lol. Sorry for the OT rant.
I had a fellow in my cab yesterday from Truro. I told him about my last trip out. Every single thing I lined up before leaving fell through. Lost my shirt. He laughs and says, "Yep, that sounds like a Nova Scotia story." If you are a tourist or have income from out of province its not so bad, and land is cheap. Most of the population are citiots living in Halifax. The rest is in steep decline and rapidly de-populating. There were several properties I looked at that I could have for the price of the property taxes owing. The unlawful bits of the Municipal Government Act (s. 267) and a visit to the municipal "pity palace" were enough to convince me not to.
The south shore is stunningly beautiful. Easy to see why people love it so much and don't want to leave. You can do well there if you make your money elsewhere first then set yourself up A.) for total self-sufficiency and B.) have a good lawyer, substantial lawfare budget & patience for dealing with the commies. If you are young, leave or don't go.
The hunter's federation trying to ban lead shot sounds par for the course.
IIRC deer were introduced and have displaced moose, which is why there is no plan for them. The bears are very plentiful on the south shore and the coyotes are about twice the size of any I've seen elsewhere. While I was there a woman hiker was killed by coyotes in Cape Breton. It was all over the news. But don't you dare carry a guide gun without a hunting ticket. The gun regulations are ludicrous and interpretation varies widely from one office or warden to the next and tend to lean to the most restrictive possible interpretation. I heard enough horror stories I didn't bother hiking around much. Some places it isn't wise to leave sight of your truck without a rifle. The bears are smaller and supposedly not aggressive but there sure were a lot of them. I suspect the regs were written specifically and deliberately to catch as many people up as possible. SOP is don't ever snitch and don't ever get caught.
The gold panning isn't bad. There are Chanterelle mushrooms, caraway, various berries, not bad fishing if you can get your head around the insane/contradictory regulations, and most of the seaweed is edible if you can cook Japanese style. There is nothing like the cheap fresh-water / salt-water tickets we have here in BC and the ocean is barren compared to the Pacific. You won't be going out in the morning and home at noon with buckets of crab, prawns, oysters, clams and mussels and a couple trout, sole & ling cod. (God, I love Chemainus!) I didn't bother with salt water much out east. There is plenty of pine pollen in the spring which I recommend as a testosterone supplement. I suspect the water has VOCs or estrogen poisoning in some places. My last winter there I had no money, so I lived on what I could find or catch for about six months. I did ok. I was one of two able-bodied men in a village of 50-odd welfare crazies and I did have the only functioning vehicle with all the right stickers and plates etc on it (again, crazy bureaucracy. Stuff that governments have fallen for in BC like HST and annual vehicle inspections are passed without complaint here). I also had the only functioning first-aid kit, which is why at one point I had this gorgeous blonde show up at my little cabin in the woods, having severed her own achilles tendon without any help from me. As in most Communist places, barter is everything. Everyone is poor and everyone has stuff that needs fixing if you know how. It's easy to survive there but impossible to do well.
The people out there are very nice, most of them. Met quite a few more on the way home with NS plates on my car.
One thing you'll always find plenty of on the east coast is good stories.
