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Ottawa, 1857–1860: the making of Canada's capital city on the eve of Confederation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2021
Abstract
Canadian historiography has long regarded the choice and elaboration of Ottawa as a capital city in the mid-nineteenth century as a political compromise between Ontario (Canada West) and Quebec (Canada East). This article suggests that this view be reconsidered in the context of Canada's expansion westward and the dispossession of Indigenous lands. The key goal of this article is to provide a comprehensive analysis of transforming Ottawa into a capital city in 1857–60, including not only its choice as the seat of government but also the elaboration of Canada's Parliament Buildings, which were to become the key symbol of its future statehood, as well as the visit of the prince of Wales to Ottawa in 1860. The prince's visit allowed the city to be legitimized and inaugurated as the new seat of government.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press.
References
1 Library and Archives Canada (LAC), Carnarvon papers, questions of Federation of the British North America, copy of a dispatch from Lieutenant-Governor the Hon. John H.T. Manners-Sutton to Sir Edward Bulmer-Lytton, 10.
2 A non-exhaustive review of recent general accounts of Canadian history only confirms this statement. The history of Ottawa as the (future) site of Canadian government is not mentioned or only receives a fleeting mention in most of them. See, for example, Creighton, D., Dominion of the North: A History of Canada (Toronto, 1958), 297Google Scholar; Morton, W.L., The Critical Years: The Union of British North America 1857–1873 (Toronto, 1964), 14–17Google Scholar; Nelles, H.V., A Little History of Canada (Oxford, 2004), 124Google Scholar; Bothwell, R., The Penguin History of Canada (Toronto, 2006), 212Google Scholar; Conrad, M., A Concise History of Canada (Cambridge, 2012), 150–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar, etc.
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12 For the planning aspects, a must-read is D. Gordon, Town & Crown: An Illustrated History of Canada's Capital (Ottawa, 2015).
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17 LAC, Carnarvon papers, papers relative to the seat of government in Canada, Colonial Office, Oct. 1857, 11–43.
18 Toronto also sent a second ‘Memorandum to the policy and justice of continuing the seat of government for the Province of Canada at Toronto’. See LAC, papers relative to the seat of government in Canada, 22.
19 For the issues related to political, social and economic history of Canada in the nineteenth century, one should see D. Creighton, The Empire of Saint Lawrence: A Study in Commerce and Politics (Toronto, 2002); and P.B. Waite, The Life and Times of Confederation 1864–1867 (Toronto, 1962).
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21 Ibid., mayor of Toronto to Labouchere, 15 Jun. 1857, 21.
22 Ibid., Memorial of the City of Quebec, 25 May 1857, 14, emphasis added.
23 Ibid., 15.
24 At the end of the memorandum, however, Head recognized that he ‘may be expected not to avoid the responsibility of expressing an opinion of [his] own’. See LAC, papers relative to the seat of government in Canada, 46.
25 LAC, Carnarvon papers, further papers relative to the seat of government in Canada, 24 Oct. 1857, 2–13.
26 Ibid., 18, emphasis added.
27 Ibid., mayor of Ottawa to Labouchere, 41, emphasis added.
28 For details, see Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online), ‘Philip Michael Matthew Scott Vankoughnet (1822–1869)’.
29 Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec (BAnQ), Collection nationale, ‘Hon. Mr. Vankoughnet in Ottawa’, Gazette, 9 Sep. 1856. The publication was probably reprinted partially or entirely from the Ottawa Citizen, or summarized in a free form as it indicates ‘from the Ottawa Citizen’ in its sub-title.
30 LAC, Carnarvon papers, papers relative to the seat of government in Canada, confidential memorandum by Sir E. Head, containing reasons for fixing the seat of government for Canada at Ottawa (undated), 44.
31 Ibid., 46.
32 For the general history of the Ottawa River and Ottawa valley, see, for example, J. Finnegan, Guide to the Ottawa Valley: A Cultural and Historical Companion (Kingston, 1988). For the history of the Rideau Canal, see R. Legget, Rideau Waterway (Toronto, 1986; orig. publ. 1955); and R. Legget, Canals of Canada (Vancouver, 1976).
33 Toronto Public Library, Baldwin Collection, Report of Walter Shanly, Esquire, on the Ottawa Survey. Submitted to the Legislative Assembly for their Information (Toronto: T.J.J. Loranger, 30 Jul. 1858).
34 Ibid., 8 and 20.
35 Ibid., 12.
36 Ibid., 9.
37 Ibid., 8.
38 Ibid.
39 Ottawa, the Future Capital of Canada, 13.
40 Ibid., 18.
41 Ibid., 17.
42 LAC, seat of government memoranda and letter, 1857–58, Prince Albert to Labouchere (handwritten manuscript), 18 Dec. 1857.
43 Woods, N., The Prince of Wales in Canada and the United States (London, 1861), 157Google Scholar.
44 Ibid., 159.
45 Gordon, Town & Crown, 89.
46 LAC, appendix to report of the honorable the commissioner of public works, documents relating to the construction of the Parliamentary and Department Buildings at Ottawa, sessional papers, volume 2, First Session of the Seventh Parliament of the Province of Canada, session 1862 (volume XX).
47 Ibid.
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50 Young, The Glory of Ottawa, 26.
51 A vast number of publications were dedicated to the 1860 tour. The ones consulted for the purpose of this research include: R. Cellem, Visit of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to the British North American Provinces and United States in the Year 1860 Compiled from the Public (Toronto, 1861); P.-O. Chauveau, The Visit of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to America, Reprinted from the Lower Canada Journal of Education, with an Appendix Containing Poems, Addresses, Letters, &c (Montreal, 1861); K. Cornwallis, Royalty in the New World; or, The Prince of Wales in America (New York, 1860); G. Engleheart, Journal of the Progress of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales through British North America and His Visit to the United States, 10th July to 15th November, 1860 (London, 1860).
52 For secondary sources related to the tour, see, in particular, I. Radforth, Royal Spectacle: The 1860 Visit of the Prince of Wales to Canada and the United States (Toronto, 2004). See also the comparative essay by P. Buckner, ‘The invention of tradition?: the royal tours of 1860 and 1901 to Canada’, in C.M. Coates (ed.), Majesty in Canada: Essays on the Role of Royalty (Toronto, 2006).
53 Cellem, Visit of His Royal Highness, 10.
54 BAnQ, Ottawa Citizen, 1 Sep. 1860, 2.
55 Chauveau, The Visit of His Royal Highness, 63.
56 Cornwallis, Royalty in the New World, 129–30.
57 Cellem, Visit of His Royal Highness, 187.
58 Chauveau, The Visit of His Royal Highness, 40.
59 Engleheart, Journal of the Progress of H.R.H., 72; Cellem, Visit of His Royal, 167; Cornwallis, Royalty in the New World, 118.
60 Cellem, Visit of His Royal Highness, 167.
61 For details, see Government of [the Province of] Ontario ‘The Algonquin land claim’, Timeline, Ontario.ca, last consulted on 1 Feb. 2018.
62 I. Austin, ‘Vast Indigenous land claims in Canada encompass Parliament Hill’, New York Times, 12 Nov. 2017.
63 For more on the ‘garrison mentality’, see Frye, N., ‘Conclusion to a literary history of Canada’, 1965, in Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination (Concord, ON, 1971), 213–51Google Scholar.
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65 LAC, Carnarvon papers, confidential memorandum by Sir E. Head, 44.