View from the East
Robin Carson | Article & Photos
I didn’t discover the Maritimes until I was 65. Having lived in Edmonton since I was
three, I really didn’t know much about the rest of Canada. Holidays mostly consisted of
excursions west, never east. I knew Jasper, Banff, and Waterton and could find my way
around Victoria and the rest of Vancouver Island, but I had never in my life been farther
east than Toronto.
The year I began to draw my pensions, my wife and
I decided to explore the Maritimes before we got
much older. So, maps in hand, we blindly plotted an
itinerary, booked bed and breakfasts, bought plane
tickets to Halifax, rented a car, and off we went.
We took a tourist-approved loop from Halifax
through Wolfville then west to Digby (with its worldfamous
scallops) and then via ferry to Saint John,
New Brunswick. From there, we
visited Hopewell Rocks (with
the world’s highest tides)
then crossed the amazing
Confederation Bridge to
Charlottetown, Prince
Edward Island.
The trip was a
success in several
ways. We fulfilled
our ambition of
being slack-jawed,
camera-toting tourists
in our own country, and
we found a city that was
absolutely comfortable for us:
Charlottetown.
Prince Edward Island is very small. While it is not
small enough to drive around in an afternoon (like
some of our Western visitors have thought), the island
is only a fifth the size of Vancouver Island. The total
population is just over 150,000, not much bigger than
Red Deer. Charlottetown itself has only about 36,000
people. The PEI legislature, with only twenty-seven
members, is smaller than ARTA’s Board of Directors.
Charlottetown has a small-town feel to it. People
look at you, not at the sidewalk or their phones. In
restaurants, servers happily strike up conversations,
answer questions, and even sit down and chat.
Though Charlottetown is small, because of
the tremendous influx of tourists in summer
months (well over 1.5 million in 2019), it has
most of the amenities of a much larger city.
Where Charlottetown really shines,
though, is in its arts community. With
both the University of Prince Edward
Island and Holland College, there are
plenty of young musicians and actors.
Victoria Row, a street closed to vehicles
in summer, has several restaurants
with outdoor seating — and a small stage
where live jazz plays all day. Many pubs
feature good jazz and excellent blues. Two
different stage productions feature Anne of Green
Gables, and there is also a private theatre with diverse
presentations and The Guild, a small arts centre
featuring art displays, music, and drama.
Confederation Centre of the Arts houses the city
44 | arta.net