Some places have narratives that read like a short story or a novella. Some sound like a poem. Ours is an epic. Nova Scotia’s story isn’t just centuries old —it’s big and it's grand. It’s one for the ages.
We’ve been so often a special place in a special time in history. We’ve been the battlefield of warring empires and the great prize in the conflict for a continent. Some stories are difficult because that is what it’s like out here on the edge of the continent, midway between the new world and the old. But our triumphs are legion. Our heroes — prime ministers, Nobel Prize winners, makers of great fortunes, athletes, artists and musicians — dot the annals of history.
Because as much as anything, ours is a story of resilience. Of picking ourselves up and, against all odds, pushing forward. Because out of that friction between our sometimes hard existence and our boundless ambition, sparks fly and fires are lit.
We led the world in the Great Age of Sail. When the industrial revolution arrived, the hammers clanged and saws hissed louder here than anywhere in this country.
When it came time for the New World to help the old defeat the Axis Alliance during the Second World War, the ships massed here and sailed into history.
And now we find ourselves again at one of those moments, at one of those turning points. Ray Ivany, in a report that may well be the rallying cry for everything that follows, didn’t mince words. “Now or never,” is his appraisal of where we in Nova Scotia — with our economic, social and demographic challenges — find ourselves today.
And yet, in our human history, we’ve heard the same thing before. When big global forces and the policies of our own federal government decimated our economy, we remade ourselves. When man-made and natural disasters devastated our cities and towns we mourned our losses — then got on with the job of rebuilding.
Nova Scotia is a fully formed, one-of-a-kind place. It does not need to be dismantled or rebuilt. We honour the great men and women who have made this province what it is. But we also realize that it is a new day that demands a new narrative.
That’s why Clothesline Media is teaming with the boldest businesses and the brightest individuals to meet the challenge of the future while honouring our past.