Fact du jour — First newspaper in Canada published on this day in history

On March 23, 1752, John Bushell started publishing Canada’s first regular newspaper, the Halifax Gazette. At the time, Halifax had a population of 4,000, and Bushell had recently arrived from Boston.

The first newspaper published in Canada was the 'Halifax Gazette' on March 23, 1752. Source: Nova Scotia Archives, http://www.novascotia.ca/archives/gazette.

The first newspaper published in Canada was the ‘Halifax Gazette’ on March 23, 1752. Source: Nova Scotia Archives, http://www.novascotia.ca/archives/gazette.

The two-page tabloid featured news from Britain, Europe, New England, and the other British colonies to the south and contained public notices, ads from booksellers and wholesalers, notices about slave auctions, and poems and elegies.

Today’s successor newspaper, the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, is the oldest existing newspaper in North America.

On its website, Nova Scotia Archives writes: “Of all the copies printed by John Bushell on 23 March 1752, only one remains. On June 20, 2002, Library and Archives Canada announced the acquisition of the first issue of the Halifax Gazette from the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston.”

You can view the first issue of the Halifax Gazette and some of the subsequent issues up to 1780 on Google News Archive.

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