Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. The ...

, with the largest urban population in

Atlantic Canada Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (french: provinces de l'Atlantique), is the region of Eastern Canada comprising the provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec. The four provinces are New Brunswick, Newfoundlan ...

, is a major sporting centre.

Community sport

The municipal and provincial governments maintain a network of public parks, sports fields, skating arenas, and other facilities throughout urban and rural areas of the municipality. Additionally, many schools in the

Halifax Regional School Board The Halifax Regional Centre for Education (formerly Halifax Regional School Board) is the public school district responsible for 136 elementary, junior high, and high schools located in the Halifax Regional Municipality in Halifax County, Nova Scot ...

and several universities make use of their gymnasiums and sports fields for community use outside of school programs. Ranging from walking trails and provincial parks to tennis courts, swimming pools, shooting ranges and artificial turf soccer fields, Halifax residents have access to virtually every type of sport facility, with organized leagues available throughout the area.

Gaelic sports

The

Gaelic games Gaelic games ( ga, Cluichí Gaelacha) are a set of sports played worldwide, though they are particularly popular in Ireland, where they originated. They include Gaelic football, hurling, Gaelic handball and rounders. Football and hurling, the ...

Hurling Hurling ( ga, iománaíocht, ') is an outdoor team game of ancient Gaelic Irish origin, played by men. One of Ireland's native Gaelic games, it shares a number of features with Gaelic football, such as the field and goals, the number of p ...

and

Gaelic football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

, governed by the

Gaelic Athletic Association The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include the traditional ...

, are played in Halifax. The local team is the Halifax Gaels. The team competes in the Eastern Canada GAA division. Beginners are actively encouraged.

Paddling

HRM's plentiful sheltered lakes in the urban core of Dartmouth and Halifax provide private paddling clubs with some of the best race courses in Canada, in particular

Lake Banook Lake Banook is a freshwater lake located in Dartmouth within the Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is home to three sprint canoe and kayak clubs, two rowing clubs, and a dragon boat club. It also has a claim to be the birt ...

. Lake Banook and all the clubs on the lake hosted World Senior Canoe Kayak Championships in 1997 and 2009. * Mic Mac AAC - Lake Banook * Banook Canoe Club - Lake Banook * Senobe Canoe Club - Lake Banook * Abenaki Aquatic Club - Bell Lake * Cheema Aquatic Club- Lake Charles * Maskwa Aquatic Club- Kearney Lake * Orenda Canoe Club - Lake Echo * Kinap Athletic Club - Porters Lake

Sailing

The

Armdale Yacht Club The Armdale Yacht Club is a yacht club located on Melville Island, at the head of Halifax Harbour's Northwest Arm in Nova Scotia, Canada. The Club's property has a history dating to 1732. Melville Island Since the arrival of European settlers ...

Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron The Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron (RNSYS) is a yacht club, the oldest in the Americas, and is located on the Northwest Arm of Halifax Harbour in Halifax, Nova Scotia. History Originally established as the Halifax Yacht Club in 1837, the c ...

, Dartmouth Yacht Club and Bedford Yacht Club provide organized sailing competitions on a daily or weekly basis throughout the summer sailing season. St. Margarets Bay in the western part of the municipality, along with areas of the Eastern Shore, provide additional support to sailing sport enthusiasts.

Swimming

The city hosts two of the four 50 metre swimming pools in Atlantic Canada: Centennial Pool, built for the 1969 Canada Games, and the pool at Dalhousie University. Smaller 25-metre pools exist at the Dartmouth Sportsplex, the

Canada Games Centre The Canada Games Centre was built for the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Clayton Park, a suburb of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was the venue for the artistic gymnastics, badminton, and synchronized swimming competitions. It is now used as a fitness ...

, Cole Harbour Place, Captain William Spry Centre, Stadplex, Sackville Sports Stadium, the Waegwoltic Club, and the Shearwater Fitness and Sports Centre. There are also several smaller public pools of about 20 metres length. The YMCA in the Spring Garden district is being rebuilt and will include a 25-metre competition pool. The facility is set to open in 2017 or 2018. Several lakes in the city are popular places for swimming in the summer. The city posts lifeguards to the most popular lakes.

University sport

Dalhousie University Dalhousie University (commonly known as Dal) is a large public research university in Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the fou ...

, St. Mary's University and

Mount St. Vincent University Mount Saint Vincent University, often referred to as the Mount, is a public, primarily undergraduate, university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and was established in 1873. Mount Saint Vincent offers undergraduate programs in Arts, S ...

all field varsity and intramural teams for sports, enjoyed by members of the public and university communities. The

Saint Mary's Huskies The Saint Mary's Huskies are the men's and women's athletic teams that represent Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Their primary home turf is Huskies Stadium located in the centre of the University's campus. In September 2 ...

Canadian Interuniversity Sport U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the Can ...

football team is a popular draw, and play their games at

Huskies Stadium Huskies Stadium is a Canadian football stadium at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, home to the Saint Mary's Huskies. It had a promoted capacity of 9,000 to 11,000 that is achievable via temporary seating, but the actual perman ...

. Both Dalhousie and St. Mary's field

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

and

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

teams have a fierce rivalry.

Professional and semi-professional teams

Scotiabank Centre - EXTERIOR - 091914 - Paul Darrow (3)

Hockey teams are the most popular sports draw in Halifax. The

Scotiabank Centre Scotiabank Centre (formerly known as Halifax Metro Centre) is the largest multi-purpose facility in Atlantic Canada, located in the heart of downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The main entrances to the building are located on Brunswick Str ...

is home to the

Quebec Major Junior Hockey League The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (french: Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec; abbreviated ''QMJHL'' in English, ''LHJMQ'' in French) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues that constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The l ...

Halifax Mooseheads The Halifax Mooseheads are a Canadian major junior ice hockey club in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The team was founded in 1994 and began play in the Dilio Division of the QMJHL from the 1 ...

, who usually lead the league in attendance. The Dartmouth Sportsplex hosts the Metro Marauders Junior-A team. The Halifax Wanderers are a professional soccer team playing in the

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; french: Première ligue canadienne, links=no) is a professional men's Association football, soccer league in Canada. At the top of the Canadian soccer league system, it is the country's primary nationa ...

. On August 24, 2006 it was announced Halifax would receive an

American Basketball Association The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major men's professional basketball league from 1967 to 1976. The ABA ceased to exist with the ABA–NBA merger, American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger in 1976, ...

team. The team was known as the

Rainmen The Halifax Rainmen were a professional basketball team based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. They played in the Atlantic Division of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL) and their home games took place at the Scotiabank Centre, form ...

. After one year in the ABA, the Rainmen left the league and joined the

Premier Basketball League The Premier Basketball League, often abbreviated to the PBL, is an American professional men's basketball minor league that began play in January 2008. The league folded after the 2017 season. It was announced that the league would be revived un ...

. From 2011 they played in the

National Basketball League of Canada The National Basketball League of Canada (NBL Canada; french: Ligue nationale de basketball du Canada) is a Canadian professional men's minor league basketball organization. The NBL Canada was founded in 2011, when three existing Premier Basketb ...

until declaring bankruptcy and folding in July 2015. The Rainmen were replaced in late 2015 by the Halifax Hurricanes, based in the Scotiabank Centre. Rumours of a

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

team have been around for decades, with one team, the

Atlantic Schooners The Atlantic Schooners were a conditional Canadian Football League (CFL) expansion team that was to begin play in 1984 in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. However, team ownership could not secure funding for a stadium and the franchise application was w ...

, existing only on paper. The Halifax Regional Municipality has considered lobbying to have a CFL team located in the area, though the proposal has never been formally endorsed by the municipal or provincial governments. Huskies Stadium hosted

Touchdown Atlantic Touchdown Atlantic ( French: ''Touché Atlantique'') is a series of neutral site Canadian Football League games played in the maritime provinces of Canada. In 2003, the league had struck a committee to examine the feasibility of adding a tenth ...

, a CFL exhibition game, in 2005, and planned to host another in 2006, but the suspension of one of the scheduled teams forced the cancellation of the game. The

Nova Scotia Keltics The Nova Scotia Keltics were a rugby team in Halifax, Nova Scotia that competed in the Rugby Canada Super League. They played their home games alternatively at the Wanderers Grounds and Graves-Oakley Memorial Park. History The club was one of t ...

play in the

Rugby Canada Super League The Rugby Canada Super League (RCSL or Super League) was a national, semi-professional rugby union competition in Canada. The league represented the second level of domestic rugby union in Canada, and the highest level wholly indigenous to Canada ...

. On September 13, 2018 the

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

announced it would be expanding into Halifax for the 2019-20 season.

Major tournaments

The city has hosted the

ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships The ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships are an international event in canoe racing, one of two Summer Olympic sport events organized by the International Canoe Federation (the other being the ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships). The World Cham ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

and

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

(both listed as Dartmouth) and will do so in

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

. HRM has hosted the World Junior Hockey Championships, as well as the Brier and Tournament of Hearts curling championships. HRM was selected to host the 2007

World Indoor Lacrosse Championship The World Box Lacrosse Championship (WBLC), formerly known as the World Indoor Lacrosse Championship (WILC), is an international box lacrosse tournament sponsored by World Lacrosse that is held every four years. Since the first tournament in 2003, ...

in May, 2007. National teams from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

, the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

Nation,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

participated. Canada defeated the Iroquois Nation in the final by a score of 21-4. The inaugural World Indoor Lacrosse Championship were held in Hamilton, Kitchener,

Mississauga Mississauga ( ), historically known as Toronto Township, is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is situated on the shores of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, adjoining the western border of Toronto. With a popul ...

, and

Oshawa, Ontario Oshawa ( , also ; 2021 population 175,383; CMA 415,311) is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario, approximately east of Downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of the G ...

in May, 2003. The World Indoor Lacrosse Championship is an

International Lacrosse Federation World Lacrosse (WL), formerly the Federation of International Lacrosse, is the international governing body of lacrosse, responsible for the men's, women's, and indoor versions of the sport. It was established in 2008 by the merger of the prev ...

-sanctioned event. Halifax also co-hosted the

2008 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships The 2008 Men's Ice Hockey World Championships was the 72nd such event hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation. Teams representing 48 countries participated in four levels of competition. The competition also served as qualification for ...

with

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

. In 2015, Halifax hosted the Eastern Canada GAA finals. Teams will compete in

and

Gaelic Football Gaelic football ( ga, Peil Ghaelach; short name '), commonly known as simply Gaelic, GAA or Football is an Irish team sport. It is played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kic ...

. Teams from Quebec, Newfoundland, Ontario and Nova Scotia will be competing. The Halifax Gaels will be hosting the event.

Canada Games

In 1969, the then cities of Halifax and Dartmouth hosted the first edition of the

Canada Summer Games The Canada Games (french: Jeux du Canada) is a multi-sport event held every two years, alternating between the Canada Winter Games and the Canada Summer Games. They represent the highest level of national competition for Canadian athletes. Two ...

. In preparation for the games the cities built a range of new sports venues, including a softball facility, the paddling course at Lake Banook, and the first Olympic-size swimming pool in Atlantic Canada, the Centennial Pool. In February 2011, the city hosted the 2011 Canada Winter Games. Several new facilities were built for the games, including the

and the Emera Oval. The skating oval, originally intended to be temporary, proved very popular with the public and was made a permanent fixture on the

Halifax Common The Halifax Common, in local popular usage often referred to as the Commons, is a Canadian urban park in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It is Canada’s oldest urban park. History The Halifax Common was originally a lightly forested swampy area which fo ...

2014 Commonwealth Games bid

Halifax was selected as the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

bid for the

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

, beating other Canadian municipalities such as

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...

York Regional Municipality, Ontario The Regional Municipality of York, also called York Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, between Lake Simcoe and Toronto. The region was established after the passing of then Bill 102, An Act to Establish The Regional M ...

, and

Ottawa, Ontario Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

. The estimated costs for the games in Halifax were projected at C$800 million, to which the federal government committed $400 million in the fall of 2006. Leaked information projected these costs could escalate to $1.6 billion as the bid committee prepared for submitting the final bid information in May 2007 to the Commonwealth Games Federation. A major cost was projected to be the construction of a 50,000 seat stadium and sports complex, including an athlete's village, on former Department of National Defence property at Shannon Park on the Dartmouth waterfront. Officials had estimated these facilities would cost $163 million alone. Shannon Park was chosen as the most suitable location since it is situated on the

Halifax Harbour Halifax Harbour is a large natural harbour on the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, located in the Halifax Regional Municipality. Halifax largely owes its existence to the harbour, being one of the largest and deepest ice-free natural harbo ...

where proposed high speed ferries could connect to other parts of

Bedford Basin Bedford Basin is a large enclosed bay, forming the northwestern end of Halifax Harbour on Canada's Atlantic coast. It is named in honour of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford. Geography Geographically, the basin is situated entirely within th ...

and the downtown central business district, as well as being situated astride several major highways and a rail line. On March 8, 2007 the provincial and municipal governments issued a joint statement withdrawing Halifax from the bidding process for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, citing the projected costs to public finances and lack of available funding. Halifax's withdrawal left two remaining bids under consideration:

Abuja, Nigeria Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...

and

Glasgow, United Kingdom Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. The Commonwealth Games Federation announced at a meeting in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

on November 9, 2007 that Glasgow would host the 2014 Games.

References

{{Halifax Regional Municipality