Building for a New Canada / Construire un nouveau Canada

In 1860, construction began across the river on Canada’s Parliament Buildings. The choice of Ottawa as the permanent capital had been fiercely disputed as recently as 1857, after Queen Victoria selected what many critics saw as a ramshackle and remote town. Politicians demanded the decision be reversed, the Governor General lamented exile to the wilderness, and an American journalist joked that invaders would get lost in the forest trying to find the capital. Ottawa proved a brilliant choice, standing at the confluence of English and French cultures. The site also reflected an earlier chapter in the region’s history: in 1826, the Royal Engineers and two companies of the Royal Sappers and Miners arrived to build the Rideau Canal, first living in tents and later in stone barracks of a British military depot on what is now Parliament Hill. In 1916, a great fire destroyed the central building of Canada’s original Parliament Buildings, leaving only the large circular library standing.

Ontario · Canada