Chronicles of Canada Volume 26 - The Tribune of Nova Scotia: A Chronicle of Joseph Howe

Joseph Howe was the voice of Nova Scotia, and this is his story. A printer's apprentice who became one of the most electrifying orators in British North America, Howe used the power of the press and the podium to demand that ordinary people have a real say in their government. In an era when colonies were ruled by appointed elites, he fought for 'responsible government' the radical idea that the people who voted for representatives should control those representatives. Nova Scotia became the first British colony to achieve it, in 1848, and Howe was at the center of that victory. But Howe's greatest battle came later, when Confederation threatened to swallow Nova Scotia into a distant Canadian union. He believed Nova Scotians should determine their own future, and he spent his final years fighting that losing fight with everything he had. This chronicle captures a man of magnificent contradictions: a liberal reformer who cherished his province, a journalist who believed words could change the world, a politician who refused to bend to the tide of history. For readers interested in the roots of Canadian democracy, the price of confederation, or the enduring question of what it means to lead a small place in a large empire, this book offers a window into one of Atlantic Canada's most luminous figures.