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This week in Canadian media history: Country’s first newspaper published in Halifax in 1752

John Bushell started Canada's first newspaper, the Halifax Gazette, on March 23, 1752. The Gazette would have published sooner, but according to Bushell, there was no local news to be reported. Image courtesy of Newspapers Canada By Eric Mark Do John Bushell started Canada’s first newspaper, the Halifax Gazette, on March 23, 1752. The paper…

John Bushell started Canada's first newspaper, the Halifax Gazette, on March 23, 1752. The Gazette would have published sooner, but according to Bushell, there was no local news to be reported.

Image courtesy of Newspapers Canada

By Eric Mark Do

John Bushell started Canada’s first newspaper, the Halifax Gazette, on March 23, 1752. The paper started as a weekly, printed on both sides of a half-sheet of foolscap paper. The Gazette would have published sooner, but according to Bushell, there was no local news to be reported. The paper was still going strong when Bushnell died in 1761. In fact, it still exists today as the Nova Scotia Royal Gazette, the official government publication. 

Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled John Bushell’s name. 


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Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.