Saint John

The Wolastoqiyik lived along the river they called Wolastoq and still live in and around the city; they called the harbour area Menahkwesk, and the Mi'kmaq came to the coast to hunt seals. Samuel de Champlain landed at the harbour on 24 June 1604, the feast of St. John the Baptist, and named the river after him. Under the French the harbour was a centre of trade and defence for Acadia, and Fort La Tour was a battleground in the Acadian Civil War. After a century of disputes the British deported the Acadians in 1755, rebuilding the French Fort Menagoueche as Fort Frederick, and after American privateers burned it they built Fort Howe above the harbour.

From May 1783 more than 10,000 Loyalist refugees arrived within months, with more than 3,300 Black Loyalists among them. On 18 May 1785 a royal charter united Parr-town and Carleton on opposite sides of the harbour as the City of Saint John, the first incorporated city in what is now Canada. Black residents faced restrictions on trade, fishing and voting, and most settled in Portland, the north end. Immigration made Partridge Island North America's first quarantine station; in 1847, the worst year of the Irish famine, some 16,000 immigrants, most of them Irish, arrived there.

Between 1840 and 1860 sectarian violence brought some of the worst urban riots in Canadian history, cholera killed more than 1,500 people in 1854, and in 1877 the Great Fire destroyed 40 per cent of the city and left 13,000 homeless. The city was rebuilt in brick and stone. In the 20th century the Irving family built an industrial empire here; the shipyard closed in 2003, and in 2016 Moncton overtook Saint John as New Brunswick's largest city.

Saint John was founded by Loyalists, but the Irish who came through Partridge Island in the famine years left an equally deep mark on its people and culture. Its museums range from the New Brunswick Museum, Canada's oldest continuing museum, to the Loyalist House, the Saint John Jewish Historical Museum and the New Brunswick Black History Society's heritage centre in Brunswick Square, which tells the story of the Black Loyalists and their descendants.

The arts play a large part in the city's economy. The Imperial Theatre on King's Square, a vaudeville house of 1913 where one of Canada's first comedy troupes, the Dumbbells, staged early shows, hosts plays and concerts. Music festivals have long been part of the scene, from the provincial music festival held here each spring in the early 20th century to the Area 506 festival on the harbour and the Quality Block Party, which puts independent New Brunswick musicians in small Uptown venues. Films and series have been shot in the city.

Junior hockey is the main spectator sport: the Saint John Sea Dogs of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League play at TD Station in Uptown. Brewing is part of the city's identity, from Moosehead, founded in 1867, to newer craft breweries such as Picaroon's and Big Tide.

Saint John had about 70,000 people at the 2021 census, spread over a large municipal area of about 316 square kilometres, and about 131,000 in its metropolitan area. Uptown is the most densely populated part; the North End, South End, West Side and East Side spread out around the harbour and the rivers.

Industry still sets the tone. The east side has Canada's largest oil refinery and the country's largest dry dock, and Irving companies remain the dominant employers, with a deepwater oil terminal, pulp, paper and tissue mills, and stakes in forestry, shipbuilding, media and transport. The port is Canada's third-largest by tonnage and receives around 80 cruise ships a year. More than 80 per cent of the refinery's exports go to the United States, which made the US tariffs of 2025 a local concern; Irving announced that tariff costs on its oil would be absorbed by US customers.

Salmon aquaculture has become a major regional employer as wild fisheries declined. The Saint John campus of the University of New Brunswick, Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick and the community college add students and health workers, and Uptown's offices, market and pubs keep the centre busy on weekdays.

The City Market is the heart of eating in Saint John: under its ship's-keel roof traders sell fruit and vegetables, fresh seafood and local coffee, and its side aisles serve salads, sandwiches and local fare to Uptown office workers. Fundy seafood — lobster, scallops and salmon from the region's fish farms — appears on restaurant menus, and dulse, a seaweed harvested on Grand Manan and eaten in the Maritimes, is a well-known snack.

New Brunswick cooking also brings fiddleheads, young curled fern shoots picked in spring, and Acadian dishes such as fricot, a stew of potatoes, onions and meat topped with dumplings, from the province's French-speaking communities. Ganong chocolates have been made in St Stephen, near the US border, since the 19th century.

Beer is the city's drink. Moosehead, founded in 1867 and still run by the Oland family, is Canada's oldest independent brewery, and craft brewers such as Big Tide and Picaroon's continue a long local tradition. Uptown's restaurants include brewpubs, Thai and Indian kitchens and seafood places, and Market Square gathers several dining rooms by the harbour.