North Sydney (Mi'kmawi'simk: Kweso'mkiaq, Scottish Gaelic: Suidni A Tuath[2] or Am Bàr[3]) is a former town and current community in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Regional Municipality.

Marine Atlantic ferries currently operate from North Sydney's terminal to the ports of Channel-Port aux Basques and Argentia.

It emerged as a major shipbuilding centre in the early 19th century, building many brigs and brigantines for the English market, later moving on to larger barques, and in 1851 to the full-rigged Lord Clarendon, the largest wooden ship ever built in Cape Breton.

Wooden shipbuilding declined in the 1860s, but the same decade saw the arrival of increasing numbers of steamships, drawn to North Sydney for bunker coal.

By 1870 it was the fourth largest port in Canada dealing in ocean-going vessels, in part because the Western Union cable office had been established here in 1875.

In 1898 North Sydney was chosen by the Reid-Newfoundland Company as the Canadian mainland terminal for a ferry service to Newfoundland; in June of that year the SS Bruce sailed from Port Aux Basques as the first ship to make that run.

It is reported that on the night on November 10, 1918, over 200 servicemen marched through the streets of the town to celebrate the end of the war, one day before the rest of the world knew.

The Kelly's Beach base closed in early 1919 but was reactivated by the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.

During the Second World War, on the night of October 13, 1942, the SS Caribou (a passenger ferry) left North Sydney harbour for Port aux Basques with 237 on board.

Started in 1916, the exhibition was originally based in Sydney and a few years later relocated to its present location at the top of Regent Street.