Encyclopedia > New Brunswick Equal Opportunity program
The Equal Opportunity program in the Canadianprovince of New Brunswick was created to ensure equal services would be provided to citizens in all parts of the province regardless of the wealth in the area.
Prior to the implementation of this program, New Brunswick's health and education systems were governed and funded by county governments. The result was far superior social systems in cities and other rich areas.
LiberalLouis Robichaud had grown up in a poor, rural community on New Brunswick's east coast and set out to change this when he became Premier in 1960.
Under Equal Opportunity, county governments were dissolved and the province assumed responsibility for education and health care.
NewBrunswick's relative location away from the Atlantic coastline hindered new settlement during the immediate post war period; although there were some notable exceptions such as the founding of "The Bend" (present day Moncton) in 1766 by Pennsylvania Dutch settlers sponsored by Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia Land Company.
The situation in NewBrunswick was worsened by the Great Fire of 1877 in Saint John and by the decline of the wooden sailing shipbuilding industry.
NewBrunswick was part of the original Acadia; it was colonized by the French in the 18th century, then captured by the British, who expelled the French-speaking Acadians in 1755 and incorporated the area into Nova Scotia.
NewBrunswick's forests are still filled with bear, deer, and moose, and the rivers abound in trout and salmon, although pollution from paper mills has reduced the salmon population.
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