The Maritimes

Maritime Provinces (English Maritime provinces, Canadian Maritimes, or simply the Maritimes; French provinces Maritimes ) denotes Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Iceland, located on the southern portion of the Canadian Atlantic coast.

In the south, bordering the Maritime provinces of Maine in the USA, in the northwest to the Gaspesie Peninsula and the North East they are separated by the St. Lawrence Gulf of Newfoundland. This province is not expected to rule in the group of the Maritime Provinces, but they, together with the three Maritime provinces, the Atlantic provinces. In the Maritimes applies in contrast to the Newfoundland Atlantic Time (UTC -4).

However, the Maritime provinces are less a geographical, but rather a historical and cultural unity. The French referred to the maritime provinces today and part of New England as Acadia. The area was, however, controversial since its "discovery" by the Europeans between the English and the French. With the Peace of Paris in 1763 today's Maritime provinces came finally to England. From this rich history still shows the bilingualism of the provinces, which officially is only in New Brunswick, where particularly many Acadians live. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were in 1867 of the founding provinces of the Canadian federation, while Prince Edward Iceland joined the state in 1873 (see History of Canada).