inducement to tourism devoting twenty pages to crime may not have been the best move.
And we continue to air dirty laundry
Racism.
In the Deep South poor white trash couldn’t find work because slave labour was free. Once freed former slaves accepted lower wages. Employers promoted racism lest their workers find common cause.
Blacks freed during various conflicts with the former 13 colonies were not wanted back in Britain so the were dumped on other colonies. To this day many bars in Halifax will not serve Blacks. A recent Halifax Transit Map recorded a stop labelled Niggerville. Shelburne and Queens County are natural rock gardens where white residents barely eked out an existence. A few thousand former slaves were highly unwelcome.
Cornwallis issued bounties on wolves and Indians. The wolves disappeared but the enmity created by the latter bounty exists to this day. My mother’s schoolmarm cousin carried a rifle when she walked the woodland trails. Land acknowledgements have become a feature of most corporate websites today and are recited in churches guilted by their association with residential schools. Wars have broken out on wharves where Natives engage in lobster fishing.
“I will not fail to punish children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for the sins of their parents."
Exodus 34:7
To end on a comic note, the old Indian was asked how he predicted the severity of the coming winter, I go check the size of the white man’s woodpile.
April 24, 2025
Styled and written just like the Newfoundland Book of Everything, this says this is written for natives, but this is the kind of thing I enjoy learning about places we visit. A concise bullet point list of important history dates, a list of interesting geographic features, a bit about language and culture, and a bit about everything. I particularly enjoy the history bits and the culture stuff.
September 14, 2015
Read this before our trip to Nova Scotia. It is mainly just lists of interesting facts. I would not recommend it for a pre-trip read, it would be light reading for someone that really was into Nova Scotia as a sort of bathroom book, but no more.
October 8, 2011
I liked this one on Nova Scotia. It gave a bit more of the little details that I was looking for.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews