On impulse, I had e-mailed Mitchell during breakfast that morning after reading about his fledgling Halifax Free Walking Tours in the daily Chronicle Herald. We liked the sound of what drives the enterprising young man whose team of guides offers visitors 90-minute historical tours twice daily, three times a day on weekends. Despite the no-obligations hook, a well-earned donation was appreciated at tour’s end.

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — “It’s all downhill from here,” joked Cameron Mitchell at the Halifax Citadel pedestrian gate. We were watching the changing of the guard. A group of middle school students, herded and shushed by their teachers, was mimicking the stoic, red-jacketed guardsmen, entertaining us in the process. We’d just met Mitchell, 23, our tour guide, outside the star-shaped fortress at the summit of this steeply sloped city. Built in 1856 and home to the 78th Highland Regiment, the Citadel was the fourth in a series of British forts that made Halifax a key naval station in the British Empire. The restored landmark boasts imposing walls, a defensive ditch, earthen ramparts, garrison cells, and scenic views of our destination, across the city to the seaport far below.


Halifax, the provincial capital, is the largest urban area in Canada’s Atlantic provinces and a major seaport on one of the world’s deepest natural harbors. Embarking on our urban hike, Mitchell pointed toward the water where Canada’s largest naval base is close by and a ferry was making the short crossing to Dartmouth, a small city across the harbor. For $2.50 (Canadian) the ferry affords a terrific view of Halifax, while other reasons to go are galleries, shops, bars, and cafés, nearly all locally owned.

“I think Halifax is a great place to learn the skills of how to operate a business,” says Mitchell. “People have been incredibly supportive here. I don’t know if that would have been the same anywhere else.” A Toronto native who recently graduated from university here, he admits he wants to make the business a staple of Halifax tourism, then move on to something else. In a city with a youthful population, all things seem possible. As we headed for another hilltop landmark, the Old Town Clock, a 30-something couple and her mother spotted our guide’s hand-held sign. They, too, had read the newspaper story while on holiday from Montreal and joined us. When it became obvious the older woman spoke no English, Mitchell occasionally switched to Mandarin, one of four languages in which he’s fluent.


That multicultural encounter took on greater meaning later in the day when my husband and I visited the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, the Ellis Island of Canada. From 1928 to 1971, Pier 21 was the landing point for more than 1 million immigrants who arrived by ship. During World War II, the facility served as the staging site for the Canadian Armed Forces. Today the building is Canada’s sixth national museum and only the second outside the Ottawa capital region. People from all over Canada come to research their family history or learn why and how immigrants came to start new lives in this country. A short film presents a patchwork quilt of moving stories by people from around the globe.

Halifax feels like a smaller Toronto by the sea. The city is shaped equally by hipsters and history, fishing, commerce, students, and tourism. Its two largest employers are the Department of National Defense and the port. Six universities, each with a particular specialty, give Nova Scotia its reputation as “Canada’s University Capital.” Nova Scotia School of Art and Design owes its founding in 1887 to a British teacher, Anna Leonowens, best known as the tutor for the king of Siam who was immortalized in “The King and I.”


Overshadowing that brush with fame, however, are two marine disasters that occurred a century ago. Both are the subject of permanent exhibits at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, the oldest and largest maritime museum in Canada.

On April 14, 1912, a distress call was received from the RMS Titanic: “We have struck iceberg sinking fast come to our assistance.” From the closest major port, Halifax-based cable ships, Cunard ocean liners, and government vessels, along with the citizenry, responded. Now 19 sites in metro Halifax mark locations where victims were buried or survivors treated. Snow’s Funeral Home (1740 Argyle St.) still stands, but the building has become a highly praised restaurant, Five Fishermen. Back then, John Snow and his sons coordinated a team of undertakers from Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

Youngsters tried to make a guard smile at the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site. Janet Mendelsohn for The Boston Globe

On Dec. 6, 1917, a clear, sunny day during World War I, a French cargo ship loaded with wartime explosives collided with a Norwegian vessel in Halifax Harbour, killing nearly 2,000 people, injuring 9,000, and damaging or destroying 12,000 buildings. It was the most devastating man-made explosion in the world until the atomic bomb. Within hours, emergency response to the Halifax Explosion came from throughout the Maritimes, but the first medical teams and supplies arrived from Boston and Massachusetts General Hospital. In gratitude, Nova Scotia still sends one of its finest Christmas trees to Boston each year. Selected from privately owned land, the tree’s journey and lighting ceremony makes news every year and it is considered an honor for the owner to have a tree chosen.


As elsewhere, the Halifax economy has had its recent ups and downs, yet there’s a current of vitality along city streets. Midway between the Citadel and the waterfront, there’s a tremendous hole in the center of town. A new convention center is taking shape where the Chronicle Herald newspaper building once stood at the intersection of Sackville and Argyle streets. It reminds one of Boston’s Downtown Crossing. Our guide claims that by 1776 it was said that the job of half of Halifax was to make rum, the other half to drink it. Through the War of 1812, the city’s history was shrouded in the battle between alcohol and temperance. Now overlooking those giant cranes and steel beams, restaurants and bars bustle with a young but not exclusively millennial crowd. Here and elsewhere, city code seems to be kind to these establishments because by early June, many had expanded onto the sidewalks for the season with patios that sometimes double their seating capacity. Compensating for lost walkways are temporary sidewalks that encroach on the road.


Halifax was named for George Montagu Dunk, Earl of Halifax, Chief Lord of Trade and Plantations, who played a key role in its being founded in 1749 as a British settlement and military base. After the American Revolution, British loyalists fleeing New England landed here and the city grew rapidly. By the late 1800s, more than one-third of the population was Irish.

Today, Haligonians seem to support all things local. Farmers’ markets abound, including a big one on weekends at the Seaport. The splashy new maritime complex includes a cruise ship pavilion, the Immigration Museum, Garrison Brewing with tours and tastings, and more. The boardwalk will lead you past modern high-rise office buildings and condos, touristy shops, and restaurants with water views. Children will like the giant wave sculpture and a creative playground. Next time, we’ll visit the largest art collection in the Maritimes, at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, and the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia, one of many places to learn about African Nova Scotia communities dating to the 1600s.

Janet Mendelsohn can be reached at janet@janetmendelsohn.com.