Fun Fact: The city of Boston, MA sent a lot of aid to Halifax after the explosion. So much so that Nova Scotia sent Boston a big ol’ Christmas Tree and now sends one every year to put up in the main park to say thanks! Though, they didn’t start sending it regularly until 1971, so it could be a result of all the sentimentalization
Yeah I saw that in The Commons today. Very interesting the connection between Atlantic Canada and New England. Before the revolution they were pretty much one region.
From Wikipedia: "John Patch, a mariner in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia developed a two-bladed, fan-shaped propeller in 1832 and publicly demonstrated it in 1833, propelling a row boat across Yarmouth Harbour and a small coastal schooner at Saint John, New Brunswick, but his patent application in the United States was rejected until 1849"
Barrett's Privateers is a cool song because it's a "mock" shanty. It's meant to sound like it's an old 18th century ballad that's been passed down for generations, but it was actually composed by Stan Rogers, a folk singer from the 70s and probably the most famous Atlantic Canadian musician of all time.
It’s true everyone here on the island loves Stan and when you say “Listening to some Stan,” it’s a foregone conclusion that you’re referring to Stan Rogers.
As someone from Nova Scotia, this was quite a nice video. A couple things that I'd want to point out is that the Maritimes and Atlantic Canada are not interchangeable, as Newfoundland and Labrador are not a part of the Maritimes. Also I find it kind of interesting how you called Lunenberg a city, and Truro a small town considering that Truro is far larger and has a larger population (although to be fair I wouldn't consider Truro a city either). Also I'm surprised that garlic fingers aren't a thing outside of here as they're offered at pretty much every large pizza chain around here lol. Also lobster rolls are more of a tourist food than something that Atlantic Canadians eat. Like I've had my fair share of lobster sandwiches, and lobster in generial, but lobster rolls are typically offered at tourist trap restaurants.
@@toddle8258Donair. It's based off of the kebab. It's unique in using beef instead of lamb and it's use of donair sauce. Garlic fingers and Donald have been made popular across the Atlantic thanks to Greco Pizza.
I feel like at least in most of the US, garlic fingers exist mostly as an appetizer at some pizza places, but are mostly called cheese sticks, or sometimes cheesy breadsticks. But those names can mean other things, too.
As someone from Truro, I also wouldn't call our little hub a city. But if we're not, then Lunenburg most certainly isn't. Cute place, but smol. Lobster rolls are okay sometimes, but garlic fingers... man, I could go for some right now.
Please do a video on idiomatic "Dutch" things and their origins -- The Flying Dutchman, Dutch Ovens, Double Dutch, and why there seem to be so many phrases and terms like this.
That could be interesting because, with exception of the the flying dutchman (vliegende hollander) which is familiar to people in the Netherlands, a fair number of things referred to as Dutch don't seem all that related to the Dutch. I only know what is meant by dutch ovens and double dutch because of my familiarity with American culture.
@@egodeosumdo you guys have a tradition of "going Dutch " that's when on a date the couple will split the bill instead of the man paying.we in America say it's because the Dutch are very cheap
As a native maritimer, imagine my culture shock as an international student in Istanbul asking for donair. Expected what was shown here, got donair meat with yoghurt and tomatoes on a flatbread with cucumbers. Thanks for reviewing Atlantic Canada! We're so forgotten over here that I'm sure your award-winning video will be all over social media and the news (only half-joking).
FWIW that sounds nearly identical to what a lot of family-owned fast food places call "gyros" in the Chicago area. Chicago-style gyros typically include raw onions (and sometimes feta cheese) in addition to the tomato and yogurt sauce. Yum!
I've also heard the story of kids getting bullied for bringing lobster to school - but only through a friend who heard it somewhere. Thanks for bringing some sort of credence to the anecdote. The second part of the story was that all the 'rich' kids brought peanut butter sandwiches.
Since that video JJ made about the 'big four American foods' I'm quite taken by this concept of how culture can 'reverse' and what was originally a status symbol can become a signifier of lower socioeconomic background, and vice versa. Like what he said about how 'poor people's sandwiches' are now the more expensive ones, as well as seafood becoming a delicacy due to its rarity
It's odd how people judge other people over meaningless, stupid stuff. A lobster sandwich sounds pretty gourmet to me, but what do I know? Back in middle school a kid pitied me and my peanut butter sandwich, offering to buy me comfort food from the school cafeteria steam trays. I was shocked, both by his generosity and that anyone would consider my lunch as something to be pitied. Til then, I had always considered my home prepped lunch superior to what my class mates were forced to eat because their mothers didn't have the time to send them to school with a proper meal. I felt like his pity was an attack on our family's honor, so I didn't handle the situation well. He meant no harm. This happened a long time ago in Louisville, KY. I guess peanut butter was considered poor people food--I guess--but mine was covered with bits of banana, another sign of mom's creative love for me. Still, to this day, I'd rather eat a peanut butter sandwich than what I see offered in school cafeterias. Steamed over, limp, something-or-other. Prison food. Their fish sticks on Fridays were okay. At least they smelled good. That was the only food of theirs that I would have liked to have eaten...
Shame for lobster sandwiches was a story my great grandfather told me... "When I was a boy, lobster was good for two things: tearing up nets and fertilizer!"
10:23 The best thing about this video is that J.J is still a family man. Like seems genuinely kind and would be a great mate. I would definitely have a pint with him and talk about cultural, political history Canadian stuff but I don’t know why but the WhatsApp message between you and your mum really brightened up my day. Cheers J.J I also love these vlog styles J.J don’t change it. Maybe even add more historical/cultural details to them with tours or touring with a friend who’s a local or maybe even fans of yours that are local. It’s brilliant and really fun. Would love to visit Canada one day and Nova Scotia and Vancouver is on the list.
I'm from New Brunswick and I can confirm that, decades ago (60's-70's) Lobster was viewed as poor peoples food & that some kids would bring Tomalley sandwich's (the edible green stuff in a Lobster) to school. Some sailors still called them the cockroaches of the sea due to the abundance of Lobsters here.
Maybe you could make a video specifically about how much the regional Canadian cultures share with their cross-border counterparts. You've alluded to that in many videos, but showing us how Atlantic Canadians probably have more in common with New Englanders than they do with BC-ers, and doing this for all the regional subcultures would be great for proving how America and Canada are part of one big civilization. I also just like your travel videos to random places in the world to see how a guy of your persuasions sees them (yes including the Ireland one). I love your approach to tell us about the important but unsaid/ubiquitous things in a place's folk and popular culture. And I love seeing your own drawings!
Most provinces have more in common with the states immediately to their south than their neighbouring provinces to the east or west, e.g., an Ontarian will feel right at home in northern NY, Michigan, or northern Ohio. The cultural similarities also extend deep across the border in some regions, e.g., Ontario is culturally compatible with with every state along the east coast from NY to northern Virginia. The lower mainland of BC is culturally identical to Washington State, Alberta has a lot in common with Montana, etcetera.
You could also say the same about the US, New Englanders may have more in common with Atlantic Canada than with they do with people from the Pacific Northwest.
We have some things in common with NE that we don’t with the rest of Canada but I think our separate histories and political climates have made us significantly different at this point
I don’t fully agree with this statement because there are far too many things that tie Canadians and Americans together even though it’s true that cross-border similarities exist. For example, people in NS and BC share a familiarity with Tim Hortons that people in ME or VT don’t have. The love of Hockey that Nova Scotians may share with Albertans isn’t shared between Albertans and Montanans. Yes there’s a lot that ties transborder regions together, but being under different governments, shopping at different stores and businesses, watching different television channels and celebrating different holidays is what brings both countries together.
J.J. please make this a series, just going to different places in Canada and explaining them. Maybe even the Saskatchewanans can forgive you if you revisit there! Lol
The most atlantic canada thing about this video is how JJ mostly only talked about nova scotia 😂 Great video! PLEASE show more about new brunswick, we are in dire need of even a little bit of recognition!!!!!
@@drinkmoreagua8984as someone who’s lived in Halifax, Halifax doesn’t deserve THAT much credit. In fact, much of the industry of Nova Scotia is found in rural areas like Bridgewater, Pictou, Truro, Antigonish and New Brunswick is home to the Irving’s, a rather controversial business empire that basically controls much of industry in Atlantic Canada.
This video was pretty Nova Scotia specific, but I would argue the most widely known piece of popular Maritime Canadian culture is Anne of Green Gables.
Hey! Nova Scotian J. J. viewer here! I was very excited when I saw the video pop up in my feed as our little corner of the country doesn't tend to get much coverage even by Canadian TH-camrs. While I don't live in Halifax you definitely did a great job of picking out items to include on your page as I was instantly able to recognise them all. I also had no idea the garlic fingers were only an Atlantic Canada thing. Thought they were everywhere lol. Thanks for the great video as always J. J.! Also if anyone has any questions about Nova Scotia I can do my best to answer them in the replies :)
Came here to say the same thing; as a Halifax resident it always catches me by surprise when I see "Halifax" pop up in the media. It's funny to see J.J. explain garlic fingers, lobster rolls, and donairs as these weird foreign objects when they've been a staple in our diets for as long as I can remember.
@@jacobmacdonald5940 I knew that donairs and lobster rolls weren't so common elsewhere but I genuinely thought that garlic fingers were just a normal thing to find at pizza chains everywhere lol
True, my understanding is Joey Smallwood felt that NL was too culturally different from the rest of the Maritimes and so coined the term “Atlantic Canada” to include NL
I noted this also as I was watching. I wonder if it's also because the 3 provinces joined confederation significantly before NL did. Were they collectively already known as the Maritimes in 1949?
You found yourself in our little Hermit Kingdom I see. I have some things to say :) The Donair was actually started in Halifax not by Turkish immigrants, but by one specific Greek immigrant in Halifax in the 70s. Not only have we shamlessly adopted and altered this Turkish dish, we attribute it to the Greeks which must perturb the Turks lol Also, be careful calling Dartmouth just another part of Halifax. Yes Dartmouth is in the HRM (So is Sackville and Bedford) but it was a city (in martime terms) of its own up until amalgamation in 1999. Dartmouth had its own mayor and everything. Darksiders don't like to be called Haligonians in the same way an Irish person would cringe at being called British. Thanks for stopping by!
Fellow Nova Scotian here with the added bonus of having a Turkish ex-husband and I can verify the "peturbed" about the donair situation on the east coast of Canada is an understatement lol My then husband and uncle/God father literally argued over the origins of the donair at my wedding 🤦🏼♀️ My uncle was only willing to concede that donairs were possibly invented in Montreal and then brought east by a Greek immigrant, my then husband was at his limit as there are a few Greek vs Turkish food rivalries (for the love of god don't ask a Turk who invented Greek yogurt first lol!) He kept telling me uncle "we invented it when we were nomadic, our word "döner" (same pronunciation) literally means to rotate which is how it is cooked. Our language is older than Montreal, C'mon man!" Tons of fun lol. The way I look at it is we may not have invented it but we sure did perfect it lol
I had my first Döner kebab in Turkey, but they told me it was invented by Turkish guest workers in Germany, and the name Döner came from the German to turn. Int is is very popular in Germany, I saw it in Germany in 1970s.
@@meghanlynn7609 Spit roasted meat in a pita was not invented here but Donair is what it is because of the sweet sauce. Like how Mcdonald's didn't invent hamburgers but they did invent the Big Mac.
I don't know about travel, but I think it might be fun to do a video about the game "Risk" and specifically, its map. How it chooses to name certain territories the way it does, and how it's borders are weirdly drawn. That could reflect some deeper ideas in the culture it was drawn in.
I'm from around the shores of Lake Superior (USA), and I think it's cool that even this far inland we have water access to the Atlantic through the St. Lawrence River.
Whenever you go on trips and doodle out your experiences, you could try drawing what you think your trip will look like, drawing different symbols associated with that country, stereotypes, etc. compared to what that place is really like
As someone who spent most of the first 29 years of my life as a resident of the former Halifax County, I approve. I get back when I can. My mom arrived in Canada from Scotland at Pier 21 in the 50s.
I used to live about 20 miles from New Brunswick when I lived in Maine. The time I spent there was pretty interesting. Honestly in a lot of ways it felt more similar to northern Maine than it does to other parts of Canada that I have been to. It’s very beautiful there.
Yeah us Maritimers have a lot in common with Maine. Similar culture, similar food. Our accents are very different I've noticed. At least my accent as a Nova Scotian is different from the "Down east" accent as I think you guys call it. Everyone I know who goes to Maine says they get picked out because of their accents and told they sound funny 😂
I’m the opposite case where I’m from NB but been to Maine and have family in New Hampshire. I definitely see what you mean. The Northeast United States is a great region.
My favorite explanation for the colorful houses I’ve heard when visiting a colorful maritime city is that it’s so the men at sea could see the bright colored dots, and know which one waswas their home/wife they were looking towards when returning
I'm from Argentina and in La Boca, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires known for it's harbour, houses are also painted in many different bright colours. The explanation is that when the houses were first built people there were very poor and used to paint their houses with whatever paint was left over from the ships in the harbour, so it was all different mismatched colours. Maybe that's an explanation for Halifax houses as well
I'm from Italy and one of Venice's islands, called Burano, is famous for its colored houses (some of them have unique designs as well), and the explanation for that is that the fishermen could find their houses more easily in the thick fog😆
I’m from Nova Scotia and that’s what I’ve heard too. I don’t think it would be the case in Halifax because a lot of them were rich merchants’ houses but definitely the case in smaller fishing communities
As an note, another iconic food in this area is wild blueberries. Oxford, which is close to New Brunswick, is called the blueberry capital of Canada and Oxford Frozen foods is known wide for its frozen blueberries. My grandfather owned a blueberry farm up around the Oxford area.
One secret piece of Halifax lore that JJ evidently was not exposed to is that we 'Halifaxers' actually call ourselves 'Haligonians'... why, you ask? I have no idea! Thanks for visiting us JJ, I hope you had a great time!
I'm glad you mentioned this. Even though he tried to get it right during the bridge bit, he still pronounced it wrong. For any come from aways, it is pronounced 'Hal - ih - go - nee - ans', but said really fast, with the accent on the Hal. And yes.... no one really knows where that moniker comes from, but it is what we refer to ourselves as.😊 Cheers!
What a wonderful early christmas gift One of my favourite canadian youtubers talking about my home town . You almost never hear anyone outside of halifax talk about halifax so its a special treat to hear about what makes it special from you of all people jj
You're a pretty observant guy JJ, I think you nailed much of these local cultural entities. I've lived here nearly my whole life and I'm not sure I could compile such a concise list. A major one you missed was Theodore Tugboat, however it's understandable considering the physical tugboat in question no longer resides in Halifax, it was moved to Ontario a few years ago. It's worth noting that Newfoundland is very distinct from the rest of Atlantic Canada, their culture, I feel (as somebody who was born there) retains a lot more British influence compared to the rest of Canada which is so Americanized. Newfoundland, especially the more rural areas, is almost like a halfway point between British culture and American culture. You should visit some time, and not just to St. John's. It's a beautiful place with the kindest people you'll ever meet (yes, I am biased), and you'd be surprised just how different it is from Nova Scotia.
As a Haligonian you don’t know how happy I am to see you make a video about us JJ! I don’t know how you managed to not mention the trailer park boys once tho😂
As a TPB fan the drawing I noticed when the whole page was flashed near the start of the video was the smoke stacks which I recognized from earlier seasons. I once even tried to use them as a landmark to try and find "Sunnyvale" on Google maps. Fortunately some Canadian fans have shared the aerial images of the locations used so my failure to find it wasn't so sad. LOL
@@AholeAtheist I used to live in the trailer park that some of season 1 was filmed in! I think I heard they eventually bought a plot of land to film in because the trailer park owners didn't like being associated with them 😂 (it is not called Sunnyvale, but that is the name of a street near by)
When I first heard of them I assumed it was just some name they gave to some common thing everyone has, like garlic bread or something, but no, it's pretty unique!
@@JJMcCulloughJJ you should do a video about the Battle of Quebec City by the Americans or maybe the Brits when they captured it? Maybe show us the battleistes and how this one event really made Canada the way it is
The first time I spoke to some people from Ohio, they were humming and hawing over what to eat, I said "You could order some garlic fingers I guess", and they had no idea what I was talking about. I was dumbfounded. "Garlic fingers, you know, they have them at every pizza place? Served with donair sauce, maybe some bacon bits? Hold on, lemme get a picture." And then Wikipedia informs me it's an East Coast thing. To repeat; I was dumbfounded.
@@JJMcCulloughas a Native Nova Scotian doing my second stint in Alberta I thank you for acknowledging the uniqueness of our garlic fingers - NO they are not garlic bread/sticks and they are nothing alike. When I moved to Edmonton at 19 my new friends couldn't understand why I was so upset about the lack of garlic fingers and why garlic bread cut into skinny pieces just wasn't the same. Hope you enjoyed your visit to the beautiful east coast - you should see her in the summer time. Also glad you made it to Lunenburg. It's a beauty both in terms of scenery and people.
As a Nova Scotian living in Calgary, I really miss my Halifax style egg rolls, my Farmers milk, walking around Point Pleasant park, Walking home from Uniacke district school on a spring day, visiting my cousin's farm in Falmouth and going to Oaklawn farm/zoo.
I love seeing drawings connected to places in the world. Especially ones you might not get at first glance if you’ve never been there or don’t know a lot about the area.
Hey J.J. Glad you enjoyed NS. You may not truly know how impactful NS is on the rest of the maritime. I'm from NB and I can tell you many of our most popular cultural phenomena and symbols come from NS. Like most here would say donairs are also the iconic food, which the sauce being referred to as donair sauce. Moon Mist icecream is across the maritimes. One big difference is that NB and NFLD find themselves much more rooted in Irish heritage than Scottish. Come back sometime!
Donairs and garlic fingers are the iconic examples, but the one food that shocked me the most was actually egg rolls. In most of Canada at least, and probably elsewhere based on Wikipedia, egg rolls contain a mix of vegetables and meat. In Nova Scotia though, meat egg rolls contain a unique brown-grey meat paste with no vegetables at all. I was shocked (and honestly dismayed) the first time I had egg rolls without my beloved meat paste, only to discover it was a purely local thing.
@@marikroyals7111 Donair rolls were based on the egg rolls. At a friends restaurant, they used a blend of pork, beef, onion, and spices, all put through a grinder, to produce the filling for the egg rolls. This was being done years, before even the donair showed up in the 70's. And yes.... I was surprised when I had my first vegetable egg roll, when travelling. Still tasty.... but I really like the all meat Maritime style.😊
Wow, I need to leave HRM more. I have always taken for granted that pure meat egg rolls were a universal facet of American-Chinese food considering its available in every Chinese food restaurant here.
You went to the city I'm studying in, my campus was shown at 0:18! I must say I didn't even know what the flags about African Nova Scotians and the Indigenous one were. Also, you can get Moon Mist in most places in the Maritimes, not just NS. Shame I didn't see you around :( I am from Saint John though!
Hi JJ, I’ve watched your videos for a few years and love the content. A small correction in regard to Moon Mist - it is a flavor we have in NB, at least in Moncton. Typically can be found in the Sobeys if you’d really like to try it. Not sure if you’ve visited NB, I know many just choose to pass through the province since it’s not particularly exciting as a day-trip, but it would be nice if you could spend more time and do a video but most don’t have the luxury. The culture of the maritimes is extremely rich but does take a long to get to know, especially since there’s many things people do but don’t talk about because they’re so used to doing them or see them as ordinary that they can be overlooked. Acadian history and culture is pretty interesting to learn. Someone in the comments from NS mentioned lobster rolls not being a common Atlantic Canadian food and only for “tourists”, but this is not true for communities surrounding Moncton. Areas like Shediac enjoy a lot of lobster dishes, including their rolls in small, hole-in-the-wall type restaurants.
Your comment at the end about part 3 of your Eastern Canada trip made me think I had missed an episode, then I remembered that Toronto is quite east from your perspective, haha
I wanted to add that Boston was very swift to respond to the Halifax explosion and sent help asap. Because of this, Halifax sends Boston their Christmas tree every year. It’s one of my favorite things about Boston and it’s a major reason I’m going to Halifax soon.
My mom and JJ's mom have the exact same texting tone, punctuation, and syntax. It's just a short sample here, and on the surface there's nothing remarkable about how it's written, but it's absolutely unmistakable. We were born 11 months apart so our moms are likely a similar age.
0:23 Avoid using the terms "Maritimes" and "Atlantic Canada" interchangeably; you'll annoy a bunch of people in Newfoundland and Labrador. The two terms refer to different sets of provinces. Maritimes = NS + NB + PEI Atlantic Canada = NS + NB + PEI + NL
After all, NS, NB, and PEI are a single division of Canada in terms of the Senate, having 24 senators, while Newfoundland got a separate group of 6 senators when it joined Canada in 1949.
I'm from New Brunswick. It blows my mind that garlic fingers aren't ubiquitous. Whenever you order a pizza, you almost always get an order of garlic fingers, and it always comes with donair sauce. When I was in Alberta recently, people were talking about ordering "cheesy bread" and I didn't know what to expect but it's basically the equivalent of garlic fingers without the garlic
Hey JJ, just wanted to say I love this video and thank you for portraying Nova Scotia in a good light!! I've always lived in NS and have always watched for a shoutout or comment about this province/area, and seeing you treat my province with respect while showing it off was very satisfying! Thank you!! ❤
I share your premise that Atlantic Canada is unique and special. I used to live in Saint John and I've been to Nova Scotia many times (and P.E.I. once). It's one of my favourite places in the world.
I understand that you only visited Halifax but this video seemed more like one on Nova Scotia rather than one on the whole of Atlantic Canada or even the Maritimes.
I'm not sure if this is true for Atlantic Canada, but for some of the coastal cities in San Mateo County, California (where I live), it gets foggy and gray quite frequently. They have brightly colored houses in some of those cities like Pacifica and Daly City, and even in coastal areas of the city and county of San Francisco itself. The going thought is that they do this so they can actually see a little color after the 100th gray day in a row.
My hometown in Atlantic Canada, Saint John, in New Brunswick is notorious for fog. It’s on the Bay of Fundy, bordering Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, so the bay is home to the largest tides in the world and there absolutely is a lot of fog to the point ships are hardly visible at times.
Perfectly timed, I'm working on a tabletop role-playing campaign based in Newfoundland so I've been trying to research East Coast Canadian stuff literally as I type this lol
The Woody talking tree in MicMac was only brought back right before the pandemic, he was taken out in 2006 because they did not want to spend money to renovate him so they removed him, but now he’s back with a new look
After living in St John's Newfoundland for a summer (which also has many colourful houses), I learned that families would paint them with the paint left over from their fishing boats. At this point its become a tradition across Atlantic Canada.
@@RyanSheppard-tq4pg Well... everything used to be shipped by sea. Port city to port city. Traditions and stories would be spread by Mariners. I'm sure that some of the very colourful houses in Portugal would have been painted that way, for the same reason. Then it spread to St. John's, and so on, and so on. It could have 'spontaneously' occurred in multiple locations at around the same time..... but given the long standing trade routes between Europe, the Maritimes, and the Caribbean, much more likely that it was spread by Mariners. Think of the rum trade. Rum shipped to England from the Caribbean, empty barrels shipped to Newfoundland, Screech made by boiling out the rum barrels, barrels filled with salt fish, then shipped to the Caribbean to feed the slaves, who gathered the sugar to make the rum. So is it any surprise that rum is a favoured drink in the Maritimes, and that salt fish is a favoured food in the Caribbean. So yes, port cities can have far reaching effects, well beyond their 'remote' location. And this is how "a trsdition (sic) on an island in a city on the far stretches of that island effect the results in the other 3 provinces."
It's funny that I'm a BC boy who has lived in Halifax for 10 years, and of course when I take a trip back to Vancouver (currently typing this looking at Granville Island), is when JJ films an episode 2 blocks from my apartment in Halifax haha.
@@ClumpypooCP Many similarities in the sense that they are both harbor cities with some very old sections which have been simply "paved over" as time goes on. I find that Halifax is generally much more friendly in the sense that total strangers may strike up a bit of small talk with you, wave, say hi, etc. Whereas being from Vancouver originally this felt quite strange. Halifax also feels like more of a party city than Vancouver, probably due to the fact that a significant portion of Halifax's population is students from Dalhousie, Saint Mary's, NASCAD, and The Mount. As a result the city has many more young people, not all of whom are from the province. In short I enjoy both Halifax and Vancouver. There is no prettier place in Canada, and possibly the world than BC, and despite the other issues the city may currently be facing the backdrop will never be any less breathtaking for me.
Won't lie, I own like 6 East Coast lifestyle hoodies. I love the sweaters so much. Also, I've never heard Donair sauce called Halifax sauce. They sell bottles of them at grocery stores all over the Maritimes and it's generally just called Donair sauce.
I'd love to see you do another video or two about the other maritime provinces. I've always been somewhat curious about Newfoundland and Labrador and PEI but have never found much on the internet about them.
Moving to Halifax from Vancouver next year. Thanks for introducing the maritime culture through this video! Would be cool to see a dedicated video around Newfoundland or PEI.
The lobster story reminded of me something a friend of my mine from Equador recently told me. He has an a few avocado trees at his family home in Quito and when he was growing up avocados were so ubiquitous and plentiful that he often fed them to his dogs. Funny considering how in Europe and North America they are seen as a very elitist food!
My uncle works in the (lucrative) Nova Scotian golf industry; I suppose the Scottish culture truly is still alive and well. (As an idea): Maybe you could, as opposed to making collages, design collective coins for that country, province, city etc... It would follow the same rough format; draw the little weird and wonderful cultural touch points and inside jokes but then stick'm on coins. As an example: you could make a coin tail-underwear/head-Robert Stanfield (that sort of thing)... Love your videos!
As a born and raised Haligonian, I learned two things from this video: 1. I've seen the graffiti bird all around the city for years, but had no idea it was related to Maud Lewis. I wasn't even familiar with that bird painting, I'd consider the black cat or the two bulls as her most iconic works. 2. I've always wondered about the key road signs. Now I know. Also, JJ, you're a lunatic for calling the smoke stacks orange and white. They're clearly red and white. And the Scottish lion is always red, as the golden lion represents England.
As a Nova Scotian, I learned a lot from this video. Guess I don't really know much about the province even though I live here. You've also made me remember that Woody exists. That is unforgivable.
I'm from Cape Breton NS and I leaned something too. Other than main thing that most NS know about like Garlic fingers, Peggy's & bluenose this was mostly a Halifax episode! So don't feel bad I was in the same boat for some of it haha
If you're looking for unusual destinations and can arrange it, a visit to St. Pierre and Miquelon. These two islands are in the area of Atlantic Canada, but they actually a part of France. They are one of the last French territories still remaining in North America. You get there by taking a flight from Halifax or the ferry from Newfoundland-Labrador. It seems to be a really interesting place to live; residents are a part of France and use French currency, but they also have to depend on Atlantic Canada for some necessary services.
If you want to make more travel videos, why not continue this and make a series? Your ability to get a pulse for a place you've never been like this was incredible. I'd love to see you come to my city and talk about it and I'm sure many other viewers feel the same! Plus you'll grab some "travel blog" audience in the process!
I feel like there must be a not insignificant chance that the term "blue nose" comes from the literal cold blue noses of the old, weathered fishermen and other maritime workers who would work along the ports in the frigid winter weather.
Atlantic Canada and the Maritime provinces aren't the same thing. The maritime provinces are only Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI. when you add Newfoundland it then becomes Atlantic Canada
@@JJMcCullough well NFLD only became part of Canada in 1949, 80 years after the maritime provinces. NFLD is much further away from the maritime provinces which you can visit all 3 by car in 2 hours but to get to NFLD is a 10 hour ferry ride and making it much more isolated. NFLD was also its own dominion until 1949 and has a distinct culture and dialect from the other maritime provinces. NFLD is as distinct from the maritime provinces as the maritime provinces are to Ontario. Finally geography, the maritime provinces are mostly flat and very suitable for agriculture however NFLD is pretty rocky and and hilly and not suitable for agriculture at all. P.S. the sweet sauce serve with donair is what makes it a donair. without the sweet sauce, called donair sauce, it is not a donair. The sauce, which was developed in N.S., is what make it a Nova Scotian dish, Just like it's the cheese curds and gravy and not the fries that make poutine, poutine.
@@JJMcCulloughBecause the term “The Maritimes” was in use long before Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1949, so it was a late addition to the area. Not including Newfoundland under the historic designation avoided any confusion on which provinces were being referred to.
this is the best possible format for my adhd american brain to learn about other places with i'm stealing your sticker drawings idea for stuff! what a clever way to keep reminders of what was important that day.
Woody the talking tree is still my hommie, we took my little brother there in the late 90's and he cried and ran away, good or bad, all Haligonians have their woody memory :)
A lot of the food stuff are no longer Halifax specific and are maritime wide like moon mist can be found in NB but love the video I spent the summer in Halifax and loved it
Very enjoyable video. It brought back some happy memories of when my family travelled to NS. I particularly remember Peggy’s Cove. Quite a bit different than Arizona where I live.
I always found it curious how the first parts of Canada colonized by the Europeans, and those parts closest to Europe, never took off in terms of population, industry and economic heft. Canada sort of reminds me of Brazil in that way, because that's how it transpired in Brazil too--the northeast region of Brazil really never launched itself after 1700. In Canada, the Maritimes held the lead for a bit, but by 1700 they were also left in the dust by Canadian regions further inland.
@@Japi506yup the st Lawrence makes Nova Scotia and Newfoundland redundant. Why stop here when you can go down the st Lawrence and have access to Quebdc, Ontario, and the great lakes? And the rest of the continent. Unfortunately for us but good for the country
4:48 my friend had a restaurant that sold this in Halifax and now that he’s moved to Ottawa he brought that sweet sauce with him! Possibly being the only place selling here right now
So glad to see this video. Halifax is one of my favorite cities, and you pegged many of its icons. I really enjoy the Atllantic Canada provinces. A regional magazine, "Saltscapes" is a great printed and website celebration of Maritime life and tourism. It covers all of the Maritime provinces, plus the U.S. state of Maine, and it's worth a look if you're interested in discovering unique regional destinations. The magazine also organizes a great expo every spring where you can discover tourism destinations, enjoy musical entertainment, learn about local products and sample delicious food and drink items.
Maybe when you go to different places you can buy an article of clothing that contains some sort of stereotypical symbol of the place, like if you visited Calgary, buy a cowboy hat, a flames jersey, rancher boots and overalls. Then by the end you could ask around if you looked “just like a local” lol.
I live in Maine, and my body literally tensed up when I saw the flag because I knew you were going to say "Mickmack," and there was so much relief when you followed it with "Migmaw."
this was really good and cute way to talk about a place, I loved this videa, and I'm from a totally different part of the world. I will totally watch more of those symbolize travel blogs.
Fun Fact: The city of Boston, MA sent a lot of aid to Halifax after the explosion. So much so that Nova Scotia sent Boston a big ol’ Christmas Tree and now sends one every year to put up in the main park to say thanks! Though, they didn’t start sending it regularly until 1971, so it could be a result of all the sentimentalization
Born and raised in the greater Boston area I never knew this! Very cool
Hopefully the tree comes WITHOUT the frightening giant animatronic talking face?
@@sc100ottI think Boston needs one of those bad boys
Fun fact: at schools in elementary, some schools flip the desks in the morning to suprise students and then teach them about the Halifax Explosion
Yeah I saw that in The Commons today. Very interesting the connection between Atlantic Canada and New England. Before the revolution they were pretty much one region.
“These boat propellor things seem to be one popular motif in recognition of…boats.”
Hard-hitting reporting as always JJ.
The subtle pause gave me a laugh.
Award winning!
From Wikipedia: "John Patch, a mariner in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia developed a two-bladed, fan-shaped propeller in 1832 and publicly demonstrated it in 1833, propelling a row boat across Yarmouth Harbour and a small coastal schooner at Saint John, New Brunswick, but his patent application in the United States was rejected until 1849"
Barrett's Privateers is a cool song because it's a "mock" shanty. It's meant to sound like it's an old 18th century ballad that's been passed down for generations, but it was actually composed by Stan Rogers, a folk singer from the 70s and probably the most famous Atlantic Canadian musician of all time.
an excellent song!
@@larrybxl5406 And an excellent musician who was taken from us too soon.
I’m an American, but I have to admit that Barrett’s Privateers is a great song and Stan is my favorite folk singer ever.
And despite being famous as an Atlantic Canadian, he was born and raised in Ontario, though did frequently visit family in Nova Scotia.
It’s true everyone here on the island loves Stan and when you say “Listening to some Stan,” it’s a foregone conclusion that you’re referring to Stan Rogers.
As someone from Nova Scotia, this was quite a nice video. A couple things that I'd want to point out is that the Maritimes and Atlantic Canada are not interchangeable, as Newfoundland and Labrador are not a part of the Maritimes. Also I find it kind of interesting how you called Lunenberg a city, and Truro a small town considering that Truro is far larger and has a larger population (although to be fair I wouldn't consider Truro a city either).
Also I'm surprised that garlic fingers aren't a thing outside of here as they're offered at pretty much every large pizza chain around here lol. Also lobster rolls are more of a tourist food than something that Atlantic Canadians eat. Like I've had my fair share of lobster sandwiches, and lobster in generial, but lobster rolls are typically offered at tourist trap restaurants.
Yeah and the donare was invented by an immigrant who lived here
@@toddle8258Donair. It's based off of the kebab. It's unique in using beef instead of lamb and it's use of donair sauce. Garlic fingers and Donald have been made popular across the Atlantic thanks to Greco Pizza.
we have garlic fingers here in ontario.
ignore the username.
I feel like at least in most of the US, garlic fingers exist mostly as an appetizer at some pizza places, but are mostly called cheese sticks, or sometimes cheesy breadsticks. But those names can mean other things, too.
As someone from Truro, I also wouldn't call our little hub a city. But if we're not, then Lunenburg most certainly isn't. Cute place, but smol.
Lobster rolls are okay sometimes, but garlic fingers... man, I could go for some right now.
Please do a video on idiomatic "Dutch" things and their origins -- The Flying Dutchman, Dutch Ovens, Double Dutch, and why there seem to be so many phrases and terms like this.
That could be interesting because, with exception of the the flying dutchman (vliegende hollander) which is familiar to people in the Netherlands, a fair number of things referred to as Dutch don't seem all that related to the Dutch. I only know what is meant by dutch ovens and double dutch because of my familiarity with American culture.
The dutch camera angle?
@@noway8259going Dutch
Going Dutch
@@egodeosumdo you guys have a tradition of "going Dutch " that's when on a date the couple will split the bill instead of the man paying.we in America say it's because the Dutch are very cheap
As a native maritimer, imagine my culture shock as an international student in Istanbul asking for donair. Expected what was shown here, got donair meat with yoghurt and tomatoes on a flatbread with cucumbers. Thanks for reviewing Atlantic Canada! We're so forgotten over here that I'm sure your award-winning video will be all over social media and the news (only half-joking).
A much better version.
We don't forget you! I think about you often!
FWIW that sounds nearly identical to what a lot of family-owned fast food places call "gyros" in the Chicago area. Chicago-style gyros typically include raw onions (and sometimes feta cheese) in addition to the tomato and yogurt sauce. Yum!
nova scotians when they have to eat vegetables
I'm in the US Midwest and the Maritimes are on my bucket list to visit.
I've also heard the story of kids getting bullied for bringing lobster to school - but only through a friend who heard it somewhere. Thanks for bringing some sort of credence to the anecdote.
The second part of the story was that all the 'rich' kids brought peanut butter sandwiches.
Since that video JJ made about the 'big four American foods' I'm quite taken by this concept of how culture can 'reverse' and what was originally a status symbol can become a signifier of lower socioeconomic background, and vice versa.
Like what he said about how 'poor people's sandwiches' are now the more expensive ones, as well as seafood becoming a delicacy due to its rarity
It's odd how people judge other people over meaningless, stupid stuff. A lobster sandwich sounds pretty gourmet to me, but what do I know?
Back in middle school a kid pitied me and my peanut butter sandwich, offering to buy me comfort food from the school cafeteria steam trays. I was shocked, both by his generosity and that anyone would consider my lunch as something to be pitied. Til then, I had always considered my home prepped lunch superior to what my class mates were forced to eat because their mothers didn't have the time to send them to school with a proper meal. I felt like his pity was an attack on our family's honor, so I didn't handle the situation well. He meant no harm.
This happened a long time ago in Louisville, KY. I guess peanut butter was considered poor people food--I guess--but mine was covered with bits of banana, another sign of mom's creative love for me. Still, to this day, I'd rather eat a peanut butter sandwich than what I see offered in school cafeterias. Steamed over, limp, something-or-other. Prison food. Their fish sticks on Fridays were okay. At least they smelled good. That was the only food of theirs that I would have liked to have eaten...
Same, I remember my grandmother telling me that lobster used to be consider poor people food. no idea how true that is
Shame for lobster sandwiches was a story my great grandfather told me... "When I was a boy, lobster was good for two things: tearing up nets and fertilizer!"
Rich kids brought bologna - in cape Breton at least
10:23 The best thing about this video is that J.J is still a family man. Like seems genuinely kind and would be a great mate. I would definitely have a pint with him and talk about cultural, political history Canadian stuff but I don’t know why but the WhatsApp message between you and your mum really brightened up my day. Cheers J.J
I also love these vlog styles J.J don’t change it. Maybe even add more historical/cultural details to them with tours or touring with a friend who’s a local or maybe even fans of yours that are local. It’s brilliant and really fun. Would love to visit Canada one day and Nova Scotia and Vancouver is on the list.
I'm from New Brunswick and I can confirm that, decades ago (60's-70's) Lobster was viewed as poor peoples food & that some kids would bring Tomalley sandwich's (the edible green stuff in a Lobster) to school. Some sailors still called them the cockroaches of the sea due to the abundance of Lobsters here.
Ditto
Maybe you could make a video specifically about how much the regional Canadian cultures share with their cross-border counterparts. You've alluded to that in many videos, but showing us how Atlantic Canadians probably have more in common with New Englanders than they do with BC-ers, and doing this for all the regional subcultures would be great for proving how America and Canada are part of one big civilization.
I also just like your travel videos to random places in the world to see how a guy of your persuasions sees them (yes including the Ireland one). I love your approach to tell us about the important but unsaid/ubiquitous things in a place's folk and popular culture. And I love seeing your own drawings!
Most provinces have more in common with the states immediately to their south than their neighbouring provinces to the east or west, e.g., an Ontarian will feel right at home in northern NY, Michigan, or northern Ohio. The cultural similarities also extend deep across the border in some regions, e.g., Ontario is culturally compatible with with every state along the east coast from NY to northern Virginia.
The lower mainland of BC is culturally identical to Washington State, Alberta has a lot in common with Montana, etcetera.
You could also say the same about the US, New Englanders may have more in common with Atlantic Canada than with they do with people from the Pacific Northwest.
We have some things in common with NE that we don’t with the rest of Canada but I think our separate histories and political climates have made us significantly different at this point
I don’t fully agree with this statement because there are far too many things that tie Canadians and Americans together even though it’s true that cross-border similarities exist.
For example, people in NS and BC share a familiarity with Tim Hortons that people in ME or VT don’t have. The love of Hockey that Nova Scotians may share with Albertans isn’t shared between Albertans and Montanans. Yes there’s a lot that ties transborder regions together, but being under different governments, shopping at different stores and businesses, watching different television channels and celebrating different holidays is what brings both countries together.
As someone from Niagara Falls, Ontario, I would be very interested in a video like this!
J.J. please make this a series, just going to different places in Canada and explaining them. Maybe even the Saskatchewanans can forgive you if you revisit there! Lol
Can we all agree just to call them Skatchetoons instead? LOL
@@AholeAtheist The correct term is Samsquanches
@@Hoopsnake True! Fucking cavemen.
The most atlantic canada thing about this video is how JJ mostly only talked about nova scotia 😂 Great video!
PLEASE show more about new brunswick, we are in dire need of even a little bit of recognition!!!!!
And the most new Brunswicker thing to do is complain that Halifax gets the attention it deserves
And it was very Halifax-specific even within NS lol
@@drinkmoreagua8984 You don't say lol
@@drinkmoreagua8984Halifax doesn’t deserve all the attention in a video that has “Atlantic Canada” in its title 😂
@@drinkmoreagua8984as someone who’s lived in Halifax, Halifax doesn’t deserve THAT much credit. In fact, much of the industry of Nova Scotia is found in rural areas like Bridgewater, Pictou, Truro, Antigonish and New Brunswick is home to the Irving’s, a rather controversial business empire that basically controls much of industry in Atlantic Canada.
This video was pretty Nova Scotia specific, but I would argue the most widely known piece of popular Maritime Canadian culture is Anne of Green Gables.
I was going to say Trailer Park Boys :P
Yes!!! When I hear Nova Scotia I picture Green Gables
@@danamania150Anne of Green Gables is set in PEI ❤️ Close but not quite Nova Scotia!
Hey! Nova Scotian J. J. viewer here!
I was very excited when I saw the video pop up in my feed as our little corner of the country doesn't tend to get much coverage even by Canadian TH-camrs.
While I don't live in Halifax you definitely did a great job of picking out items to include on your page as I was instantly able to recognise them all.
I also had no idea the garlic fingers were only an Atlantic Canada thing. Thought they were everywhere lol.
Thanks for the great video as always J. J.!
Also if anyone has any questions about Nova Scotia I can do my best to answer them in the replies :)
Came here to say the same thing; as a Halifax resident it always catches me by surprise when I see "Halifax" pop up in the media. It's funny to see J.J. explain garlic fingers, lobster rolls, and donairs as these weird foreign objects when they've been a staple in our diets for as long as I can remember.
@@jacobmacdonald5940 I knew that donairs and lobster rolls weren't so common elsewhere but I genuinely thought that garlic fingers were just a normal thing to find at pizza chains everywhere lol
Generally, Atlantic Canada includes PEI, NB, NS, and NL, whereas the Maritimes excludes NL. Small difference but worth noting!
True, my understanding is Joey Smallwood felt that NL was too culturally different from the rest of the Maritimes and so coined the term “Atlantic Canada” to include NL
I was waiting for someone to mention this. Thank you.
Yep, thanks for pointing that out
I noted this also as I was watching. I wonder if it's also because the 3 provinces joined confederation significantly before NL did. Were they collectively already known as the Maritimes in 1949?
More than likely. Maritimes is a colloquial term which describes any sea-dependent area usually. @@stephanierichards150
Thank you Dear JJ, we Scotians are often so easily forgotten. Its nice to get a little recognition.
I haven’t been to Nova Scotia yet but I did visit New Brunswick and that was a charming province.
The only reason other Canadians go to New Brunswick is because they have to drive through it to get to Nova Scotia
You found yourself in our little Hermit Kingdom I see. I have some things to say :) The Donair was actually started in Halifax not by Turkish immigrants, but by one specific Greek immigrant in Halifax in the 70s. Not only have we shamlessly adopted and altered this Turkish dish, we attribute it to the Greeks which must perturb the Turks lol Also, be careful calling Dartmouth just another part of Halifax. Yes Dartmouth is in the HRM (So is Sackville and Bedford) but it was a city (in martime terms) of its own up until amalgamation in 1999. Dartmouth had its own mayor and everything. Darksiders don't like to be called Haligonians in the same way an Irish person would cringe at being called British. Thanks for stopping by!
Fellow Nova Scotian here with the added bonus of having a Turkish ex-husband and I can verify the "peturbed" about the donair situation on the east coast of Canada is an understatement lol
My then husband and uncle/God father literally argued over the origins of the donair at my wedding 🤦🏼♀️
My uncle was only willing to concede that donairs were possibly invented in Montreal and then brought east by a Greek immigrant, my then husband was at his limit as there are a few Greek vs Turkish food rivalries (for the love of god don't ask a Turk who invented Greek yogurt first lol!)
He kept telling me uncle "we invented it when we were nomadic, our word "döner" (same pronunciation) literally means to rotate which is how it is cooked. Our language is older than Montreal, C'mon man!"
Tons of fun lol.
The way I look at it is we may not have invented it but we sure did perfect it lol
I had my first Döner kebab in Turkey, but they told me it was invented by Turkish guest workers in Germany, and the name Döner came from the German to turn. Int is is very popular in Germany, I saw it in Germany in 1970s.
Ok, so Dartmouth to Halifax is like Mississauga to Toronto, I guess.
@@meghanlynn7609 Spit roasted meat in a pita was not invented here but Donair is what it is because of the sweet sauce. Like how Mcdonald's didn't invent hamburgers but they did invent the Big Mac.
Saying Dartmouth is part of halifax will unironically get you stabbed in a lot of parts of Dartmouth
JJs passion for illustration has gone up a level, I love to see it
I don't know about travel, but I think it might be fun to do a video about the game "Risk" and specifically, its map. How it chooses to name certain territories the way it does, and how it's borders are weirdly drawn. That could reflect some deeper ideas in the culture it was drawn in.
I'm from around the shores of Lake Superior (USA), and I think it's cool that even this far inland we have water access to the Atlantic through the St. Lawrence River.
Hello from the Keweenaw! 👋🏻
@@chiconube1693Let’s go Marquette!
We do yes. Also where on Lake Superior are you at?
the st lawrence seaway finished in 1959 allowed great lake ports to receive ocean vessels - this was a major economic blow to halifax
Whenever you go on trips and doodle out your experiences, you could try drawing what you think your trip will look like, drawing different symbols associated with that country, stereotypes, etc. compared to what that place is really like
As someone who spent most of the first 29 years of my life as a resident of the former Halifax County, I approve. I get back when I can.
My mom arrived in Canada from Scotland at Pier 21 in the 50s.
I used to live about 20 miles from New Brunswick when I lived in Maine. The time I spent there was pretty interesting. Honestly in a lot of ways it felt more similar to northern Maine than it does to other parts of Canada that I have been to. It’s very beautiful there.
Yeah us Maritimers have a lot in common with Maine. Similar culture, similar food. Our accents are very different I've noticed. At least my accent as a Nova Scotian is different from the "Down east" accent as I think you guys call it. Everyone I know who goes to Maine says they get picked out because of their accents and told they sound funny 😂
I’m the opposite case where I’m from NB but been to Maine and have family in New Hampshire. I definitely see what you mean. The Northeast United States is a great region.
My favorite explanation for the colorful houses I’ve heard when visiting a colorful maritime city is that it’s so the men at sea could see the bright colored dots, and know which one waswas their home/wife they were looking towards when returning
I'm from Argentina and in La Boca, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires known for it's harbour, houses are also painted in many different bright colours. The explanation is that when the houses were first built people there were very poor and used to paint their houses with whatever paint was left over from the ships in the harbour, so it was all different mismatched colours. Maybe that's an explanation for Halifax houses as well
I'm from Italy and one of Venice's islands, called Burano, is famous for its colored houses (some of them have unique designs as well), and the explanation for that is that the fishermen could find their houses more easily in the thick fog😆
Makes sense! A lot of houses here were built from old lumber when the ships were retired
I’m from Nova Scotia and that’s what I’ve heard too. I don’t think it would be the case in Halifax because a lot of them were rich merchants’ houses but definitely the case in smaller fishing communities
I always associate colourful row houses with St John’s, Newfoundland, not Halifax. But I guess you’re right, it’s just a “coastal town” quirk.
@@pannkale9259Burano is such a beautiful island. I hope to visit it again someday.
as someone from New Brunswick, I would love to see your next video bring you to our underwhelming province
also you can get moon mist here, not just in NS
As an note, another iconic food in this area is wild blueberries. Oxford, which is close to New Brunswick, is called the blueberry capital of Canada and Oxford Frozen foods is known wide for its frozen blueberries. My grandfather owned a blueberry farm up around the Oxford area.
One secret piece of Halifax lore that JJ evidently was not exposed to is that we 'Halifaxers' actually call ourselves 'Haligonians'... why, you ask? I have no idea! Thanks for visiting us JJ, I hope you had a great time!
He actually said it during his piece on the bridge!
Haligonians is much more fun to say too!
I'm glad you mentioned this. Even though he tried to get it right during the bridge bit, he still pronounced it wrong.
For any come from aways, it is pronounced 'Hal - ih - go - nee - ans', but said really fast, with the accent on the Hal.
And yes.... no one really knows where that moniker comes from, but it is what we refer to ourselves as.😊 Cheers!
What a wonderful early christmas gift
One of my favourite canadian youtubers talking about my home town .
You almost never hear anyone outside of halifax talk about halifax so its a special treat to hear about what makes it special from you of all people jj
You're a pretty observant guy JJ, I think you nailed much of these local cultural entities. I've lived here nearly my whole life and I'm not sure I could compile such a concise list. A major one you missed was Theodore Tugboat, however it's understandable considering the physical tugboat in question no longer resides in Halifax, it was moved to Ontario a few years ago.
It's worth noting that Newfoundland is very distinct from the rest of Atlantic Canada, their culture, I feel (as somebody who was born there) retains a lot more British influence compared to the rest of Canada which is so Americanized. Newfoundland, especially the more rural areas, is almost like a halfway point between British culture and American culture. You should visit some time, and not just to St. John's. It's a beautiful place with the kindest people you'll ever meet (yes, I am biased), and you'd be surprised just how different it is from Nova Scotia.
You could go to New-Brunswick and talk about the history of the Acadians (the deportation). Visit some of the many historical sites and towns.
I was saving this question for your next live stream! Glad to see you address it here
As a Haligonian you don’t know how happy I am to see you make a video about us JJ! I don’t know how you managed to not mention the trailer park boys once tho😂
As a TPB fan the drawing I noticed when the whole page was flashed near the start of the video was the smoke stacks which I recognized from earlier seasons. I once even tried to use them as a landmark to try and find "Sunnyvale" on Google maps. Fortunately some Canadian fans have shared the aerial images of the locations used so my failure to find it wasn't so sad. LOL
Drawing was missing a pack a smokes, pepperoni and a bag of chicken chips. Lol.
@@AholeAtheist I used to live in the trailer park that some of season 1 was filmed in! I think I heard they eventually bought a plot of land to film in because the trailer park owners didn't like being associated with them 😂 (it is not called Sunnyvale, but that is the name of a street near by)
@@jensmith5430 I grew up in Millwood. small world lol.
@@AholeAtheist they used a Trailer Park in Sackville. Then they made a set in Cole Harbour near Bisset Lake.
It's always fun to inform maritimers that the rest of the world does not have garlic fingers. It seems like the most natural thing in the world here.
When I first heard of them I assumed it was just some name they gave to some common thing everyone has, like garlic bread or something, but no, it's pretty unique!
@@JJMcCulloughJJ you should do a video about the Battle of Quebec City by the Americans or maybe the Brits when they captured it? Maybe show us the battleistes and how this one event really made Canada the way it is
The first time I spoke to some people from Ohio, they were humming and hawing over what to eat, I said "You could order some garlic fingers I guess", and they had no idea what I was talking about.
I was dumbfounded. "Garlic fingers, you know, they have them at every pizza place? Served with donair sauce, maybe some bacon bits? Hold on, lemme get a picture."
And then Wikipedia informs me it's an East Coast thing. To repeat; I was dumbfounded.
Sigh… he got the garlic fingers… he got the donairs…. But missed the ‘garlic fingers and donair sauce’ angle. That’s the whole point!
@@JJMcCulloughas a Native Nova Scotian doing my second stint in Alberta I thank you for acknowledging the uniqueness of our garlic fingers - NO they are not garlic bread/sticks and they are nothing alike. When I moved to Edmonton at 19 my new friends couldn't understand why I was so upset about the lack of garlic fingers and why garlic bread cut into skinny pieces just wasn't the same.
Hope you enjoyed your visit to the beautiful east coast - you should see her in the summer time. Also glad you made it to Lunenburg. It's a beauty both in terms of scenery and people.
Newfoundland is not a maritime provence. It is part of Atlantic canada
I agree! Atlantic Canada and Maritime Canada are not the same thing. Still a fun video to watch though ☺
It's barely Canada! Also, Provence is in France, I think you mean "province".
As a nova scotia living now on the west coast this made my day! love seeing the highlights of halifax!
This is first 'doodle sheet' video I've seen you do. And I hope to see dozens more!
Thank you J.J. I am glad you enjoyed your time here. Would love to see a video in New Brunswick and P.E.I!
As a Nova Scotian living in Calgary, I really miss my Halifax style egg rolls, my Farmers milk, walking around Point Pleasant park, Walking home from Uniacke district school on a spring day, visiting my cousin's farm in Falmouth and going to Oaklawn farm/zoo.
I love seeing drawings connected to places in the world. Especially ones you might not get at first glance if you’ve never been there or don’t know a lot about the area.
Hey J.J. Glad you enjoyed NS. You may not truly know how impactful NS is on the rest of the maritime. I'm from NB and I can tell you many of our most popular cultural phenomena and symbols come from NS. Like most here would say donairs are also the iconic food, which the sauce being referred to as donair sauce. Moon Mist icecream is across the maritimes. One big difference is that NB and NFLD find themselves much more rooted in Irish heritage than Scottish. Come back sometime!
You're lost too
What do you mean?@@RyanSheppard-tq4pg
@@alexl4710 I've seen this same quote posted on other channels. I think it is a bot. No idea what originally it was referring to.🤨🤔
FOLLOW THE KEY is a great start for a children's adventure novel. (I think I want one of these tours for every region now.)
Donairs and garlic fingers are the iconic examples, but the one food that shocked me the most was actually egg rolls. In most of Canada at least, and probably elsewhere based on Wikipedia, egg rolls contain a mix of vegetables and meat. In Nova Scotia though, meat egg rolls contain a unique brown-grey meat paste with no vegetables at all. I was shocked (and honestly dismayed) the first time I had egg rolls without my beloved meat paste, only to discover it was a purely local thing.
Sounds like donair rolls to me.
@@marikroyals7111 Donair rolls were based on the egg rolls. At a friends restaurant, they used a blend of pork, beef, onion, and spices, all put through a grinder, to produce the filling for the egg rolls. This was being done years, before even the donair showed up in the 70's.
And yes.... I was surprised when I had my first vegetable egg roll, when travelling. Still tasty.... but I really like the all meat Maritime style.😊
Wow, I need to leave HRM more. I have always taken for granted that pure meat egg rolls were a universal facet of American-Chinese food considering its available in every Chinese food restaurant here.
I never knew this. I love the meat paste. The rest of the world needs the meat paste.
Tip: Look Ho-Ho in Halifax has excellent ones.
You went to the city I'm studying in, my campus was shown at 0:18! I must say I didn't even know what the flags about African Nova Scotians and the Indigenous one were. Also, you can get Moon Mist in most places in the Maritimes, not just NS. Shame I didn't see you around :(
I am from Saint John though!
Hi JJ, I’ve watched your videos for a few years and love the content.
A small correction in regard to Moon Mist - it is a flavor we have in NB, at least in Moncton. Typically can be found in the Sobeys if you’d really like to try it. Not sure if you’ve visited NB, I know many just choose to pass through the province since it’s not particularly exciting as a day-trip, but it would be nice if you could spend more time and do a video but most don’t have the luxury. The culture of the maritimes is extremely rich but does take a long to get to know, especially since there’s many things people do but don’t talk about because they’re so used to doing them or see them as ordinary that they can be overlooked. Acadian history and culture is pretty interesting to learn.
Someone in the comments from NS mentioned lobster rolls not being a common Atlantic Canadian food and only for “tourists”, but this is not true for communities surrounding Moncton. Areas like Shediac enjoy a lot of lobster dishes, including their rolls in small, hole-in-the-wall type restaurants.
You can get Moon Mist all over NB, I live in Edmundston and you can get it all over the place, you can also get it in Quebec,
Your comment at the end about part 3 of your Eastern Canada trip made me think I had missed an episode, then I remembered that Toronto is quite east from your perspective, haha
I wanted to add that Boston was very swift to respond to the Halifax explosion and sent help asap. Because of this, Halifax sends Boston their Christmas tree every year. It’s one of my favorite things about Boston and it’s a major reason I’m going to Halifax soon.
I briefly thought you meant Woody... that would be quite the present to get every year...
My mom and JJ's mom have the exact same texting tone, punctuation, and syntax. It's just a short sample here, and on the surface there's nothing remarkable about how it's written, but it's absolutely unmistakable. We were born 11 months apart so our moms are likely a similar age.
0:23 Avoid using the terms "Maritimes" and "Atlantic Canada" interchangeably; you'll annoy a bunch of people in Newfoundland and Labrador. The two terms refer to different sets of provinces.
Maritimes = NS + NB + PEI
Atlantic Canada = NS + NB + PEI + NL
Oh boo hoo
hahahaha@@JJMcCullough
After all, NS, NB, and PEI are a single division of Canada in terms of the Senate, having 24 senators, while Newfoundland got a separate group of 6 senators when it joined Canada in 1949.
Oh sorry. I wasn't trying to poke fun or anything. I was trying to be helpful.@@JJMcCullough
Am I the only one surprised to find out that JJ is actually the one who’s been drawing the cartoons for his videos? Man’s got fucking talent.
I'm from New Brunswick. It blows my mind that garlic fingers aren't ubiquitous. Whenever you order a pizza, you almost always get an order of garlic fingers, and it always comes with donair sauce. When I was in Alberta recently, people were talking about ordering "cheesy bread" and I didn't know what to expect but it's basically the equivalent of garlic fingers without the garlic
Hey JJ, just wanted to say I love this video and thank you for portraying Nova Scotia in a good light!! I've always lived in NS and have always watched for a shoutout or comment about this province/area, and seeing you treat my province with respect while showing it off was very satisfying! Thank you!! ❤
I share your premise that Atlantic Canada is unique and special. I used to live in Saint John and I've been to Nova Scotia many times (and P.E.I. once). It's one of my favourite places in the world.
This video takes me to a very tranquil place. Thanks J.J. for sharing your travel adventures.
I understand that you only visited Halifax but this video seemed more like one on Nova Scotia rather than one on the whole of Atlantic Canada or even the Maritimes.
Agreed. Kinda boils down the entire region into just the one city.
Yeah, I thought that too. It’s like going to New York City and saying it represents the entire New York State and mountain ranges around the state.
I'm from NS Halifax! I've been following you for years, thanks for making this video about our province :)
I'm not sure if this is true for Atlantic Canada, but for some of the coastal cities in San Mateo County, California (where I live), it gets foggy and gray quite frequently. They have brightly colored houses in some of those cities like Pacifica and Daly City, and even in coastal areas of the city and county of San Francisco itself. The going thought is that they do this so they can actually see a little color after the 100th gray day in a row.
I think it's also to help people spot the town from sea on the foggier days
My hometown in Atlantic Canada, Saint John, in New Brunswick is notorious for fog. It’s on the Bay of Fundy, bordering Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, so the bay is home to the largest tides in the world and there absolutely is a lot of fog to the point ships are hardly visible at times.
Thanks, man. My wife and I are actually planning a trip to Halifax in May, so this is giving us a lot to look forward to!
Perfectly timed, I'm working on a tabletop role-playing campaign based in Newfoundland so I've been trying to research East Coast Canadian stuff literally as I type this lol
I'm happy there are people out there interested in our maritime culture!
The Woody talking tree in MicMac was only brought back right before the pandemic, he was taken out in 2006 because they did not want to spend money to renovate him so they removed him, but now he’s back with a new look
After living in St John's Newfoundland for a summer (which also has many colourful houses), I learned that families would paint them with the paint left over from their fishing boats. At this point its become a tradition across Atlantic Canada.
@@RyanSheppard-tq4pg Well... everything used to be shipped by sea. Port city to port city. Traditions and stories would be spread by Mariners. I'm sure that some of the very colourful houses in Portugal would have been painted that way, for the same reason. Then it spread to St. John's, and so on, and so on. It could have 'spontaneously' occurred in multiple locations at around the same time..... but given the long standing trade routes between Europe, the Maritimes, and the Caribbean, much more likely that it was spread by Mariners.
Think of the rum trade. Rum shipped to England from the Caribbean, empty barrels shipped to Newfoundland, Screech made by boiling out the rum barrels, barrels filled with salt fish, then shipped to the Caribbean to feed the slaves, who gathered the sugar to make the rum. So is it any surprise that rum is a favoured drink in the Maritimes, and that salt fish is a favoured food in the Caribbean. So yes, port cities can have far reaching effects, well beyond their 'remote' location.
And this is how "a trsdition (sic) on an island in a city on the far stretches of that island effect the results in the other 3 provinces."
This is great! More from that sketch/homage scrapbook thingy.
Love it!
This was fun. Want this for more Canadian cities with this format.
You're such a wonderful person JJ! Thank you for all of the videos.
Thank you friend
I like this series a lot! Canadian cities!
Very cool video and awesome crafts idea for children while vacationing as something to keep them busy and also help them remember the trip
It's funny that I'm a BC boy who has lived in Halifax for 10 years, and of course when I take a trip back to Vancouver (currently typing this looking at Granville Island), is when JJ films an episode 2 blocks from my apartment in Halifax haha.
I also moved to halifax from vancouver. What are your thoughts on the two cities?
@@ClumpypooCP Many similarities in the sense that they are both harbor cities with some very old sections which have been simply "paved over" as time goes on. I find that Halifax is generally much more friendly in the sense that total strangers may strike up a bit of small talk with you, wave, say hi, etc. Whereas being from Vancouver originally this felt quite strange. Halifax also feels like more of a party city than Vancouver, probably due to the fact that a significant portion of Halifax's population is students from Dalhousie, Saint Mary's, NASCAD, and The Mount. As a result the city has many more young people, not all of whom are from the province.
In short I enjoy both Halifax and Vancouver. There is no prettier place in Canada, and possibly the world than BC, and despite the other issues the city may currently be facing the backdrop will never be any less breathtaking for me.
Won't lie, I own like 6 East Coast lifestyle hoodies. I love the sweaters so much.
Also, I've never heard Donair sauce called Halifax sauce. They sell bottles of them at grocery stores all over the Maritimes and it's generally just called Donair sauce.
I'd love to see you do another video or two about the other maritime provinces. I've always been somewhat curious about Newfoundland and Labrador and PEI but have never found much on the internet about them.
Cape Breton also deserves a video of its own. It’s basically a whole different culture and place
Moving to Halifax from Vancouver next year. Thanks for introducing the maritime culture through this video! Would be cool to see a dedicated video around Newfoundland or PEI.
He thinks this is one
The lobster story reminded of me something a friend of my mine from Equador recently told me. He has an a few avocado trees at his family home in Quito and when he was growing up avocados were so ubiquitous and plentiful that he often fed them to his dogs. Funny considering how in Europe and North America they are seen as a very elitist food!
Part of it is that they take lots of water to grow and don't grow especially quickly.
My uncle works in the (lucrative) Nova Scotian golf industry; I suppose the Scottish culture truly is still alive and well.
(As an idea): Maybe you could, as opposed to making collages, design collective coins for that country, province, city etc... It would follow the same rough format; draw the little weird and wonderful cultural touch points and inside jokes but then stick'm on coins. As an example: you could make a coin tail-underwear/head-Robert Stanfield (that sort of thing)...
Love your videos!
Would love a Newfoundland/St. Johns version of this!
He thinks he already did it
As a born and raised Haligonian, I learned two things from this video:
1. I've seen the graffiti bird all around the city for years, but had no idea it was related to Maud Lewis. I wasn't even familiar with that bird painting, I'd consider the black cat or the two bulls as her most iconic works.
2. I've always wondered about the key road signs. Now I know.
Also, JJ, you're a lunatic for calling the smoke stacks orange and white. They're clearly red and white. And the Scottish lion is always red, as the golden lion represents England.
Also I'm 90% sure that is my elementary school court yard at 6:18. Neat.
As a Nova Scotian, I learned a lot from this video. Guess I don't really know much about the province even though I live here.
You've also made me remember that Woody exists. That is unforgivable.
I'm from Cape Breton NS and I leaned something too. Other than main thing that most NS know about like Garlic fingers, Peggy's & bluenose this was mostly a Halifax episode! So don't feel bad I was in the same boat for some of it haha
If you're looking for unusual destinations and can arrange it, a visit to St. Pierre and Miquelon. These two islands are in the area of Atlantic Canada, but they actually a part of France. They are one of the last French territories still remaining in North America. You get there by taking a flight from Halifax or the ferry from Newfoundland-Labrador. It seems to be a really interesting place to live; residents are a part of France and use French currency, but they also have to depend on Atlantic Canada for some necessary services.
Was there in the early 90s and would love to go back. The architecture is much more European than North American.
If you want to make more travel videos, why not continue this and make a series? Your ability to get a pulse for a place you've never been like this was incredible. I'd love to see you come to my city and talk about it and I'm sure many other viewers feel the same! Plus you'll grab some "travel blog" audience in the process!
regarding you solicitation at the end, you could do a Mr. Beat style thing where you go to 2 similar places and compare them
I feel like there must be a not insignificant chance that the term "blue nose" comes from the literal cold blue noses of the old, weathered fishermen and other maritime workers who would work along the ports in the frigid winter weather.
That's exactly where the term came from
Little blue potato shaped like a nose.
3:27 he didn't want to get lost in the touque, beanie discourse, so he called it a hat, angering both sides
Atlantic Canada and the Maritime provinces aren't the same thing. The maritime provinces are only Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI. when you add Newfoundland it then becomes Atlantic Canada
why?
@@JJMcCullough well NFLD only became part of Canada in 1949, 80 years after the maritime provinces. NFLD is much further away from the maritime provinces which you can visit all 3 by car in 2 hours but to get to NFLD is a 10 hour ferry ride and making it much more isolated. NFLD was also its own dominion until 1949 and has a distinct culture and dialect from the other maritime provinces. NFLD is as distinct from the maritime provinces as the maritime provinces are to Ontario. Finally geography, the maritime provinces are mostly flat and very suitable for agriculture however NFLD is pretty rocky and and hilly and not suitable for agriculture at all.
P.S. the sweet sauce serve with donair is what makes it a donair. without the sweet sauce, called donair sauce, it is not a donair. The sauce, which was developed in N.S., is what make it a Nova Scotian dish, Just like it's the cheese curds and gravy and not the fries that make poutine, poutine.
@@JJMcCulloughBecause the term “The Maritimes” was in use long before Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1949, so it was a late addition to the area. Not including Newfoundland under the historic designation avoided any confusion on which provinces were being referred to.
We visited Nova Scotia in 2022 and it was honestly one of the most beautiful places we've been. Really enjoyed it.
I’d love to see a video on Haida Gwaii and the Haida Nation’s semi-independence. I’m not too familiar with the history but it looks interesting!
this is the best possible format for my adhd american brain to learn about other places with
i'm stealing your sticker drawings idea for stuff! what a clever way to keep reminders of what was important that day.
RBC was founded in Halifax too :)
Would love to see JJ visit Serbia and tour the Balkans, going over their history and politics.
It's actually a part of the world I really want to visit.
Woody the talking tree is still my hommie, we took my little brother there in the late 90's and he cried and ran away, good or bad, all Haligonians have their woody memory :)
A lot of the food stuff are no longer Halifax specific and are maritime wide like moon mist can be found in NB but love the video I spent the summer in Halifax and loved it
Very enjoyable video. It brought back some happy memories of when my family travelled to NS. I particularly remember Peggy’s Cove. Quite a bit different than Arizona where I live.
I always found it curious how the first parts of Canada colonized by the Europeans, and those parts closest to Europe, never took off in terms of population, industry and economic heft. Canada sort of reminds me of Brazil in that way, because that's how it transpired in Brazil too--the northeast region of Brazil really never launched itself after 1700. In Canada, the Maritimes held the lead for a bit, but by 1700 they were also left in the dust by Canadian regions further inland.
There are videos about this on TH-cam. Basically, because of the st Lawrence and the great lakes. Central Canada grew quite larger.
@@Japi506yup the st Lawrence makes Nova Scotia and Newfoundland redundant. Why stop here when you can go down the st Lawrence and have access to Quebdc, Ontario, and the great lakes? And the rest of the continent. Unfortunately for us but good for the country
4:48 my friend had a restaurant that sold this in Halifax and now that he’s moved to Ottawa he brought that sweet sauce with him! Possibly being the only place selling here right now
Across the Halifax harbour lies Dartmouth, home of Sunnyvale trailer park.
So glad to see this video. Halifax is one of my favorite cities, and you pegged many of its icons. I really enjoy the Atllantic Canada provinces. A regional magazine, "Saltscapes" is a great printed and website celebration of Maritime life and tourism. It covers all of the Maritime provinces, plus the U.S. state of Maine, and it's worth a look if you're interested in discovering unique regional destinations. The magazine also organizes a great expo every spring where you can discover tourism destinations, enjoy musical entertainment, learn about local products and sample delicious food and drink items.
Maybe when you go to different places you can buy an article of clothing that contains some sort of stereotypical symbol of the place, like if you visited Calgary, buy a cowboy hat, a flames jersey, rancher boots and overalls. Then by the end you could ask around if you looked “just like a local” lol.
I live in Maine, and my body literally tensed up when I saw the flag because I knew you were going to say "Mickmack," and there was so much relief when you followed it with "Migmaw."
They use that flag there as well eh?
@@JJMcCullough Not really but the name is frequently used in tandem with the Penobscot, at least in the East
14:18
*HE IS GOING TO QUEBEC!*
this was really good and cute way to talk about a place, I loved this videa, and I'm from a totally different part of the world. I will totally watch more of those symbolize travel blogs.
Halifax was an absolute blast in 1917 👍
Too soon dude
yikes
This is a great format for a travel vlog, learned alot and had a few good laughs