Joseph Howe

South Yard, Province House

To whom was Responsible Government first granted in the entire British Empire?  To the people of Nova Scotia, in 1848.  The leader in this fight for Responsible Government was Joseph Howe.  On the steep slope that runs down to the harbour from Citadel Hill sits Province House, the home of representative government in Nova Scotia.  In the south yard of Province House is the statue of Nova Scotia's most famous and beloved political sons, Joseph Howe.

The statue reads: Joseph Howe Journalist, Orator, Poet, Statesman, Prophet, Patriot, Briton Born at Halifax, December 13th 1804 "I wish to live and die a British subject; but not a Briton only in name.  Give me, give my country the Blessed Privilege of her Constitution and her Laws.  Let us be content with nothing less." Inscriptions on the four corners of the monument read: Justitae Vindex Integer Civis Vir Probus Dicendi Peritus

In 1837, Joe Howe was elected to the provincial legislature.  He was definitely a man about town, and other places as well.  He travelled to London in 1838 – with Sam Slick creator Thomas Haliburton – to promote Halifax, particularly its place on the Great Circle route as a steamship port.  He wrote many articles and editorials, many calling to task Nova Scotia’s hauty and self-important Lieutenant Governor, Lord Falkland.  He even fought a duel, in the clearing at the Martello Tower in Point Pleasant Park, against J.C. Halliburton.

Howe also worked to develop the telegraph system in Nova Scotia, which brought focus on Halifax as the first drop-off point of news packets arriving on steamers from Europe.  This would lead to the establishment of the first Associated Press office – yes, here in Halifax.

In 1861, Howe stood up in the Nova Scotia Legislature and made a motion that the Britain and the other Canadian provinces be approached "on the subject of a union of the North American provinces, or of the Maritime provinces".  The resolution passed but was not acted upon.

In 1863, Howe was voted out of office, and took a Crown appointment with the Fisheries Commission.  In 1864, Howe’s great rival, Charles Tupper, himself proposed a political union of the Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island).  A conference in September 1864 in Charlottetown on the subject of Maritime union was attended by delegates from Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec), whose proposal to unite the Canadas with the Maritimes would result in the birth of the Canadian nation less than 3 years later, with PEI not joining confederation until 1873.

In 1867, just eight days after the British North America Act brought the Dominion of Canada into being, Joe Howe won his seat in the first Dominion election.  Just days after their cause had been realised, Nova Scotia’s confederates saw only Tupper himself winning a seat.  Howe lead a group of Nova Scotia Members of Parliament who were dedicated to the repeal of confederation.

In February of 1868, Howe sailed for London to seek support for repeal, but found none.  He returned to Nova Scotia with alternatives ranging from acceptance to armed revolt.  Of course, he accepted the fate of his province, and worked the rest of that year and into the next with Canada’s new Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, to iron out the best terms for Nova Scotians.

In 1873, he returned to Halifax from Ottawa to take the post of Lieutenant Governor.  However, he died 3 weeks later.  On June 4, as the guns of the Citadel fired, a long funeral procession brought Howe’s body from Government House to Camp Hill Cemetery where he was interred.  Published after his death is a clever and moving poem dedicated to his hometown's most venerable landmark, the Old Town Clock (the poem is contained in its entirety on that tour page).