According to Google Maps, the American Border between St Stephen NB and Calais ME is an almost 5 hour drive from my home in a suburb of Halifax.
Canadian and American Foundations
A couple of years ago, I made that trip both ways in one day with a friend from Italy who needed to re-enter Canada to update his visa. The highways to Maine are mostly four lane and divided and allow an average speed of 100 km/hour. My first trip to Maine, as a pre-teen, was part of my Dad’s two week vacation and we originated in Sydney, Nova Scotia, camped overnight, drove on double lane roads, passed through the cities and towns and required Dad to pause at the border and show his driver’s licence to the US authorities.
My connection to the Great Republic is in my ancestry and in memories of my grandmother who referred to “rushing to catch the Boston Bus” when expedient movement was witnessed or desired in her home. I had no idea, as a child, where Boston was or why my “Nana” was familiar with how to get there. I would learn that Boston and Massachusetts played an essential role in the survival of Nova Scotians and that our New England “cousins” have been comrades and competitors since before the 18th century birth of the United States.
Our family are descendants of James MacPherson, a British soldier from Badenoch district in Scotland, who settled in Fisher's Grant (now Pictou Landing) Nova Scotia after the end of the American Revolution. After the thirteen American colonies declared independence from Great Britain in 1776, the 8th Duke of Hamilton was appointed to form a regiment to reinforce British forces in North America. The 82nd Regiment, also known as the Hamilton Regiment, was raised in 1778 in Scotland. In October, 1783 the 82nd regiment concluded their service and sailed from New York for Halifax. Those who elected to remain in Nova Scotia as settlers were released there and given grants of land, These included James McPherson and his brother John, who were each granted 100 acres. (Sources: "Pictonians in Arms" by James M. Cameron, and "History of the County of Pictou" by Rev. George Patterson.) If there were no American Revolution, our family would not have made it to Nova Scotia.
During my school days from 1957 to 1967, mostly in Glace Bay and Sydney, I was aware of the ties of our coal and steel industry to British Companies. On the maps of the world in school Canada was shown in the pink colour of the many British Commonwealth nations and colonies. The colours from America were the colours of the licence plates on vehicles from different states that we recorded with the phrase and action in “Free punch car from away”. The colours of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio decorated Nova Scotia roadways and tourist attractions. By the end of the 60’s, McDonalds brought American fast food to town.
My relocation to Halifax in 1970 to attend university brought me personally to the site of the explosion on Dec 6 1917 that decimated the north end of the port city, killed 2000 people and injured many thousand. In the days following the disaster the relief train dispatched by the Governor of Massachusetts arrived with resources that had been planned for potential disaster in the New England Commonwealth. Health professionals from Boston and New York tramped through snow from the storm on Dec 7 to open field hospitals to care for the wounded. Today in Boston Common, in December, a Christmas tree donated by Nova Scotia is raised as a sign of our continued gratitude to our “cousins” in New England.
John U. Bacon is the American author of The Great Halifax Explosion, a book about the Halifax explosion in Nova Scotia, Canada. Bacon is also a former feature writer for the Detroit News and has written for other publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Sports Illustrated.
My first engineering position was with NB Tel in Saint John, less than two hours from Calais, where routine trips to New England, especially Boston, were frequent for friends, sports, and business. One of the microwave sites I worked as a Maintenance and Protection engineer was a key link for the secure traffic of the US Military to northern facilities, in addition to being key in providing cable TV in Atlantic Canada from Maine.
My second employer was the US multinational mini computer enterprise, Digital Equipment Corporation, with headquarters in Maynard MA and facilities throughout New England. This portion of my career increased my contact with American enterprise and expertise. My training in Nashua, NH, with other DEC salespeople from around the world impressed me with the scope of the positive impact that an American business can have on the way the world works.
My next employer, based in Ottawa, was the Canadian presence of Chicago based Gandalf Data. Gandalf had developed a data communication device that reduced the cost of connecting terminals to computers to 10% of the competitor offerings.
The policy followed by both Digital and Gandalf was to address the Canadian market (about 10% of their business) by building production facilities in Kanata, Ontario. The products of these plants required inputs from the US and they exported products back to America.
A few opportunities for American contact were unexpectedly part of my transition to Community College instructor in Nova Scotia. On September 11, 2001, known as 9/11, one of our College campuses became a refuge for hundreds of passengers bound for the US when the FAA closed US airspace. Forty aircraft carrying more than 7,000 people were diverted to Halifax Stanfield International Airport on 9/11, as staff worked to accommodate the sudden influx of anxious travellers.
Aircraft sit wing tip to wing tip on the runway at the Halifax International Airport on Sept. 11, 2001. (Halifax International Airport Authority)
American and Canadian members, working in the North American Aerospace Defense Command’s center inside of Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, keep an eye on the sky looking for threats aimed at North America. Steven Armstrong was NORAD’s chief of plans and forces at the time of 9/11. He is now vice director of NORAD Operations and chief of NORAD Strategic Engagements.
About 10 years ago, we instituted a slogan in our command center where the daily execution and running of NORAD and USNORTHCOM operations occur: “We have the watch.” What that means is we have the watch for North America. We’re responsible for the homeland defense of North America, and that includes our mission partners up in Canada. It’s a significant thing that we’re doing for this nation.(Source: ‘We have the watch’: Stories from inside NORAD on 9/11)
In 2005, my brother was working as an engineering manager with an electrical generation utility near Seattle WA and I embarked on a trip across America on AMTRAK that took about a week to travel from Boston to Olympia WA with overnight stops in St Louis and Albuquerque. The trip was the summer prior to the election of Barack Obama and I enjoyed my many conversations with Americans in the dining and lounge cars of the train. The openness, friendliness and helpfulness of the people I encountered was the greatness of America to me. I was pleased to celebrate my first and only “Fourth of July” as a participant/observer of the parade in the Capital City of Olympia.
Another two week trip to Melbourne FL to learn about an educational system for electronic communication students at my Community College Campus was an experience of a great culture of technical sales and service that is part of my appreciation of American business. Our hosts saw we were very comfortable, shared the details of their technical/educational products and even included a day trip to Cape Canaveral where an onsite college for technicians made use of their training system.
“American Cousins” are part of the joy of gathering with Farris’ family in the summer at Ben Eoin on the Bras d’ Or Lakes. My father-in-law's sister married an American military man from Georgia and their children and grandchildren have been fairly frequent visitors to the annual family reunion in Cape Breton.
Perhaps the story has come full circle from the relatives of my grandmother who found financial security and friends in New England in the 1920’s and 30’s to family from the United States with whom we share meals, campfires, and family during summer in Nova Scotia.
Perhaps the observation of a “boomer” may be dismissed. People may express “OK Boomer” but I deeply appreciate my contact with Americans and urge friends on both sides of the border to maintain this “true greatness of America” as a generous friend in a relationship where “having your back” is an example for the world.
