Here's what Andrew DePalma of the New York Times said about Halifax:

"I grew up in a port town where my father and many others like him worked the great ocean steamers, and the waterfront was always present ... I have visited many of the great seaports, and Halifax is alone in North America. It is far more authentic than the totally recreated South Street Seaport in New York. It is more active with commercial liners, container ships and brightly painted lobster boats than the port of Miami. And with the great grey frigates and hulking submarines of NATO often lining the piers, it is just a brawny as the harbour of San Diego without the California cuteness."
Reprinted in Halifax Chronicle Herald Jan. 9, 1998, p. B1.