125+ web files in a constantly updated compendium on Bermuda's business, culture, cuisine, customs, districts, economy, education, food, geography, government, history, internet access, laws, parishes, politics, religions, traditions, wildlife etc. For tourists, business visitors, employers, employees, newcomers, researchers, retirees, scholars. Funded by and linked to The Royal Gazette, Bermuda's only daily newspaper.

Bermuda's connections with and ties to Canada

Business, commerce, culture, education, history, military and more

By Keith Archibald Forbes (see About Us) exclusively for Bermuda Online

To refer to this webfile, please use "bermuda-online.org/canada" as your Subject

Bermuda and Canada have been partners in history, commerce, culture, education, tourism and trade since Bermuda was settled by accident in 1609 and by design in 1612. See Bermuda History with the Old and New Worlds since 1500. 

Bermuda's Minister of Finance, the Hon. Paula Cox, was born in Canada. There are more than 3,000 Canadian residents in Bermuda while 800 Bermudians a year are educated in Canada.

The Canadian Commission to Bermuda publishes its Canada Bermuda site in English and French. The Canadian Consulate General at 1251 Avenue of the Americas , New York NY 10020-1175, USA. Office (212) 596-1628. Fax (212) 596-1790. The Honorary Canadian Consul is Heather Conyers. Her address is 73 Front Street , 4^th Floor, Hamilton HM 12. P.O. Box HM 140, Hamilton HM FX. Office 292-2917. Fax 292-9307. Email: Heather.Conyers@international.gc.ca. 

For Canadians interested in working in Bermuda, see The Bermuda Cayman Recruitment Service, 824 Creekside Dr, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2V 2S6. 

Canadian visitors to Bermuda on vacation seem to like going from a hundreds or thousands of times bigger province but with a hugely smaller population density per square mile to a tiny (21 square miles) island with hundreds or thousands more people per square mile. Visitors should dress conservatively. Bathing suits, abbreviated tops, and short shorts should be worn only at the beach or pool. It is an offence to appear in public without a shirt or in a bathing suit top.

Most Canadian visitors to Bermuda do not experience problems. But there have been problems, including on July 3, 1996 a 17 year old Canadian visitor, Rebecca Middleton - see separate heading below - was kidnapped, raped, sodomized, tortured and murdered. A Canadian Senator was robbed and beaten. In 2005, four Canadian women were robbed and beaten. Do not accept food or drink from strangers or casual acquaintances, as these may be drugged. Use of Rohypnol and other "date rape" drugs has been confirmed by authorities and reported in the local media. Rapes in Bermuda have the lowest conviction record in the western world, only 2%. Ensure personal belongings, passports and other travel documents are secure at all times. Avoid deserted beaches and unpopulated areas, especially at night. 

The Canadian Consular Affairs report extract on safety and security 

• does not give any of the most revealing details recorded above;
• does not seem to offer any protection at all for Canadians visiting Bermuda;
• does not liaise with the Bermuda Government on what anti-rape measures or equipment can be imported into Bermuda and duty-free, by Canadian visitors and new working residents or retirees.  

The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service reports include

That Bermuda has 40 members of Parliament (actually, the right figure is 36).

Economic Data (2005)

GDP: C$5.3 billion
Real GDP Growth Rate: 2.5%
GDP per Capita: C$77,372
Inflation Rate: 3%
Unemployment Rate: 2.1%
Total External Debt: US$160 million (March 2003)

Major Canadian Imports from Bermuda: (2005)

• pharmaceutical products $14.5 M
• ores $2 M
• precious stones & metals $0.50 M
• beverages $0.40 M
• machinery $0.10 M

Major Canadian Exports to Bermuda: (2005)

• iron/steel products $14.5 M
• furniture and bedding $11.1 M
• machinery $6.5 M
• wood $6.1 M
• electrical machinery $4.9 M

Canadian Direct Foreign Investment in Bermuda: $13.5 billion (2005)*
Investment in Canada: $2.5 billion (2005)*
Visitors from Canada: 28,700 (2005)**
Visitors to Canada: 18,972  (2005)**
Bermudians Resident in Canada: 1,845¹
Bermuda Immigration to Canada: 27 (2004) (according to country of last permanent residence)

Bermuda basics

General Election 18 December 2007

Between The Progressive Labour Party (PLP) - in Government since 1998 - and United Bermuda Party (UBP) - in Opposition. The PLP remained as the Government by winning 22 seats to the UBP's 14. The UBP lost several key seats.

Canadians employed in Bermuda

Quite a few do so. Canadian men and women in other occupations are more numerous in Bermuda's Civil Service and private sector than any other nationality and have the highest professional profile of any non-Bermudian group. They are very welcome but do not have the same freedoms here in residing and working without restrictions as they have elsewhere. Canadians visiting Bermuda on business or vacation or as professional newcomers cannot get Bermuda citizenship or vote or buy real estate at the same price as Bermudians - unless they marry Bermudians. Any children born here are not legally Bermudian unless one parent is Bermudian. Many products are three times more expensive in Bermuda than in Canada.

Canadian Provinces, by name and motto

Average Population Density is 9 per square mile.

Province	Population	Total area, square miles
Alberta	2.70 million	255,287
British Columbia	3.72 million	365,948
Manitoba	1.11 million	250,947
New Brunswick	738,173	28,355
Newfoundland	551,792	156,649
Nova Scotia	909,282	21,425
Nunavut	24,730	818,959
Ontario	10.75 million	412,581
Prince Edward Island	134,557	2,185
Quebec	7.14 million	594,660
Saskatchewan	990,237	251,866
Northwest Territories	39,862	503,951
Yukon Territory	30,766	186,661

In this webfile

We show in alphabetical order a profile of organizations and individuals who have contributed significantly to Bermudian and Canadian history. For Americans who go to Canada from the USA, we also link to the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC. On July 1, 2000 Saul Froomkin, Queen's Council, a former Attorney General of Bermuda, was appointed Canada's Honorary Consul to Bermuda. This was requested by Canada in 1999.

Air Canada in Bermuda since 1948

In September, 1946 the Canadian carrier Trans Canada Air Lines (the forerunner of what is now Air Canada) sent a 5 hour survey flight aloft from Montreal to Bermuda, to determine the practicality of such a service. On board an early, not pressurized and noisy version of the Canadair North Star passenger air liner was a party of Trans Canada senior executives including the airline's President, Mr. Gordon R. McGregor. It had been decided by the Board of TCA that the time was not yet ripe to begin scheduled services to Bermuda, at least not without permission to carry passengers to Bermuda from the United States, which could only be obtained by inter government negotiation. But in 1948, it formally began its Montreal Toronto Bermuda route. At the same time, it established for itself and other airlines then serving Bermuda the air to ground communications systems in Bermuda, Goose Bay in Labrador and Gander in Newfoundland then so essential for transatlantic safety of air passengers. Today, Air Canada plays a major role in Canada Bermuda business and tourism. It is the British Commonwealth's most frequent 'flag carrier' and serves Bermuda on a year round daily basis.

Bermudian Canadian Association (BCA) in Toronto

Its 25th anniversary celebrations in late 2006 were heralded by a gala dinner dance. More than 200 guests attended the event at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Toronto, including over thirty members and friends of the Pembroke Community Club’s (PCC) Terpsichorean Dance Group. The celebration had the personal blessing of the Mayor of Toronto, David Miller, and Premier of Ontario Province, Mr. Dalton McGuinty. Its first meeting was held in Scarborough, Ontario, initially as the Bermuda Social Club, with their first activity a Guy Fawkes party in November 1981. Its success helped them decide to change the name to the Bermudian Canadian Association. Its logo is a Bermuda Moongate encircled by the name of the association set against a background of palm trees with long tails flying over what looks like a lush green and white depiction of Horseshoe Beach. The Bermuda and Canadian flags fly on each side of the Moongate.

Bermuda Canada connection began in the late 16th century

Englishman Henry May was a passenger on a French vessel commanded by a Monsieur de la Barbotiere. It left Laguna, on Spanish held Hispaneola, on November 30, 1593. Seventeen days later, the crew thought they were well beyond the dreaded "Isle of Devils" of Bermuda and got their "wine of height."  At midnight on December 16, the ship struck a reef off Bermuda and only twenty six, including May and Barbotiere, reached shore. With carpenters' tools and tackle for cedar trees, they built a seaworthy craft of 18 tons and caulked her seams with lime and turtle oil. They caught birds, turtles and wild hogs as food as castaways.

On May 11, 1594 they sailed their Bermuda made craft to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, in 9 days. May got to England two months later, to recount his experiences in Bermuda. But Bermuda was left uninhabited while the Marquis de la Roche established a short lived French colony on Sable Island off Nova Scotia in 1598

17th and 18th century Canada, New England and Bermuda links

French explorer le Sieur de Champlain (Samuel Champlain de Brouage) sighted Bermuda in 1600. He coasted near the South Shore and carried away impressions of high land (the hills were then crowned by forests). He wrote of a "mountainous Island difficult to approach from the dangers that surround it. It almost always rains there and thunders so often it seems as if heaven and earth were about to meet. The sea is tempestuous and the waves as high as mountains." In 1603 French explorer Pierre Du Gua de Monts was the first European to establish a municipality in Canada. He obtained a monopoly on Acadian commerce when he established Port Royal, now Annapolis Royal, in Nova Scotia in 1605. 

In 1608, Champlain founded Quebec, courted Indian traders and imported French missionaries. In 1748, British regular troops, with Canadian and New England militia, seized the French fortress of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia.

Bermuda and Canada in the "Star Spangled Banner"

In 1814 a British Fleet sailed from Bermuda, to attack and burn Washington; then attacked Fort McHenry in Baltimore. During that engagement, Francis Scott Key wrote the words of the Star Spangled Banner, as a temporary detainee on one of the British warships. The fleet's voyage ended in Halifax, where slaves rescued from the Chesapeake area were promptly set free.

Bermuda Trolley Company Limited

As early as 1910, a Canadian corporation attempted to bring regularly scheduled, motorized public transportation to Bermuda and went so far as to form the Bermuda Trolley Company Limited. Unfortunately, nothing came from it as there was a bitter altercation between some of its principals and various people in Bermuda that reached its climax in 1924 when an entirely separate entity, the Bermuda Railway Company, was formed. Had the Canadian owned Bermuda Trolley Company not been interfered with, it would have brought public motorized transportation to Bermuda far earlier than when such train services finally began in Bermuda in the 1930s.

Boer War 1901 to 1902

There were Canadian sympathizers and followers among the 4,400 or so Boer War prisoners shipped by Britain from South Africa to Bermuda and confined here, on several islands in the Great Sound, from 1901-1902, until repatriated. Also, many of the children of the Boers once held in Bermuda emigrated to Canada. Family members continue to visit Bermuda in the 1990's, researching exhibits and records on their forebears during their Bermuda confinement.

Canada began Bermuda's insurance industry

Canadian life insurance companies were the first to send representatives to Bermuda in the 1880s - and the first to sign agency agreements in Bermuda. Thus they take some credit for what became 70 years later Bermuda's second most important industry after tourism - Bermuda's insurance dominated International Business Administration operations.

Canada Mortgage & Housing Corporation

In 1973, it was the model for the birth of the Bermuda Housing Corporation, a Bermuda Government quango, now under the Bermuda Housing Act 1980. In 1973, it was charged with the responsibility of ensuring Bermudians have adequate and affordable places to live.

Canadian exports to Bermuda

Bermuda is Canada's biggest exports customer on a per capita consumption basis. Less than three decades ago, when Saguenay Shipping and other services supplied Bermuda directly from Canadian ports, Canada's share of Bermuda's total imports was much greater than it is now.

Canadian professional and public education in Bermuda

The Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants is the only governing, regulatory and examining body for all Bermuda's chartered accountants. Many of the following Canadian organizations of chartered accountants have personnel working for public or private sector employers in Bermuda.

Canadian private schools and universities

Many Bermudians have graduated from them - see Education in Bermuda and of Bermudians abroad. Much of the Department of Education's policy planning owes its origin to Canadian initiatives.  

Canada stone in Bermuda's Cathedral

From Nova Scotia in the 1880's and 1890's came stone for Bermuda's Anglican Cathedral in Hamilton and several other prominent buildings.

Canadian Army in Bermuda in the Great War and World War 2

Many Bermudians served in the Canadian Army (or were attached to Canadian Army units), Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Canadian Air Force during the war.

Canadian Forces Station Bermuda from 1963

Canadian Government Merchant Marine Service to Bermuda

In June 1922, the Canadian Government Merchant Marine, a government financed operation, inaugurated a Montreal to Bermuda to West Indies service, with Halifax replacing Montreal in the winter months. The vessels Canadian Fisher and Canadian Forester were employed on the run. In 1925, following a trade agreement between the Canadian Government and a number of British Atlantic and Caribbean colonies, the Canadian Government undertook to provide the necessary shipping links to enhance Canadian exports and took over the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company route (referred to earlier) in 1926.

Canadian Navy in Bermuda, World War 2

From the very beginning of World War II in 1939 for Britain and Canada, the Royal Canadian Navy established an Anti-Submarine warfare training base in Bermuda, under Royal Navy auspices. (At that time, part of it was at Casemates Barracks, the building which later served as Bermuda's main prison in the Bermuda Royal Navy Dockyard). It spread eastwards to Convict Bay in St. George's Parish, with the establishment in 1944 for one year of HMCS Somers Isle. Royal Canadian Navy ships played a major role in the War of the Atlantic. And when Britain signed its "50 Destroyers for Bases" deal with the United States, once again HM Dockyard in Bermuda and the equivalent in Halifax were "twinned" historically and strategically, as in the first 50 years of the 19th century. Thousands of Royal Navy officers and men were conveyed from Bermuda to Halifax to take over 50 previously mothballed American naval ships. 

Canadian National Steamships "Ladyboats" serviced Bermuda

Following the Canadian Government's participation in Bermuda's shipping services from 1925-1926, the Canadian National Steamships Company was established by Act of Parliament in Ottawa in 1927, to consolidate shipping services from Halifax and Montreal to Bermuda and the West Indies. On Saturday, December 15, 1928, the first of five newly built gracious "Ladies" steamed into Bermuda. She was the Lady Nelson. Her sisters Lady Hawkins and Lady Drake followed on December 21 and January 14, 1929, to establish a fortnightly service.

The trio were designed for a combined human and commodity service to the eastern Caribbean, with 218 passengers apiece in three classes and their holds designed to bring sugar from the Caribbean to Canada. Although they were known as the "Lady boats," they were "sugar ships," named after wives of famous British admirals. In April, 1929, they were joined by two "banana boats." The Lady Somers (after the wife of Admiral Sir George Somers who colonized Bermuda) and Lady Rodney served the western Caribbean and Bermuda with 130 passengers and special refrigerated holds for bananas from Jamaica to Canada. Their introduction increased the frequency of the Bermuda schedule of the Lady boats from fortnightly to weekly.

On their southbound voyages from Montreal or Halifax and Boston, depending on the season, the Lady boats would often bring more than just cargo and passengers for Bermuda. Sometimes they brought water too, for King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. They served Bermuda well until World War II. During World War 2, all these vessels were requisitioned for war service and three were torpedoed and sunk. Two of the original five Canadian "Lady" boats - the Lady Nelson and Lady Rodney - resumed their services from Halifax and Montreal in 1947 to Bermuda and the West Indies and continued until the end of 1952, when the service was discontinued and the ships sold.

Canadian National Steamships 'Ladyboat' carried Duke and Duchess of Windsor from Bermuda to Bahamas in 1940

It was on one of the Canadian National Steamships' 'Ladyboats' much loved in Bermuda that the Duke of Windsor and his wife, the former Wallis Warfield Simpson, sailed in 1940 from Bermuda to Nassau, Bahamas, where the Duke became the wartime Governor of the Bahamas. Much has been made of the effective wartime exile of the Duke and Duchess from Britain in television documentaries in recent years, but nothing has been said correctly of how exactly they got to Nassau.

Canadian newspapers and business and information resources with links to Bermuda

They include:

• Calgary Herald Online.  
• Daily News, The. Halifax.
• Edmonton Journal Extra
• Halifax Herald Limited
• Montreal Gazette. 
• Ottawa Citizen  
• Toronto Star
• Toronto Sun
• Vancouver Echo - East Vancouver's newspaper.
• Vancouver Province   
• Vancouver Sun

Canadian products in Bermuda

Many are available, especially in the food stores. The leading food store, the MarketPlace, has the very good line of President's Choice products, all made in Canada. Because Canada does not have a tax on salaries of Canadians domiciled in Bermuda like the USA has a tax on its citizens in Bermuda, or charge a tax on investment income for non-residents like the USA does, good investments of all kinds in Canada are attractive for expatriates and Bermudians. Mutual funds based in Canada are also attractive when compared to Bermuda and elsewhere. Insurance rates of Canadian companies may be attractive to those working in Bermuda.

Canadian sculptors at Bermuda Cathedral

In the late 1960's, two Canadian sculptors finished off the figures of Christ, His mother and the Saints, for the Cathedral's reredos, left unfinished by artist Miss Byllee Lang on her death at the end of 1966. Thanks to Jerry Lang at j329jlang@hotmail.com we know that Byllee Lang was also a Canadian citizen. She was born in Alberta and raised on her father's ranch near Didsbury, Alberta. She graduated from the Ontario College of Arts. She established a private school of Sculpture in Winnipeg in 1936. She first arrived in Bermuda in about 1946. She was a recognized, accomplished and gifted sculptor who also studied in Munich, Berlin and Paris before moving to Bermuda. Her work was twice selected to represent the Commonwealth abroad.  She was a member of the Manitoba Society of Artists; Sculptor's Society of Canada and the Federation of Canadian Artists. She was not only a devoted patron of the Arts in Bermuda, but also a prominent figure in Canada-Bermuda History.

Canadian street lamps first lit up the town of Hamilton in Bermuda

In 1874, the Corporation of Hamilton acquired its first street lamps for Hamilton. Two were ordered from Halifax, Nova Scotia, at a cost of $17.25 each. Erected on ten foot posts, they burned kerosene and gave off a light equal to fourteen candles. They proved so satisfactory that the Corporation later increased the order, to illuminate Front Street and the intersections of other streets.

Canadian Trade Exhibitions in Bermuda

In 1988, 1989 and 1991, Canadian Trade Exhibitions were held in Hamilton. Local importers and consumers saw samples of Canadian products. On several occasions, the University of Toronto Press - which has published many books by Bermudians and local organizations - has donated new editions to the Bermuda Library.

Canton, Samuel

A prominent Bermuda based silversmith, born circa 1794. His much prized extant silver work was from two periods of his life in Bermuda, before and after he joined the British Canadian military forces of the Earl of Durham during the Papineau Rebellion in Quebec. He returned to Bermuda at the same time as the French Canadians were exiled there.

Castine Fund 1814

From the British Canadian attack on New England during the War of 1812-14 came the lucrative Halifax based Castine Fund of 1814, based on income from British possession of the US Customs port of Castine (now Maine, then in Massachusetts), a major beneficiary of which was Dalhousie College. Now Dalhousie University, it has educated many Bermudians. Sadly, most Bermudians, Canadians and Americans these days are completely unaware of the Castine Fund.

City of Hamilton's General Post Office

For this building, built in 1966-67, Canadian steel was employed. At one time in 1966, a dock strike in Montreal caused delays of shipments to Bermuda, necessitating a month's delay in completion of the structure in 1967.

Colonel (later Brigadier General) James Robertson Arnold

One of the two sons of Revolutionary War American traitor and British patriot Benedict Arnold. American born, he was exiled to Canada with his father and family when very young and educated at King's College School. He wanted to avenge his father's humiliation in America, so he joined the British Army. He sailed from Halifax and was the first Royal Engineer to fortify, in 1816, the new HM Dockyard in Bermuda against any invasion threat from USA. His success was such that he was posted to Halifax in 1818 to do the same thing for the Citadel.

Earl of Durham, Governor General of Canada

He is best known in Bermuda for his action in 1838 in deporting, in chains, nine prominent French Canadians, lieutenants of the Papineau Rebellion, to Bermuda as political prisoners. They became Bermuda's famous French Canadian Exiles. Their history began in 1830, when a successful revolution in Belgium and its counterpart in France fueled the passions of the French Canadian rebel Louis-Joseph Papineau for a French Canadian enclave, La Nation Canadienne, with the province of Quebec as La Patrie, under British protection but separate and distinct from all other British subjects. In 1838, these French Canadians, whose love for their original mother country, her language and traditions was such that they fought for French rights in the ill fated Papineau rebellion, were captured and initially imprisoned in Quebec. Then, in a dispatch to London of June 29, the Earl of Durham advised he was deporting them from Canada, under sentence of death if they ever returned there. They were officially exiled to Bermuda, in much the same way the British Government had exiled the deposed French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte to St. Helena.

Durham qualified his report with his rationale for choosing Bermuda as the place of exile. His view was that Bermuda, unlike other penal colonies, would not affix a character of moral infamy on them to make them - as they might become in Australia - centers of trouble as political martyrs. Thus they arrived in Bermuda, as the island's first 'political prisoners.' One June 29, 1838, they were herded in chains on board the warship HMS Vestal commanded by Captain Carter, whom Vice Admiral Sir Charles Paget, based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, had appointed to escort the condemned men to Bermuda with a letter to Bermuda's Governor, Sir Stephen Chapman, to explain the circumstances. When they were freed later the same year, several went first to Louisiana, the most French of all American states. The full story of these 'Exiles' may be of considerable interest to French nationals, French speaking Canadians and Americans with French family connections.

Francis Gore

He was Lieutenant Governor of Bermuda in about 1804. Then he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1806 to 1817. He had a niece called Elizabeth Gore.

French Canadian Exiles in Bermuda

They were Wolfred Nelson, Rodolphe des Rivieres, Bonaventure Viger, Robert Shore Milnes-Bouchette, Henri Alphonse Gavin, Toussaint Goddu, Simeon Marchessault and Luc Hyacinthe Masson, all of the province of Quebec. As political prisoners in Bermuda, not convicts, they were not put on the notorious Bermuda based Prison hulks. They rented a cottage in Hamilton, on what is now Church Street, a property then referred to as "Exiles' Cottage." They charmed Bermudians during their 14 week stay, as physicians, musicians and human beings. Their release from Bermuda was ordered by the House of Parliament in London, in defiance of the Earl of Durham. They then went to the USA. Their technically illegal period in Bermuda triggered major reforms in British political administration, in Canada, Bermuda and the rest of the British Empire. Much later, when finally allowed to return home, their leader, Dr. Wolfred Nelson, was elected as a two term Mayor of Montreal.

General Sir George Arthur (1784-1854)

A Napoleonic Wars veteran, he was Lieutenant Governor of Tasmania, the Empire's principal penal settlement, for 12 years. He instituted humane reforms in the convict transportation system. Then he became Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. His was made a baronet in 1841, served as Governor of Bombay, India, and was appointed as the first ever Governor General of India, but died in 1854 before he assumed the office. He was the great grandfather of Bermuda's 1951 Colonial Secretary, the Hon. O. R. Arthur.

Governor Henry Hamilton

Bermuda's capital city of Hamilton is named after Bermuda's Lieutenant Governor, then Governor, Henry Hamilton who had many links with Canada. Earlier, he was a senior British Army officer and served with distinction at Louisbourg and Quebec during the Seven Years War (French and Indian War). Following the passage in Britain of the Quebec Act, 1774, he was Lieutenant Governor of Detroit (where he became infamous in American historical records as the "Hair-Buyer of Detroit" for his support of British led Indians slaughtering and scalping American rebels during the Revolutionary War). Then he was Lieutenant Governor of Quebec (1782-1785), before his Bermuda posting.

Halifax and Bermuda

• From 1781, it supplied virtually all Bermuda's food and lumber. With the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which ended the American Revolution, the British were left with only Halifax as a North American Royal Navy base. As Sir Guy Carleton (later Lord Dorchester) evacuated British and Loyalist forces from New York, he realized the value of a new naval base, less prone than Halifax to American reprisal.
• Halifax-based Royal Navy started British mail service to Bermuda. Not until 1807 did vessels make regular calls to Bermuda. The Royal Navy's Commander in Chief, Atlantic, based in Halifax during the spring and summer, demanded and got a mail service to carry his dispatches while he was wintering at Bermuda. British Post Office packets were ordered to call at Bermuda from Falmouth, England, en route to New York during the four winter months. This service was discontinued during the War of 1812-14. It was long before the Royal Canadian Navy was established (1910).
• Halifax was the inspiration for HM Dockyard, Bermuda. From Halifax in 1809, the British Admiralty branched out to Bermuda to construct the Gibraltar of the West, the Dockyard on Ireland Island.
• Halifax- Bermuda 1812-14 war-time mail service. During this war, there was such a need for regular communication between the Royal Navy bases at Halifax and Bermuda that a monthly mail service began between the two ports, using the Royal Navy's brigs or sloops. These also carried passengers and supplies on occasions. They replaced the pre-war British postal packets that carried the mails from Falmouth, England, to Bermuda and then New York.
• Halifax-Bermuda links improved the mail service. In 1827, the mail service linking England with Bermuda, New York and Halifax underwent a further improvement. British Post Office packet vessels from Falmouth, England, included Bermuda as the turn-around point, with calls at Halifax both outbound and inbound.
• Halifax sent Bermuda's first bank and currency notes in 1863. The Merchants' Bank of Halifax (later, the Royal Bank of Canada), established in Halifax in 1864, opened an agency in Bermuda in 1882 via the local Butterfield's Bank. On October 6, 1883, it issued its own money for use in Bermuda. It began circulating a $5 Canadian note printed by the American Bank Note Company in Ottawa for its bank in Halifax and converted to a one pound, one shilling (guinea) note for use in Bermuda. This Canadian/Bermudian note has considerable historical value as the first "Bermudian" paper money to arrive in Bermuda; some 31 years before Bermuda got its own official currency notes. Later, the Merchants' Bank of Halifax divorced itself from Butterfield's Bank in Bermuda and ran its own branch bank in Bermuda for four years. Thus it also became the first (and only) non-Bermudian bank in Bermuda. Later yet, the Merchants' Bank of Halifax's Bermuda operation was bought out by banking newcomers in Bermuda who established from it the present day Bank of Bermuda Ltd.
• Halifax-based Pickford & Black assumed the Halifax-Bermuda shipping run. In 1888, two years after Cunard's Halifax Bermuda service was canceled, the Cunard vessels Alpha and Beta, which had been operating on the Halifax Bermuda West Indies run, were sold to Halifax's Pickford & Black. The Alpha was used to provide a monthly Halifax Bermuda Turks Island service, until she was replaced by a refitted Beta in 1897.
• Halifax- Bermuda Cable Link of 1890. The Halifax Bermuda Submarine Cable Link of 1890 made a decisive impact on Bermuda's tourism and commerce. For the first time in its history, via this feeder line, Bermuda was no longer dependent on slow ships to carry messages. The island could communicate almost instantaneously by cable and telegraph with the rest of the world's major cities hooked up to Trans-Atlantic and over-land cable systems. More than any other event, this launched Bermuda's Golden Century in economic development and paved the way for Bermuda's unique image in tourism, banking development, legal services, International Business and the latter's support services today.
• In 1889, Pickford & Black of Halifax introduced a second Bermuda service, from St. John's in New Brunswick and Halifax, via Bermuda and the Windward Islands, to Demerara, British Guiana, using the vessels Tayworth Castle and Duart Castle. This continued until 1913.
• Today, this university town probably hosts more Bermudians annually for scholastic purposes than any other place in North America, but direct scheduled flights between Halifax and Bermuda are only once a week, via Air Canada. See Airlines Serving Bermuda.

Hon. Sir Francis Forbes

He was Bermuda's most distinguished native son jurist, son of the well known Doctor Forbes whose family had emigrated from Scotland in the early 1700s. Dr. Forbes received his training in Edinburgh and was a distant cousin of Lord John Forbes. He became wealthy enough to acquire land in north east USA which was confiscated during the American Revolution and never returned. Francis Forbes was born on Smith's Island in St. George's Harbour, Bermuda and raised in the historic Town of St. George. After serving as Bermuda's Attorney General, he was appointed Chief Justice of Newfoundland. He served there from 1816-1821, before he became the first ever Chief Justice of the huge Colony of New South Wales, Australia. He died there and many Forbeses in Australia can be traced directly to him.

Hugh Allan and Allan Line

Competing with Samuel Cunard was another Canadian, Hugh Allan, founder of the Allan Line, who, from 1852 until the Allan Line's absorption by the Canadian Pacific Company did more than any other man, except for Cunard, to promote the growth of sea borne commerce to and from Canada, including to Bermuda and the West Indies.

JD Irving

The famous Canadian dynasty, the Irving family, has a major offshore corporate base here in Bermuda. A $6 billion empire, it controls huge business concerns in New Brunswick. The 125-year-old dynasty has a number of JD Irving Limited Bermuda-registered entities, and the Island became the final home for company patriarch Kenneth Colin Irving before he passed away in 1992. Since then it has been Mr. Irving's three sons JK, Arthur and Jack, all in their 70s, who have overseen the various elements of the business, which includes media, oil and energy, and forestry. The Irving family is the third richest in Canada.

John Dunscombe

In 1816, with the dockyard in Bermuda taking shape, the Bermuda Government invested in a permanent residence for the resident Royal Navy Admiral. It purchased the Dunscombe estate at St. John's Hill (renamed Clarence Hill in 1822 in honor of His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence - and, later yet, known as Admiralty House) for three thousand pounds sterling and made it a gift to the Crown. John Dunscombe, the owner of the property before then, emigrated with his funds to Newfoundland and eventually became Lieutenant Governor. During his administration, the brick and stone foundations that replaced the old timbered structures were laid of Newfoundland's capital city, St. John's, named after his former Bermuda home.

John Henry Lefroy

Lieutenant General Sir J. H. Lefroy, two term Governor of Bermuda from 1871, deserves a special place in joint Bermudian and Canadian history. After a scientific stint on the island of St. Helena, during which he was an eyewitness to the disinterment of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte's body for removal to France, his "On the Meteorology of St. Helena" was published in London in 1841 and undoubtedly contributed to his posting to Canada almost immediately thereafter. From 1841 to 1853 he was a British Army captain on an extended special assignment in Canada, the first Director of the Toronto Magnetic Observatory, an institution which in time led to the establishment of the Meteorological Service of Canada, later the Atmospheric Environment Service, now part of Canada's Department of the Environment. During that 12 year period, Lefroy studied and wrote on magnetic disturbances, explored 6,000 square miles of country from Toronto to Hudson's Bay on snowshoes and by canoe - and established his reputation as a geographer and eminent meteorologist. Later, a peak in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, Mount Lefroy, was named after him. Some of his Canadian inspired published works include books on Magnetism, Barometric Pressure, the Aurora Borealis, Lunar Influences and Magnetic Surveys. Some years later, he was appointed Governor of Bermuda and distinguished himself, particularly in encouraging more trade and commercial links between Bermuda and Canada - and in writing the most detailed history of Bermuda's earliest colonial years ever written. A son emigrated to Toronto.

Lester Pearson

During Word War II, this distinguished Canadian was a diplomat turned "Intrepid" controller and intelligence expert. In that capacity, he was in and out of Bermuda on several occasions. Later, he became Prime Minister of Canada.

Louis St. Laurent in Bermuda for 1957 "Summit Conference"

As Prime Minister of Canada, he was a participant in the "Big Three" 3 Power Summit Conference held in Bermuda in March, 1957. It was the first of what later became a succession of full Summit Conferences held locally. This first conference was after the 1956 Suez Crisis. Other attendees were British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and American President Dwight Eisenhower.

Modern office buildings in Hamilton

In 1987-1990, for the building of Bermuda's most modern major office blocks in the vicinity of City Hall Square in Hamilton, almost 100% of the construction materials came from Canada.

Newfoundland and Bermuda

Bermudians did not confine their fishing, hunting for turtles and whaling to home waters, they went for cod off the Newfoundland Banks with 34 sloops of 30-60 tons, manned by 8-10 men and a Newfoundlander pilot. In 1787-1788, Newfoundland complained to London. Bermudians were forbidden to further violate the terms of the Treaty of Paris, 1763. Bermuda's Governor Henry Hamilton had to ensure this was obeyed.

Nova Scotia Command lost Bermuda

Until 1868, British Army units stationed in Bermuda were part of the Nova Scotia Command. On March 14 of that year, the 15th Regiment, then at Saint John, New Brunswick - was ordered to Bermuda and arrived on April 25.

Nova Scotia sent valuable materials during American Civil War

Much has been written and televised about Bermuda's role during the American Civil War. It depended greatly on Canadian shipping support and supplies, principally from Nova Scotia. Bluenose windjammers sailed from Halifax and were never subjected to blockade by the Union Navy en route to Bermuda or the Bahamas. One reason was that other Nova Scotians were on the Northern side - and very helpful in supplying goods for the Northerners and volunteers for Northern armies, in complete contrast to the strongly pro South attitudes in Bermuda . Most of what Nova Scotia ships brought to Bermuda and the Bahamas was supercargo, trans-shipped in Bermuda by the blockade runners for the run to Southern ports.

Princess Louise of Canada put Bermuda on the tourism map

In 1998, Bermuda held the first ever exhibition of water colors by Her Royal Highness the Princess Louise Caroline Alberta (1848 to 1939), the fourth daughter and sixth child of the nine born to Queen Victoria (1819 to 1901) and Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emmanuel, Duke of Saxony. Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819 to 1861). She was Bermuda's first official tourist in 1883. The two big local Princess Hotels are named after her. The first was the Hamilton (or Pembroke) Princess built originally in the late 1880's but modernized since and then known as purely The Princess. The real Princess consented to the name. She was present for the grand opening and named the hotel. She put Bermuda on the map of tourism with her fame and stature. Before she became a prolific and talented artist, she was a trained sculptor. Her husband from 1871 was the Marquis of Lorne from Scotland who later became the 9th Duke of Argyle. It was because of his Royal Appointment as Governor General of Canada that she was able to visit Bermuda, not just once in 1883 but several times later. 

She much preferred the much warmer winter climate of Bermuda to that of Canada. With her appreciation of the military, home she loved in Scotland, the Guard of Honor it provided for her wedding and the artwork she did for it, one of Scotland's most famous British Army units, The Argyllshire Regiment, was renamed to honor her. It carried her insignia for many years in its own - and served in Bermuda for two years under the old name in the late 1920s before it became The Argyllshire Highlanders.

(Sadly, the battalion that went to Bermuda has been credited in the official regimental records in Stirling Castle as having served in Jamaica instead, 1,000 miles further south.

The leading Canadian organization which owns a number of the watercolors she painted while she was in Bermuda (and lent them to Bermuda for a 1999 exhibition) is the National Gallery of Canada. With its cooperation, the paintings were shown at the Bermuda National Gallery.

Quebec & Gulf Ports Steamship Company service to Bermuda

This began in January, 1874 as a New York -Bermuda run, with the S.S. Canima. The company retained its contract until World War I, providing larger and improved ships. Its last steamer, the S.S Bermudian, was withdrawn as a troopship following the outbreak of the war. After the war, the Bermudian was sold to the Furness Withy Line which took over the service and was renamed the Fort Hamilton. Interestingly, two of the Bermuda Government's fleet of inshore vessels, operated by the Department of Marine & Ports, continue to be named the Canima and Bermudian, in tribute to those two great old Canadian ships.

Rear Admiral George Murray

In May 1794, after war was again declared in 1793 between Britain and France, more British naval vessels were needed in the western Atlantic to deter French privateers. Rear Admiral George Murray sailed from Plymouth, England, with a Royal Navy squadron. It reinforced the few frigates based at Halifax under Commodore Rupert George. Cruising that summer off the Chesapeake Bay and the Carolinas in search of French vessels, Murray needed a base for his patrols during the winter. 

Lieutenant Thomas Hurd RN, A marine surveyor, had charted the waters of Canada's Atlantic and Gulf of St. Lawrence. He was sent to Bermuda, to sound existing channels through the reefs and find new ones prior to the building of a British naval base in Bermuda. He began his surveys in the late 1780s and completed them in 1792.

In early October that year, on his flagship HMS Resolution off the American coast, Murray was told of Lieutenant Hurd's surveys and findings in Bermuda and dispatched the 32 gun frigate Cleopatra, under Captain Penrose, to Bermuda to bring back a report and charts from Hurd. What they revealed impressed Murray so much that he called at Bermuda himself before his return to Halifax in the spring. Murray sent Penrose and the Cleopatra back to Bermuda in February, 1795, to pick up French prize crews, during which time Penrose made his own glowing report of the facilities Bermuda could offer. Murray ordered Penrose to rendezvous with him at Bermuda in May, 1795 and was so further impressed with what he saw personally, as well as in the reports of Captains Penrose and Pender (of HMS Resolution) and Lieutenant Hurd, that he enclosed them with his own report to the Admiralty dated May 27, 1795.

Reginald A. Fessenden

Canadian, he married a Bermudian, Helen Trott, made the island his home and became headmaster of Whitney Institute School. He was the "Father of Radio Broadcasting" from 1900 and was inducted into the USA's National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio, in September, 2000. Bermuda historian William S. Zuill is a nephew of Helen Trott. The link continues today with the award of annual Fessenden-Trott Scholarships.

Rebecca Middleton

On July 3, 1996 this 17-year old Canadian visitor from Belleville, Ontario, was abducted, kidnapped, brutally stabbed, cut 35 times, beaten, tortured, gang raped repeatedly and viciously, sodomized, brutalized and murdered in Bermuda by Bermudians. It was the worst, most brutal, most animal sexually-depraved, most violent and inhuman racial murder of any woman anywhere in the world. 

Read more about the details of the case and what the Canadian, UK and Bermuda Governments have not done, in Bermuda Laws.

Regular broadcasts from Canada of Canadian News and Television

Every Sunday at 10:25 am and again in the late afternoon on VSB Radio AM/FM, there is a popular radio broadcast News About Canada, by Belleville, Ontario based, veteran Canadian journalist John Ferguson, a former Bermuda based radio executive. Here is his Belleville radio station. He comes to Bermuda at least once every year, on holiday or business or both. Canadian television, via cable and satellite, is also popular. See the list on Bermuda Cablevision.

Royal Mail Canadian Government shipping service to Bermuda

In 1913, the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company signed a contract with the Canadian Government to operate the service formerly run by Pickford & Black of Halifax with its Tayworth Castle and Duart Castle. Vessels employed in the new Royal Mail service were the Canadian ships Cobequid, Caraquet, Chignecto and Chaleur. The Cobequid was wrecked on her first voyage and the Caraquet came to grief on a Bermuda reef in 1923.

Samuel Cunard began monthly Halifax Bermuda mail boat service

In 1833, the mail carrying packet vessels terminated at Halifax, instead of Bermuda and Samuel Cunard of Halifax was awarded a contract by the British Admiralty to provide a monthly mail boat service between Halifax and Bermuda. This was his first trans-Atlantic service before his shipping line expanded hugely and later became world famous. It continued to Bermuda until July, 1886.

Samuel Cunard and his New York - St. Thomas - Bermuda service

In November, 1850, Samuel Cunard of Halifax introduced his steam packet service from New York to St. Thomas, with a call at Bermuda in both directions. Annoyed that his passengers had only sparse hotel accommodations in Bermuda, he threatened to withdraw his ships. It was why Bermuda's first luxury hotel, the Hamilton Hotel, was built by the Corporation of Hamilton. But the New York portion of the service was not a commercial success compared to his earlier Halifax Bermuda direct service and was canceled in May of 1854. In May 1854, Cunard extended his direct Halifax Bermuda service. This route remained in place until January, 1880, when a number of West Indian islands replaced St. Thomas as ports of call. In 1865, knighted for his services to British shipping and pioneering the Halifax Bermuda direct route earlier, he died in London. His son assumed the helm of the Cunard shipping empire. In May 1854, Cunard extended his direct Halifax Bermuda service. This route remained in place until January, 1880, when a number of West Indian islands replaced St. Thomas as ports of call. 

Sir William Stevenson

Canadian born, he headed the "Intrepid" organization which included 1500 British censors and censorettes stationed in Bermuda during World War II.

Southampton Princess Hotel

In 1972-74, when the Southampton Princess was built as Bermuda's biggest hotel, almost 100% of the construction materials came from Canada.

Tax haven countries for Canadians

Bermuda (CA$7.3 billion in 2005) is a main country of choice. Others are Barbados (CA$27.3 billion in 2005) Cayman Islands (CA$7.8 billion in 2005), Panama (CA$331 million in 2005). 

Toronto, Town of York and Bermuda

It is not well-known throughout Bermuda or Canada that Jarvis was the family name of persons who founded in about 1792 what was originally the little town of York, in Ontario. It was a consolation prize for being Loyalists during the American Revolution when Jarvis family members were Chief Justices of the Commonwealth of Connecticut in USA. Banned from the USA or facing imprisonment and forfeiture of their property as Loyalists, they went initially to the United Kingdom. After the lengthy British process of adjudicating compensation for British subjects who lost property in the USA, the Jarvis family went to then semi-empty Upper Canada, to found and become prominent in York. Britain's plan was to occupy and populate the area to help counter  what was seen in Britain as a potential future geopolitical centre of importance. It was a prophecy destined to come true with a vengeance during the second Brutish-American War, the War of 1812-14 when the town of York, later known as Toronto, was invaded and burnt after a daring surprise raid across Lake Erie by American forces. 

Fortunately for the United States, Britain, from 1812, was heavily involved in fighting Napoleon. But, on October 19, 1812, Napoleon's armies began its retreat from Moscow and then began to fall apart on the plains of Russia and in the fields of Germany, Spain and Austria. By the beginning of 1813, it became possible for Britain to shift whole brigades of army veterans from the European war-zones to Canada, to join in the fight against the Americans. From that year onwards, the British naval base at Halifax, Nova Scotia was the scene of feverish activity, with men-o'-war, transports and soldiers, American shipping prizes, French prisoners of war and American soldiers in their thousands, captured during British mopping-up operations against those who had failed miserably in their attempt to seize Canada.

The American military action against the town of York and area prompted General Sir George Prevost, Governor of Canada and Commander-in-Chief of British Forces, Canada, to correspond with Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, other Admirals and their Royal Navy ships in the Atlantic, requesting that the latter's ships undertake appropriate retaliatory action to deter the enemy from any repetition of such outrages. The request was taken seriously. In fact, it dovetailed with plans already in effect. In retaliation, in July 1814, a British Royal Navy fleet also packed with Marines and soldiers sailed from England, assembled in and sailed from Bermuda to successfully attack and burn Washington DC. The fleet took many days to make the 700-mile journey, encountered no opposition en route, and slipped into the Chesapeake Bay under cover of darkness. Smaller transports went up the reaches of the tributary Pawtuxent River to land Royal Marines and supporting troops at the river-port village of Benedict, in southern Maryland, a few miles down river from the Prince George's County line and its sleepy little county-seat of Upper Marlboro. In the subsequent overland sortie, the British marched, unopposed, from Benedict to Upper Marlboro, then swung due east for a direct attack on Washington, District of Columbia, only twelve miles away. They routed a hastily convened American army sent to oppose them, stormed into the city on August 25, sent President Madison and his Cabinet fleeing ignominiously for their lives, and burned the White House, the Capitol and other public buildings and stores. Then it attempted the same thing on Fort McHenry in Baltimore. During that engagement, Francis Scott Key wrote the words of what became the Star Spangled Banner, as a temporary detainee on one of the British warships. The melody is from a bawdy British drinking song by a London based composer. The fleet's voyage ended in Halifax, where hundreds of slaves who had lined the shores of the Pawtuxent River in Maryland and elsewhere nearby to implore British troops to help them escape from bondage had been rescued and were also on the British warships cheering on and actively assisting the sailors who had set them free. In Halifax, the slaves were promptly and officially given their freedom by the British.