Abstract
This article assesses the conceptualization, construction, and mythologizing of the Canso Causeway, a major post-Second World War reconstruction project that joined mainland Nova Scotia to Cape Breton Island in 1955. Sought after in order to help improve the waning prospects of Cape Breton’s coal and steel industries, the causeway also had a tremendous impact on increasing tourism as a viable industry based on Cape Breton as a traditional but accessible Scottish community. Both tourism and industrial expansion were closely tied to and benefited from a significant policy shift as the federal government began to assume a more interventionist role in regional economic development planning. Résumé Cet article évalue la conceptualisation, la construction et la mythologisation de la chaussée de Canso, un important projet de reconstruction réalisé après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, qui a permis de relier la partie continentale de la Nouvelle-Écosse et le Cap-Breton en 1955. Réclamée pour aider à améliorer les perspectives décroissantes des industries du charbon et de l’acier du Cap-Breton, la chaussée a aussi eu un impact immense en élevant le tourisme au rang d’une industrie viable, le Cap-Breton étant une communauté écossaise traditionnelle et désormais accessible. Le tourisme et l’expansion industrielle ont été étroitement liés à un important changement de cap des politiques du gouvernement fédéral, qui a alors commencé à assumer un rôle plus interventionniste dans la planification du développement économique régional, ce qui leur a été profitable.Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the author(s), with Acadiensis being granted a non-exclusive licence to each and every right in the work throughout the world. After publication of the work, the author(s) shall have the right to self-archive the work and to reprint the work in whole or in part in books authored by or edited by the author(s) without the payment of any fee. In these other formats, however, the author or authors are required to acknowledge the original publication of the work in the pages of the journal. In the case of any requests to reprint the work, Acadiensis will require a standard permission fee -- to be divided equally between the journal and the author. In the event that such requests are received by the author(s), the author(s) shall direct such requests to the journal.