Today's Joe Howe: "The Greatest Nova Scotian"

Clint MacNeil teaches history, geography, and world religion at St.
Charles College in Sudbury.

There is no doubt that Joseph Howe was a great Nova Scotian. He worked
tirelessly for the betterment of his fellow Maritimers. He was an
enlightened gentleman who used his own newspaper, The Nova Scotian, to
advocate the need for public education. He believed that citizens had a
responsibility to become educated and participate more fully in a
“responsible government” (one that he ardently helped establish). He
pressed the English aristocracy to support the creation of an
intercolonial railway to secure the economic welfare of the colony. He
endorsed Samuel Cunard’s transatlantic steamship line between
Liverpool and Halifax.

Howe is perhaps best known for his victory in a Halifax courtroom on
charges of seditious libel launched by a tight group of Halifax
magistrates in 1835. The suit was in reaction to a letter published in
his newspaper by his friend, George Thompson, that criticized local
corruption. Speaking in his defence, Howe stated: “Leave an unshackled
press as a legacy to your children.” He was acquitted the following
day after a 10-minute deliberation by the jury.

Howe’s life was marked by contradictions. He was raised on the Bible
but pressed for secular education; renounced Confederation but joined
Macdonald’s cabinet; was fiercely loyal to the Crown but criticized
its injustices; commended his son for serving in the Union army for a
nation that years earlier had forced his Loyalist father to flee Boston
following the Revolutionary War.

The work of this statesman, journalist, accomplished poet, humanist,
and champion for free speech will be appreciated well into the 21st
century. This short, very readable account of Howe’s career, includes
lots of photographs and a bibliography.