Nova Scotia becomes the first British colony to implement responsible government
The Honourable Joseph Howe, William James Topley, 1869. Library and Archives Canada, PA-025465
1848
In 1848, guided by newspaper publisher and politician Joseph Howe, Nova Scotia became the first British colony in which the government was accountable to the people through an elected legislative assembly, rather than to a governor appointed by the British Crown. An eloquent and highly persuasive writer and speaker, Howe led a party of Reformers to victory in the 1847 election. He and his supporters could later boast that responsible government had been achieved in Nova Scotia without “a blow struck or a pane of glass broken.”
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