Canadian Parliament Buildings

This image is from a book written in the 1880s entitled Picturesque Canada. It shows the Canadian Parliament buildings in Ottawa. Construction began in 1859, and the whole was completed in 1865. Before that date, the Capital of Canada was in Quebec City. Ottawa was first known as Bytown until 1855, named after Colonel John By, Royal Engineer who had been in charge of the construction of the Rideau Canal. The word "Ottawa" was derived from Algonquin "Adawe"which was the name of the tribe that had once controlled trade on the river. The French spelling was Outaouais. In 1840 with the Act of Union, the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada were united into one Province of Canada. In the 1860s, delegates from the colonies of British North America (Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland held two conferences to discuss the creation of a new confederation. They met first at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, followed by the Quebec Conference in Quebec City, with the end result being the Confederation of most of these provinces in 1867. The former Province of Canada was divided into the provinces of Ontario (Upper Canada) and Quebec (Lower Canada). New Brunswick and Nova Scotia also joined Confederation. Manitoba and the Northwest Territories joined in 1870, British Columbia in 1871, Prince Edward Island in 1873, Yukon in 1898, Alberta and Saskatchewan in 1905, Newfoundland in 1949 and Nunavut in 1999.

Contact Terri Lefebvre Prince,
Heritage Researcher,
City of Yorkton, Box 400
37 Third Avenue North
Yorkton, Sask. S3N 2W3
306-786-1722 [email protected]