The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
This week in Nova Scotia history, July 6 – 12
• 6 July 1921 — Allan J. Maceachen, PC, OC, is born in Inverness, Cape Breton Island (d. Sept. 12, 2017). He would become one of Nova Scotia's most notable Canadian statesman – an influential federal cabinet minister and later, a senator.
At the age of 32, he was a professor at St. Francis Xavier University when he entered politics in 1953 for Invernessrichmond (later Cape Breton Highlands – Canso). As an MP, he would go on to serve in several portfolios, one being the minister of National Health and Welfare (19651968) when he exhibited considerable skill as a parliamentarian in getting the Medical Care Act passed in 1966.
Earlier in 1965, the Royal Commission on Health Services submitted its recommendations for a national health policy. The Commission, more popularly known as the Hall Commission after Justice Emmett Hall, had been established earlier by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, but was largely inspired by Tommy Douglas's earlier vision and subsequent action to create a provincial public health care program in Saskatchewan. Though Diefenbaker later lost the federal election in April 1963 to Liberal leader Lester B. Pearson, the work to create a national health care system continued with Alan J. Maceachen playing a critical role in establishing the Medical Care Act. It helped that Diefenbaker remained leader of the opposition (1963-'67), and Tommy Douglas was also an MP at the time (1962-1979) as well as leader of the CCF party (later becoming the NDP).
Maceachern would later serve as Government House Leader on three occasions, and as the first deputy prime minister under Pierre Elliott Trudeau from 1977-1979 and 1980-1984. He was appointed to the Senate in 1984, retiring in 1996 to his home on Lake Ainslie in Inverness County, Cape Breton. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2008.
• 7 July 1967 — The Cape Breton Development Corporation, known as DEVCO, was established to operate the coal mines in Cape Breton. It was phasing them out throughout the 1970s and, at the same time, developing new economic opportunities for the surrounding communities.
A year later, it expropriated the Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation (DOSCO), a subsidiary of the Hawker Siddeley Group, as well as the Sydney and Louisbourg Railway. The Government of Nova Scotia would later take over DOSCO'S steel mill in Sydney (which had been closed by Hawker Siddeley), creating the Sydney Steel Corporation, known as SYSCO. It would close in 2001 leaving a hazardous waste site from many years of steelmaking known as the Sydney Tar Ponds — ultimately costing taxpayers over $400 million to clean up (completed in 2013). While the clean-up took place, DEVCO would eventually cease operation in December 2009 when it merged with the Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation (ECBC).
• 8 July 2010 — During the month of July, the Royal
Astronomy Society of Canada declared the Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site to be an official Dark Sky Preserve.
Since then, Parks Canada has committed to protect and preserve the night sky in the area by applying strict lighting guidelines to reduce light pollution tailored to protect the ecosystem, reduce energy and maintain dark skies, making it ideal for visitors to discover and experience the dark sky and the stars and to become more aware of the impacts of artificial light on the environment.
• 9 July 2015 — African Nova Scotian, Robert (Bobby) Downey died (b. 1936). He was trained to box by his dad George Alexander Downey, a First World War veteran of the No. 2 Construction Battalion, and the Veterans Guard of Canada during the Second World War.
Bobby later joined the 2nd Battalion, Royal Highland Regiment of Canada (Black Watch) in 1957 and became a top boxer (and chef) in the Canadian military, becoming the Eastern Command boxing champion and Canadian Army champion.
In 1960, he would go on to earn the title of Canadian Amateur Association lightweight champion. He retired from the Canadian Forces in 1986 after 29 years of service.
• 10 July 1751 — The Speedwell transport arrives in Halifax from Rotterdam with 212 German and Swiss foreign protestant passengers. On July 29, the Gale arrived with 205 passengers; on September 14, the Pearl arrived with 232 passengers; and the Murdoch arrived on September 25 with 269 passengers.
Many were artisans and farmers, total numbers over 900. They all were encouraged to winter in Halifax due to earlier Mi'kmaq attacks in Dartmouth. By the following year, in 1752 during Augustseptember, another 1,000 foreign protestants would arrive.
Then by the next year, under the leadership of Lieutenant-colonel Charles Lawrence, 1,400 of the settlers would make their way down the South Shore to settle in an area called Mirliguéche — later named Lunenburg.
• 11 July 1933 — Charles and Ann Lindbergh landed at Eastern Passage en route to Europe via Newfoundland and Greenland.
After Charles Lindbergh's earlier flight from the U.S. to Paris in the Spirit of St. Louis in May 1927, (as well as Ameila Earhart's flight across the Atlantic in 1928), there was a growing interest in developing possible commercial air routes to Europe from North America.
Charles Lindbergh had been hired as a technical advisor for Pan American Airways to conduct a 30,000mile North Atlantic survey route – first flying from New York to Maine, then to Nova Scotia. Their next planned stop was Newfoundland, then on to Greenland, Iceland and finally to Europe, where they landed in Copenhagen, Denmark.
After a few weeks flying around Europe, they would set off to the Canary Islands and then fly across the South Atlantic to Brazil. Then they'd head north to Miami, Florida and on to New York where they had left five months earlier. Their journey had taken them to 23 countries and covered 29,000 miles.
• 12 July 1940 — Angus L. Macdonald (1890-1954) became Canada's first minister of National Defence for Naval Services. Born in Inverness County, Cape Breton, from Scottish and Acadian roots, he later served in the First World War, first with the 185th battalion (Cape Breton Highlanders) and later as a lieutenant in Nova Scotia's 25th battalion.
Upon his return he studied to become a lawyer, serving as a civil servant in the Attorney General's office, and as a part-time law professor. He later obtained his doctorate in law at Harvard in 1929. He became leader of the Nova Scotia Liberal party in 1930 and would serve as the Liberal premier of Nova Scotia from 1933-1940, and again after the war from 1945-1954. Leo J. Deveau is an independent librarian, researcher, speaker and author of 400 Years in 365 Days - A Day by Day Calendar of Nova Scotia History (2017). His most recent book is Fideliter The Regimental History of The Princess Louise Fusiliers (2020). He can be reached at 400years@formac.ca or at: www.400years.ca.