Ottawa chosen as Canadian Capital

Ottawa chosen as Canadian Capital

The small work city was chosen because the country's new capital on December thirty first, 1857

Parliament Hill, under construction, 1863

Queen Victoria herself was asked to decide on a capital for the province of Canada, that at that point consisted of the 2 colonies of Quebec and Ontario, and there’s a story that she simply stuck a hatpin into a map, between Toronto and Montreal. Another story has her selecting Ottawa as a result of she had likeable landscape paintings of the realm. At the time Ottawa was no over a little work city within the backwoods and definitely the selection appeared impulsive to several Canadians at the time, as Toronto, Montreal and Quebec had all been vying to be chosen, but there were sound reasons for it. The strongest one was exactly that Ottawa wasn't provincial capital or Montreal or Quebec.

On the contrary, it had been the sole settlement of any size on the border between the 2 colonies and their individual in the main French and British populations, that created it a useful compromise that did not obviously favor either of them. Ottawa was also well away from the border with the United States of America, and the War of 1812 had shown how vulnerable the principal Canadian cities were to American attack. A yankee newspaper of the time sardonically remarked that Ottawa was safe from attack as a result of any trespasser would wander off within the woods attempting to search out it.

Originally within the territory of the Ottawa Indians, WHO were a part of the Algonquin language cluster, the longer-term capital’s story began once commissioned military officer John By arrived in 1826 in command of a detachment of the Royal Engineers to construct the Rideau Canal to lake. He engineered himself a house and headquarters close to the north finish of the canal, wherever there have been already 2 or 3 log cabins, and a settlement grew up, which was named Bytown after him. It flourished on the timber trade and also the space on the canal’s side, Lower Town, was an energetic, violent shanty city amply furnished brothels, taverns and gambling joints, and inhabited largely by Irish and French labourers, who were Roman Catholics. The additional salubrious higher city on the opposite aspect of the canal in the main attracted English and Scottish Protestants.

The city was renamed Ottawa in 1855, the population had reached 14,000 by 1863 and the handsome parliament buildings on the west side of the canal were opened in 1865. When the Dominion of Canada was established in 1867, Ottawa became the capital of all Canada, and it's currently the country’s fourth largest town.