The representative government of 1758 was the first big step in the evolution of our democratic institutions. It did not come easily, Nova Scotia, or as the French called it, Acadia, was the site of the first permanent European settlement north of the Gulf of Mexico. But it was raided, captured and traded back and forth at the diplomatic table to suit the imperial interests of Britain and France for more than a century before being finally taken by the British in 1710 and formally ceded to them three years later at the close of a lengthy European war.
It was the founding of Halifax in 1749 by Colonel Edward Cornwallis that eventually brought representative government into effect. Within a decade the Nova Scotians had their first elected Assembly, though not without a struggle. When representative government did come, it was introduced by royal prerogative. Meanwhile, the young aristocrats, ex-soldiers and London labourers who set to work building the first new British town on the Canadian mainland were too busy felling trees and fighting off the Indians to worry much about the form of government. The New Englanders, who succeeded most of Cornwallis's English settlers in Halifax, adapted more easily to frontier life, but were accustomed to popular representation in colonial government. They demanded an Assembly.
However, the dashing young army officer who founded Halifax and made it the new capital of Nova Scotia rejected the wishes of the settlers. His instructions from Britain were to form an Assembly as soon as this was expedient. Despite public protest, Governor Cornwallis never found it expedient. In his military and political judgement, Nova Scotia was not ready for an elected Assembly. As the first Governor to name his own Council, Cornwallis ruled largely by proclamation and decree as, indeed, Governor Phillips had done earlier in Annapolis Royal.
