Canning is a village in northeastern Kings County,

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

located at the crossroads of Route 221 and Route 358.

History

The area was originally settled by Acadians who were expelled in 1755 during the

Acadian Expulsion The Expulsion of the Acadians, also known as the Great Upheaval, the Great Expulsion, the Great Deportation, and the Deportation of the Acadians (french: Le Grand Dérangement or ), was the forced removal, by the British, of the Acadian pe ...

. After the Acadians, Canning - first called Apple Tree Landing and later Habitant Corner - was settled in 1760 by

New England Planters The New England Planters were settlers from the New England colonies who responded to invitations by the lieutenant governor (and subsequently governor) of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, to settle lands left vacant by the Bay of Fundy Campaign ( ...

and by the Dutch following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The present name was adopted in honour of British prime minister George Canning. Though much diminished in importance in recent years, Canning was once a major shipbuilding centre and

shipping Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...

and rail hub for farmers in Kings County. Canning merchants and farmers founded the

Cornwallis Valley Railway The Cornwallis Valley Railway (CVR) was a historic Canadian railway in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley. It was built in 1889 and ran from Kentville to Kingsport serving the Cornwallis Township area of Kings County. For most of its history, i ...

which ran from 1889 to 1961, connecting the village to the

Dominion Atlantic Railway The Dominion Atlantic Railway was a historic railway which operated in the western part of Nova Scotia in Canada, primarily through an agricultural district known as the Annapolis Valley. The Dominion Atlantic Railway was unusually diverse for a ...

mainline in

Kentville, Nova Scotia Kentville is an incorporated town in Nova Scotia. It is the most populous town in the Annapolis Valley. As of 2021, the town's population was 6,630. Its census agglomeration is 26,929. History Kentville owes its location to the Cornwallis River ...

."Canning", ''Dominion Atlantic Railway Digital Preservation Initiative''
/ref> The village suffered three major fires, in 1866, 1868 and 1912. NSRoute358

The Canadian parliamentarian Sir

Frederick William Borden Sir Frederick William Borden, (May 14, 1847 – January 6, 1917) was a Canadian politician. While he was the Minister for Militia and Defence, he was the father of the most famous Canadian casualty of the Second Boer War Harold Lothrop Borden. H ...

had a home in Canning. A cousin of Sir

Robert Borden Sir Robert Laird Borden (June 26, 1854 – June 10, 1937) was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Canada from 1911 to 1920. He is best known for his leadership of Canada during World War I. Borde ...

, Sir Frederick was Minister of Militia prior to the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Canning has a prominent statue to the most famous Canadian casualty of the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

, Harold Lothrop Borden, a son of Sir Frederick. He died in the Battle of Witpoort. Canning was also the home of country singer Wilf Carter. He was made an honorary citizen of Canning, Nova Scotia in 1978. Carter was born in

Port Hilford, Nova Scotia Port Hilford is a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipality of the District of Saint Mary's in Guysborough County. It was the birthplace of country and western singer Wilf Carter. The place, formerly ...

, but spend a great deal of his childhood working in and visiting the village and its surrounding farmland. The village is home to Glooscap Elementary School, with a student population of over 200, and Northeast Kings Education Centre (NKEC), a middle school/high school with a student population of around 1000 students and 80 staff. NKEC is the first AP Capstone designated school in Nova Scotia and the first in the world to offer the virtual AP Capstone Program. The Canning Lighthouse was built in 1904 to serve the port at Borden's Wharf. It was restored in the 1990s, after more than 50 years of disuse and abandonment, and was used by the village as a

tourist information centre A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center, tourist information center, is a physical location that provides tourist information to visitors. Types of visitor center A visi ...

. It was moved in 2003 to a new waterfront site on the Habitant River behind the village's small museum, where its top section was rebuilt by NKEC students. Canning is on the rise but is facing gentrification of the once affordable village.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, Canning had a population of 716 living in 311 of its 327 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 731. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Attractions

* Bigelow Trail * Blomidon Look-off Provincial Park * Bruce Spicer Park * Glooscap Arena – home to local hockey games * The Look Off * Merritt Gibson Memorial Library * Scots Bay Provincial Park * The ArtCan Gallery * The Village Coffee Shop

References

External links

*
Canning Village
(official website)
Canning, Nova Scotia

{{Subdivisions of Nova Scotia Communities in Kings County, Nova Scotia Villages in Nova Scotia Designated places in Nova Scotia General Service Areas in Nova Scotia