Thanks...

The flights I am looking at have a small window. Continental is a small player in Portland and has one PDX-EWR flight a day and then about an hour before the flight to Halifax. Is that do-able, a one hour connection from domestic to international?

As for the return that is even messier. The flight is 6:40 a.m. and then into EWR around 8 a.m. How much time needed to clear customs? There is a 10am flight or a 12:30 pm flight to Seattle before I catch a commuter to Portland.

No matter how I look at it the flight options are bad. I may end up driving to Seattle, where I can catch a one-stop Air Canada flight through Toronto, or have some better Continental connections from Seattle. I guess NWA now has a seasonal flight through Detroit, but it is not on when I need to go.