Quote:
Originally Posted by Drybrain
I MIGHT be a bit antagonistic and suggest it might be sort've better, regionally, if that had happened—if Halifax was a city of around a million people, it might be a greater centre of economic and cultural gravity/magnetism to benefit the whole region.
Probably Saint John, at the very least, would still have grown to a city of sizable regional importance, simply due to its port.
Of course it's all hypothetical. Fun as thought experiment, but who knows what would've happened...
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An interesting thought experiment yes…….
If we were a single unified province, I predict:
- Fredericton wouldn't exist, or if it did, it would just be a small village of 2,500 souls or so. There would be no governmental structures and no university. CFB Gagetown might not even exist. There is no nearby agricultural hinterland like which sustains Woodstock for example. Fredericton therefore likely would not even be a regional services centre. It's destiny therefore might have been as a small lumbering village like Doaktown.
- Saint John would be Saint John I think, except I'm not sure if there would be a UNBSJ campus. That would depend on whether "greater Nova Scotia" had a provincial university system with campuses distributed around the province. Saint John would still have the port, and supposing the Irving's still existed in this alternate universe, it's industrial base as well. I don't think SJ would be any different than it is now.
- Moncton is a little harder to predict. That would depend on whether it became a railway hub in it's early history like it did in real life. I think it still might have as the Intercolonial Railway chose Moncton as it's hub without any significant political interference (AFAIK). There was heavy political interference however with the Grand Trunk and CNR decisions, so the destiny of Moncton in the early 20th century might have been different. Moncton however would still have become a distribution and transportation centre just due to it's central location. It would have become a decent sized city, but smaller than it is now - probably in the range of 75,000 or so. It likely wouldn't be the "Capital of Acadia" like it is now, as the Acadian population would only be about 12% in a "greater NS", instead of 30% in current NB. The Acadian population therefore would likely have been assimilated to a much greater degree than it is currently, and would instead would have drifted off to the million plus urban monster of Halifax to seek economic opportunity.
- Charlottetown would be something like Fredericton, with no governmental basis for it's economic prosperity. It however wouldn't be as bad off as Freddy since it does have an agricultural hinterland and would have remained a regional services centre. Charlottetown would likely have ended up like Summerside with a population in the 15-20,000 range.
Now, whether this is a preferable scenario to the current reality, I don't know. You state that "if Halifax was a city of around a million people, it might be a greater centre of economic and cultural gravity/magnetism to benefit the whole region". My opinion is that if Halifax were a city of a million or so people (at the expense of NB and PEI), that this would be good for anyone living within about 100 km of the peninsula. It would not be good however for those people living in rural western NB who instead of having decent services in a regional city like Fredericton only an hour away, would instead have to rely on bureaucrats and decision makers in a far off city six hours away who quite frankly couldn't give a shit about anything happening any further away than Truro……...