I notice you never gave his name. There are pretty active genealogical societies in Canada that cover Nova Scotia. I'm actually a DNA match with a family that has roots there, but we haven't discovered the connection yet. You might find a birth in Scotland, going to Scotland's People
http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/You'll have to make an account. Being born in 1857 means you should be able to find him on the statutory registers. Knowing his parents names would make it easier. You buy credits in bunches and then spend them, 1 for search results and 5 for a record. So you want to be fairly sure you have the person you want before spending the credits.
Once you know where in Scotland he came from you might get a better idea of why they went to Nova Scotia... might have been with a group.