The Election of 1867 in Nova Scotia, Canada

Abstract This chapter examines the 1867 elections in Nova Scotia, the first British North American colony to be granted representative government in 1758. The election’s transformative impact was both immediate and long-lasting in that it challenged the legitimacy of the new Canadian regime and established an effective precedent for popular agitation in Nova Scotian political culture. In the short term, the election results implicitly called into question the validity of the entire “national project.” While anti-Confederate officials failed to influence the imperial government in London, the new federal government in Ottawa felt obliged to offer the province “better terms.” By successfully forcing accommodation from the central authority, the election helped to inaugurate collective dissent as an effective and legitimate means of defending local and regional interests.