Rising Tide Halifax, Nova Scotia, leads a new wave in Canadian Soccer

by Mark Bessoudo
Photographs by Rafe Ayub and Scott Pettigrew

The Maritimes used to be a desert. Not in terms of its climate or environmental history but in terms of something far more important and consequential: soccer. With a rising tide of fan support and player development and the arrival of two new professional teams, that desert has started to bloom.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the only way for Canadians to follow the sport was by tuning in to TSN’s Soccer Saturday or World of Soccer, the lone programs recapping the previous week’s matches. The FIFA World Cup might have piqued Canadians’ interest every four years but only as curious outsiders fascinated by something so foreign and exotic.

Soccer wasn’t entirely absent from the region during this period. Atlantic Canada hosted several important international fixtures, from Olympic qualifiers in Saint John to a World Cup qualifier in St. John’s. (Legend has it that, for the deciding qualifying match for the 1986 FIFA World Cup against Honduras in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Honduran fans missed the match because they flew to Saint John, New Brunswick, by mistake — which may have been a factor in helping Canada win.) Saint John and St. John’s also hosted the 1987 FIFA U-16 World Championship, while Moncton, New Brunswick, hosted matches for the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup and 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

As recently as the 2000s, though, most Canadians still couldn’t tell Manchester United from Manchester City, a red card from a yellow card, or Ronaldo from Ronaldinho. But then something began to shift: soccer started to outpace hockey as the country’s most popular sport in terms of participation. This growth, however, was limited to youth and recreational play. And when professional leagues did emerge, development programs remained concentrated around Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Closer to home, though, something was stirring. There was an appetite for more.

Over the last decade, the centre of gravity for Maritimes soccer has shifted to Nova Scotia, thanks to the emergence of two professional clubs: HFX Wanderers FC of the men’s Canadian Premier League and Halifax Tides FC of the women’s Northern Super League. Beginning play in 2019 and 2025, respectively, these clubs have set new benchmarks for how Canadian clubs can connect with their local communities. Playing at the Wanderers Grounds, tucked among the Halifax Commons, Citadel Hill and the Public Gardens, the clubs have re-energized the local sports scene.

“Soccer in the Maritimes has changed quite a bit over the years,” says Tides FC interim head coach Stephen Hart. The Trinidad-born international got his start in Halifax, playing for the Saint Mary’s Huskies in the early 1980s before joining the King of Donair soccer club — yes, that King of Donair — of the Nova Scotia Soccer League. He later coached at the national level, most notably as head coach for the men’s national team from 2009 to 2012. In 2019, he returned to Halifax as the Wanderers first head coach before taking charge of the Tides this year.

Hart recalls that, early in his career, soccer thrived mainly within Greek, Italian and Portuguese communities. There was a growing youth program but few pathways beyond that. Without quality facilities or high-performance programs, the best players had to leave for the United States or Europe to develop their skills. There had been earlier attempts at professional soccer in the Maritimes, most notably the Nova Scotia Clippers, who played a single season in the short-lived Canadian Soccer League in 1991. But without the infrastructure, fan culture or national stability the sport enjoys today, that experiment fizzled out. “For a while, it felt like the sport was dying here,” says Hart. “The introduction of the Wanderers came at the right time and changed all that.”

Now, the Wanderers run a successful U-21 program, and the Tides have just launched their own academy, giving young players a reason to stay. “Local females, especially, didn’t have anyone to look up to apart from the women’s national team,” Hart adds. “But now it’s at home. Now it’s part of the community.”

For Hart and others, the real story isn’t just on the field; it’s how the clubs have woven themselves into the fabric of local life. That proof is in the stands.

The Wanderers’ official supporters group, Privateers 1882, was formed in 2018, even before the team was founded. That level of passion was one reason Halifax landed a Canadian Premier League franchise, says Keara Turner, who sits on the group’s board of directors. They intentionally structured themselves after European supporters groups, adapting the traditions that fit while crafting something distinctively local. Their matchday rituals often stretch into full-day events. Fans gather at nearby pubs before marching together along South Park Street to the Wanderers Grounds, drums pounding, smoke billowing and flags waving. “You can hear us from blocks away,” says Turner. “People will often stop to watch and chat with us because they’re not used to seeing something like that.”

The location of the Wanderers Grounds in the city centre amplifies the atmosphere. “These matches bring so much to downtown Halifax,” Turner says. “They’re good for business too because they can draw fans from across the Maritimes who stay for another day or two.”

Demetrius Ferguson, a leading member of another group, Block 108, describes similar matchday rituals: meeting early to set up flags and banners, then gathering at a pub before marching together to the stadium for kickoff. “While the fans can be a bit ‘North American’ at first” — I take this to mean quiet, calm and collected — “we are definitely not a ‘sit down’ kind of group,” says Ferguson. “We try to get the whole stadium into it. We rile them up.”

Hart jokingly describes Halifax soccer matches as “the best over-40s party in town,” though the atmosphere is as inclusive as it is energetic.

“Our group is a melting pot, bringing people together of different ages, personalities, cultures, backgrounds. None of us would have met if it weren’t for football,” says Ferguson. “That’s what the Maritimes are all about: bringing people together. Football spreads happiness. Those few hours are something we can all look forward to every week.”

That enthusiasm hasn’t gone unnoticed. Canadian soccer legend Christine Sinclair, the world’s all-time leading international goalscorer, once called Halifax’s fan base “crazy — in the best possible way.” Even The New York Times praised the city’s “consistently fervent crowds.”

Amit Batra, sporting director for the Tides, says that connection between club and community is central to the team’s mission. “This was a year of learning for us, but we want the fans to know how much we appreciate them. Rewarding their support is our motivation on the pitch.”

If the fanbase gives the clubs their voice, the players give them their future.

Batra, who previously coached at Acadia University and Mount Saint Vincent University, has long focused his efforts on developing homegrown talent. He hopes the club’s new academy will expand across the region in the near future, strengthening the player pathway.

The pinnacle of this holistic approach might be the Spanish club Athletic Bilbao, which only signs players of Basque descent or those trained in the Basque Country of Spain and France. A similar model will soon be tested closer to home: FC Supra du Québec, an expansion club based in Laval set to join the Premier League next season, plans to recruit players exclusively from the province of Quebec. Their motto says it all: “Un club d’ici, pour ici” (A club from here, for here). For now, it’s overly ambitious to imagine a Nova Scotia club adopting that kind of approach, but the idea points to what’s possible when local identity and deep roots in the community become part of the game.

That same spirit of local pride and development is already visible in the next generation.

One local success is Tides defender Annika Leslie. Raised in Halifax, she came through the youth system with Halifax City SC before earning a place on Canada’s U-15 national team, the only Nova Scotian on the squad. It was an early sign of the gap in development opportunities across the country. To improve her game further, she had to move to Ontario, later playing NCAA soccer at West Virginia University before representing Canada at the U-20 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica.

Joining the Tides this season brought her back full circle. “Playing in front of a hometown crowd was a big part of why I signed here,” she says. “I knew that Halifax fans would show up no matter what.”

She and the few other Nova Scotians on the Tides reminisce about their shared experience of having to leave the province to grow, and the privilege of returning. It is closing that gap — by creating a continuous development pathway from youth leagues to the professional level — that is central to both clubs’ long-term vision.

Still early in her career, Leslie is conscious of her role as a model for the next generation. “One of my favourite parts is seeing more and more kids, both girls and boys, lining up for autographs after matches,” she says. “When I was growing up, that’s something I would’ve loved.”

Leslie’s generation is coming of age just as Canadian soccer itself hits new peaks. The women’s team, after back-to-back Olympic bronze medals in 2012 and 2016, finally struck gold in 2020. The men’s team qualified for the 2022 FIFA World Cup — the first time in 36 years — and finished top of the CONCACAF standings, ahead of perennial favourites like the United States and Mexico. With Canada set to co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup and players like Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David starring on top clubs in Europe, the world has started to pay attention.

Even on that global stage, Nova Scotia has made its mark through Jacob Shaffelburg. The 26-year-old from Port Williams (population 1,100) now stars for Nashville SC of Major League Soccer and is part of Canada’s national team.

Like other talented players before him, Shaffelburg grew up in the Nova Scotia soccer system but left for New England at 15 before joining youth clubs in Kansas City, New York and Toronto. In 2018, he returned to Halifax for a one-off match between an Atlantic Selects side and Germany’s Fortuna Düsseldorf U-21s. He came off the bench to score a late equalizer and the winning penalty before an adoring hometown crowd at Wanderers Grounds. On the national team, he’s scored key goals for Canada at the 2023 Gold Cup and 2024 Copa América, earning him the nickname “Maritime Messi” — a comparison he humbly laughs off.

Despite his success away from home, Shaffelburg still wears his provincial pride on his sleeve: “I try to make Nova Scotia proud every time I step on the field,” he told reporters earlier this year. He often returns home in the off-season to work with youth programs, and he was instrumental in bringing Canada’s men’s national team to Halifax for the first time, holding open training sessions at Wanderers Grounds in their lead up to the 2025 Canadian Shield tournament in Toronto.

While the future of Maritimes soccer looks bright, its long-term health may depend on the rest of Canada. Hart worries not about Halifax but the wider league. “The sport lives on community support,” he says. “If you don’t have that in the stands, then you don’t get commercial interest. Halifax is thriving, but other teams, and the league as a whole, need to build stronger community ties.” The best way, he says, is to follow Halifax’s example: to locate clubs in cities that do not have to compete for attention with other pro teams like they do in Toronto and Vancouver. “It’s the smaller cities that are better for the league.”

Turner agrees. “My hope is that Halifax can be a model for the rest of the country,” she says, pointing to Moncton and St. John’s as potential locations for expansion. “The Atlantic Provinces are perfect for this league. Not just because of our size, but because of who we are.”

As the rest of the country gears up to co-host the 2026 World Cup, Halifax has already shown what the game can look like when rooted in place. Here, soccer lives in the noise, the camaraderie and a belonging that feels unmistakably local. In a region once thought too small for the big leagues, it turns out the heart of Canadian soccer might just beat loudest by the sea.

Halifax Tides FC — tidesfc.ca
HFX Wanderers FC — canpl.ca/hfxwanderersfc