Why is Ottawa the capital of Canada?

When asked to name Australia’s capital city, most people would answer Sydney or Melbourne. Strangely, their capital city is not one of their most populated or famous; it is actually Canberra. A city that is barely known by the masses. Because Capital cities are generally the center of nations, it’s strange that unknown cities have been chosen for some countries. Most historical countries, like France, Italy and England have all chosen capital cities at the heart of their empires.

Newer countries like Australia and Canada, have not chosen their largest and more prosperous cities as their nation’s capital. Canada chose not to make Toronto or Montreal their capital. Why did Canada settle on a city that outsiders have never heard of?

Before Canada was even founded, each of their provinces operated independently. This approached was changed when the United States attacked Canada in 1812. In order to defend against this American threat, the provinces were unified into one single country. 

The new legislature was comprised of 84 members. But Canadians still had not found a place to house this newfound parliament. The seats were divided into two equal sides of french and english. The reason the parliament was set-up with 42 seats of each side, was to avoid favouritism to the english or french provinces.

The same no-favouritism approach to choosing a capital, is what planted the seed to what Ottawa has become today. The government at the time send constant requests to Queen Victoria to choose a new capital for Canada.

The cities that made the list, were Toronto, Quebec City, Montreal, Cobourg and Kingston. Some cities built massive town halls that brought them into crippling debt. But none of these cities were chosen.

Eventually, Queen Victoria chose a tiny town with 16,000 people that wasn’t the center of Canada by any means, but was the perfect compromise. The town of Ottawa. There was speculation that she chose Ottawa based on a fondness for landscape paintings from the area, it was chose for three solid reasons.

Firstly, Ottawa was far from the American order. Canadians still feared another attack from the United States, and wanted to prevent another one of their capitals to be burned down.

Secondly, Ottawa was located perfectly on the upper and lower Canadian border (Ontario and Quebec), with a population that carried an equal balance of both english and french people.

Thirdly, Ottawa’s insignificance was actually its greatest strength, since it circumvented the issue of choosing a french or english powerhouse as its seat of government. This avoided favouritism entirely.

The fathers of Confederation eventually expanded the provinces of Canada in 1864, and began to form the country of 10 provinces and 3 territories we know today. As the number of provinces grew, so did Ottawa’s importance. And now, has became the heart of the country we love today.

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