Chapter 6The Physical and Administrative Setting

Ottawa as the Seat of Government

In 1857, Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the seat of government for the Province of Canada. This followed years of intense rivalry among the elected representatives of the pre-Confederation colonies of Upper and Lower Canada, who could not agree on a permanent site.¹ The itinerant Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada met in several different cities, beginning with Kingston in 1841. In 1844, it moved to Montreal where it remained until 1849 when the legislative building was burned by rioters.² Thereafter, a system was adopted under which the Assembly met alternately in Quebec City and Toronto before finally settling into its permanent home in Ottawa, where it met for the first time in 1866. With the advent of Confederation the following year, the capital of the Province of Canada became the national capital, in compliance with the Constitution Act, 1867, which states that “the Seat of Government of Canada shall be Ottawa”.³ Accordingly, the Parliament of Canada assembled in Ottawa on November 6, 1867 for the First Session of the First Parliament.

1.: For a complete history of the selection of Ottawa as the capital city, see Wilfrid Eggleston, The Queen’s Choice: A story of Canada’s capital (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1961), pp. 98–110.
2.: During a time of political and economic crisis, protest coalesced against the governor’s assent to the Rebellion Losses Bill (compensating losses suffered in Lower Canada during the 1837 rebellion). There were days of rioting, in the course of which an angry mob invaded the Parliament Building. The building burned on April 25, 1849, and very little was saved. See J. M. S. Careless, The Union of the Canadas: The Growth of Canadian Institutions, 1841–1857 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1967), pp. 122–6.
3.: (UK), 30 & 31 Vict, c 3, s 16, reprinted in RSC 1985, Appendix II, No 5 [Constitution Act, 1867]. The choice of Ottawa as the national capital is reflected in the Quebec Resolutions of 1864, adopted by delegates from the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and the colonies of Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, and the London Resolutions of 1866, adopted by delegates from the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The Quebec Resolutions, 1864, and the London Resolutions, 1866, may be found in Maurice Ollivier, British North America Acts and Selected Statutes, 1867–1962 (Ottawa: Queen’s Printer, 1962), p. 47, s 52; p. 58, s 51.

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