Why Canada’s capital is Ottawa

A capital on the move

In 1841 Britain joined Upper and Lower Canada, today’s southern Ontario and southern Quebec, into one Province of Canada. The two halves, Canada West and Canada East, each kept its own history, society and culture inside one government, with sectional parties and even double ministries.^[1]

They couldn’t agree where that government should sit. It started in Kingston in 1841, moved to Montreal in 1844, and from 1849 took turns between Toronto and Quebec: Toronto in 1849–51 and 1855–59, Quebec in 1851–55 and 1859–65.^[1] In 1856 alone the legislature held 48 votes on the question, and no city won a clear majority.^[1]

Asking the Queen

On 24 March 1857 the Legislative Assembly gave up and asked Queen Victoria “to exercise the Royal Prerogative by the selection of some one place as the permanent Seat of government in Canada.”^[1] The Governor General, Sir Edmund Head, asked the mayors of Quebec, Toronto, Kingston, Montreal and Ottawa to send their cities’ cases to London.^[1]

Ottawa’s was written by the local businessman and politician Richard Scott, with a map showing the town at the centre of the province.^[1] Head had already visited all five and quietly concluded that Ottawa was the only acceptable compromise. In a confidential memorandum he argued it was fair to both halves, defensible, central, and could grow into a proper city.^[1]

Why Ottawa

Ottawa sat on the boundary between Canada West and Canada East, so choosing it favoured neither. A letter to the Ottawa Tribune in 1856 listed the other arguments: it was the strongest military position in the Canadas, at a safe distance from the frontier, and reachable from everywhere by the Rideau Canal and the railways.^[1]

The distance from the frontier mattered. The Rideau Canal, which runs 202 km from Ottawa to Kingston on Lake Ontario, had been built for military purposes, when Britain and the United States were competing for the region, to help defend the colony against the Americans.^[3] The same letter hoped the capital would be “far removed from Republican’s contamination”.^[1]

On 31 December 1857 the Colonial Secretary, Henry Labouchere, wrote to Head that “in the judgment of Her Majesty, the City of Ottawa combines greater advantages than any other place in Canada for the permanent Seat of the future Government of the Province”.^[1]

Not the end of the argument

The Queen’s choice didn’t end the fight. The despatch wasn’t published until February 1858, and when it was, it was greeted with delight in Ottawa and resentment elsewhere. The legislature set the decision aside for years, and Toronto and Quebec kept taking turns.^[1]

Building went ahead anyway. The Prince of Wales laid the cornerstone of the Parliament Buildings’ Centre Block in September 1860, and the last session of the Province of Canada’s parliament opened in Ottawa on 8 June 1866.^[1] A year later, at Confederation, the new Dominion’s constitution settled it: “Until the Queen otherwise directs, the Seat of Government of Canada shall be Ottawa.”^[2]