CELEBRATION AND MOURNING

PARTIES AND FUNERALS MARKED NOVA SCOTIA’S FIRST DOMINION DAY.

The citizens of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, woke on July 1, 1867 — the first Dominion Day — to a twenty-one-gun salute from the cannons mounted on Gallows Hill, the blasts echoing across a narrow harbour filled with sailing vessels rocking at anchor.

Church bells rang, and Union Jacks fluttered from buildings all over the south shore fishing port. At noon, the sheriff read the official proclamation of Canada’s birth, and the large crowd in attendance responded with three cheers for Queen Victoria and three more for the new country.

“At sunset another salute of twenty-one guns was fired,” merchant Adolphus Gaetz wrote in his diary that night, “and all wished Peace, Happiness & Prosperity to the Dominion of Canada.”

Most Nova Scotians, however, saw little reason to celebrate; a majority of the population remained hostile to Confederation.

In Halifax the morning also began with artillery salutes, but the July 1 edition of the city’s Morning Chronicle, a paper steadfastly opposed to union, marked Canada’s birth by publishing a mock obituary.

“DIED,” it read, “Last night at twelve o’clock, the free and enlightened Province of Nova Scotia.” Death came at the hands of “some of her ungrateful sons,” who had “betrayed her to the enemy.”

The “funeral” — the official celebration — would be held that morning at Halifax’s Grand Parade square, the item noted. Friends of the late province, however, were urged not to attend, as Confederation supporters intended “to insult the occasion with rejoicing.”