Hello and welcome to Best Of Maclean’s.

How a N.S. physician turned artist put down new roots on family land 

Jonah Samson grew up on a wild stretch of seaside in southern Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. For many generations, his family lived in Louisdale, a tiny, working-class fishing village. His great-grandfather was a lighthouse keeper, and his grandfather, an electrician, kept a sprawling garden that Samson would help tend in the summer, watching in wonder as seeds sprouted into plants. 

This memory tugged at Samson 30-odd years later. He’d bounced around Europe and lived in Halifax and Toronto before settling down in 2004 as a successful family physician and artist in Vancouver. By then, Samson’s father had divided the Cape Breton land between his four children. “My brother had already built a house right next to my parents, and then my sister built a house right next to him,” says Samson. “We essentially have a family commune all the way down the road.” He’d been living in a 600-square-foot condo and dreaming of more space to garden. In 2013, he moved to Nova Scotia, becoming the fourth Samson to build a house on the family land, and worked at a community health centre in L’Ardoise, a village about a 30-minute drive away. 

Continue reading

On newsstands now: 

The Year Ahead: Our Guide to 2023

Read expert predictions on what’s to come in 2023 in health-care, food, entertainment, housing and more! 

Also in this issue: 

• A revealing interview with Supreme Court Justice Michelle O’Bonsawin
• A new kind of solar panel that just might change the world and the Canadian teen who invented it
• Inside the A-Frame cabin of your dreams

Check it out