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The MARITIME PROVINCES - Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island - are Canada's three smallest provinces, and their combined population of around one-and-three-quarter million has been largely confined to the coasts and river valleys by the thin soils of their forested interiors. Even today, the bulk of the region remains intractable - 84 percent of New Brunswick, for example, is covered by pine, maple and birch forests - and this rough-and-ready wilderness combines with a ruggedly beautiful coastline to form one of Canada's most scenic regions. Of some appeal too are the chunks of fertile land that punctuate the forests, principally in the undulating fields of PEI (Prince Edward Island) and the lowlands around New Brunswick's Grand Falls, both of which produce massive crops of potatoes, and in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley, a major fruit-producing area. Most visitors to the Maritimes come for the coastal scenery and the slow pace of the "unspoilt" fishing villages, but the Maritimes were not always as sleepy as they appear today. When the three provinces joined the Dominion in the middle of the nineteenth century, their economies were prospering from the export of their fish and timber and the success of their shipyards. But, as opponents of the confederation had argued, the Maritimers were unable to prevent the passage of protectionist measures favouring the burgeoning industries of Ontario and Quebec. This discrimination, combined with the collapse of the shipbuilding industry as steel steamers replaced wooden ships, precipitated a savage and long-lasting recession that, within the space of thirty years, transformed most of the Maritimes from a prosperous, semi-industrialized region to a pastoral backwater dependent on the sale of its raw materials - chiefly wood and fish. In recent years, tourism has helped to keep the region's economy afloat and the tourist industry hereabouts is extremely well-organized, though out of season - before mid-May and after mid-October - many attractions and B&Bs are closed. Bypassed economically, many of the region's villages still retain their nineteenth-century appearance, with pastel-shaded clapboard houses set around rocky coves and bays. However, the Maritimes offer much more variety than this bucolic image suggests. In Nova Scotia , the southwest coast does indeed have a clutch of quaint fishing ports, but it also harbours the busy provincial capital of Halifax , whilst Annapolis Royal , with its genteel mansions, is but a few kilometres from Port Royal and its reconstruction of the fort Samuel de Champlain built in 1605. Further east, Cape Breton Island , connected to the mainland by a causeway, is divided into two by Bras d'Or Lake : the forested plateau flanking industrial Sydney is unremarkable, but in the west the elegiac hills and lakes framing the resort of Baddeck lead into the mountainous splendour of Cape Breton Highlands National Park - a rare chunk of mountain in a region that is relatively flat. Moving on, New Brunswick has urban pleasures in the shape of its cosy capital Fredericton and the gritty, revitalized port of Saint John (never "St John") - but its star turn is the Bay of Fundy , whose taper creates tidal variations of up to 12m. This phenomenon is observable right along the shoreline, but has a spectacularly scenic setting at both Fundy National Park and along the Fundy Trail Parkway . The tides churn the nutrient-rich waters down near the ocean bed towards the surface and this draws an abundance of marine life into the bay - including several species of whale , beginning with finback and minkes in late spring, and humpbacks from mid- to late June. By the middle of July all three species are frequently sighted and they usually stay around till late summer and autumn, which is when the rare North Atlantic right whale is seen too. Whale-watching trips leave from a string of Fundy ports in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick - those from Westport, near Digby , Alma and Grand Manan Island , are among the best. Last but certainly not least is PEI , linked to the mainland by the whopping Confederation Bridge in 1997. The island possesses one of the region's most amenable towns in leafy, laid-back Charlottetown , well worth at least a couple of days especially as it's but a short hop from the magnificent sandy beaches of the Prince Edward Island National Park .
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