May 18 2025 - Ottawa ON
Bus - 1 hr
Boat - 1 hr
Steps - 10,000
We had set the alarm for 6:30 and I looked at the phone and thought it hadn't gone off and it was 6:40, and woke John! OOPS 🫢🫢🫢it is on 5:40 so we end up having the breakfast buffet at the hotel at 6:30. Then we got ready and in the lobby for our 8:45 departure. HMMM 🤔🤔🤔no one is in the lobby. It is only 7:45!! I am really clock challenged this morning.
8:45 Depart for Canadian Museum of History. Drop off 9:15 and pick up at 11:15 return to hotel
It's a rainy morning (again) but it didn't matter for this morning.
We drop the War Museum folks off first.
The Canadian Museum of History is located on the traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinabeg. This land has held, and continues to hold, great historical, spiritual and sacred significance.
It is the most-visited museum in Canada. It attracts approximately 1.2 million visitors annually. This museum, which has been open since 1856, showcases a vast collection of objects, including artifacts that trace the history of Canada and the world, starting from 20,000 years ago. The museum's stunning architecture and location overlooking the Ottawa River also contribute to its popularity.
The Museum’s Grand Hall is devoted to Indigenous cultures of Canada’s Pacific Northwest. Stroll along a boardwalk composed of six house fronts, each created by artisans from a different Northwest culture, with thematic exhibitions. Appreciate the architecture of the space itself, which is built in the shape of an ocean-going canoe, including columns shaped like upright paddles.
This was an amazing sight!
'namaxsala (To Travel in a Boat Together)
‘namaxsala is inspired by a story told to the artist, Mary Anne Barkhouse, by her grandfather Fred Cook. In the story, her grandfather helps a wolf cross a treacherous body of water in a boat, on the West Coast of Canada.
Permanent display of the original plaster casting of Spirit of Haida Gwaii: The Black Canoe by Bill Reid. This large-scale sculpture, featuring a bear on the prow of a canoe, is a prominent example of Haida art and culture.
This engaging and thought-provoking space shares the stories of First Nations, Inuit and Métis in Canada, from time immemorial to the present day. Through more than 2,000 cultiral objects, images and documents, the First Peoples Hall celebrates centuries of history and achievement in fields as diverse as fishing, agriculture, academia, the arts, science, sports, and politics.
Developed in association with Indigenous scholars, advisors and artists, the First Peoples Hall features some of the oldest cultural objects in the care of the Museum along with many contemporary ones that speak to the living cultures and traditions of Indigenous people. Visitors will see early innovations such as Inuit snow goggles, examples of diverse Indigenous regalia from across Canada, and iconic artworks like Sky Woman by Shelley Niro (Hodinohso;ni).
Louis Riel is best known as a leader of the Métis people and for his role in both the Red River Resistance (1869-1870) and the North-West Resistance (1885). He is also recognized for helping to establish the province of Manitoba and advocating for Métis rights. Riel's actions and beliefs, which focused on protecting Métis culture and land rights, ultimately led to his execution for treason in 1885.
Commissioned in 1967, the Nishga Girl is one of more than 200 fishing vessels built by master Japanese-Canadian boat builder Judo “Jack” Tasaka. A traditional wooden gillnetter, it is over 10 metres long, 3 metres high, approximately 3 metres wide and weighs several tons.
The Nishga Girl was donated to the Museum in 1998 by Nisga’a Chief Harry Nyce and his wife, Deanna, who owned and operated the boat out of Prince Rupert for nearly thirty years.
“The Nishga Girl has memorialized an important period of Canadian history on the West Coast for Japanese-Canadians, the Nisga’a people and the Nyce family. More than 1,000 similar gillnet boats were seized by the government from Japanese-Canadian fishermen during the Second World War. Other gillnet boats were used by First Nations fishers for commercial and other purposes; often providing a means to fund political activities aimed at recognizing and protecting what are now constitutionally protected rights.
In May 2021, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation announced that the unmarked graves of Indigenous children had been found at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Kwaguʼł master carver Stanley C. Hunt responded by creating this massive red-cedar sculpture as a memorial to the children who never returned from Canada’s residential schools.
The Indian Residential School Memorial Monument is not a traditional totem pole or memorial pole. It is unique.
Carved from the trunk of a red cedar tree, the work is 5.5 metres (18 feet) tall and 1.2 metres (4 feet) wide, and features 130 unsmiling children’s faces. A large raven looks down upon them protectively. Emblems such as the maple leaf and the cross, and abbreviations for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and North-West Mounted Police, have been carved upside down.
It is a compassionate work of remembrance. It holds governments, churches, and police forces accountable for creating and running the residential school system. It is a call for all of us to bear witness.
Still raining! Looking across from Gatineau QC to Ottawa ON.
Morning Star - Gambeh Then’
Alex Janvier’s masterpiece Morning Star, painted in 1993, adorns the dome of the Haida Gwaii Salon in the Museum. The mural rises seven stories above the salon and covers 418 m2. Janvier completed the work in just over three months, with the help of his son Dean. Morning Star illustrates the history of the land we live in from the artist’s Dene Suline perspective and expresses hope of mutual respect.
The Canadian Museum of History's Hall of Mirrors features a unique blend of glass etchings and mirrors that create a reflective space showcasing Canadian images. These images, representing monuments, places, and activities from across Canada, are displayed on the mirrors, allowing visitors to see themselves within the broader context of the nation.
I am going to do a separate post on this, matching the photos to ours.
This was an amazing walk through history, some of which I/we lived through like The October Crisis: Liberty Repressed
At the end of the 1960s, both Quebec and the wider world were undergoing massive upheaval — both peaceful and violent — that was rooted in a desire for change. Montréal was not immune to the social unrest. Strikes and demonstrations, often marked by violence, intensified, forcing authorities to take a harder line. People denounced capitalism, Anglo-American domination, racism, the Vietnam War and more. Mayor Jean Drapeau’s own home was bombed in September 1969.
The Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) was a movement formed in 1963. Their main goals were to secure Quebec’s independence from the rest of Canada, and to create a socialist state. Their approach was radical and violent. On February 13, 1969, an FLQ “super-bomb” injured 27 people at the Montréal Stock Exchange. By the end of 1970, the FLQ had launched more than 200 bomb attacks and stolen weapons, explosives and money. FLQ activities caused nine deaths.
In October 1970, the FLQ carried out two political kidnappings — something never before seen in North America. As a result, the federal government invoked the War Measures Act for the third time in Canadian history, and the first in peacetime.
Here is a brief timeline of key events during the October Crisis:
October 5, 1970: Kidnapping of British diplomat James Cross
October 10, 1970: Kidnapping of Quebec Cabinet Minister Pierre Laporte
October 15, 1970: Deployment of the Army in Quebec
October 16, 1970: Invocation of the War Measures Act
October 17, 1970: Death of Pierre Laporte
December 3, 1970: Release of James Cross
December 3, 1970: The Public Order (Temporary Measures) Act replaces the War Measures Act
January 4, 1971: The Army leaves Quebec
April 20, 1971: Expiry of the Public Order (Temporary Measures) Act
Governments and public opinion demanded a decisive response to the threat of the FLQ, although protesters were alarmed by the suspension of civil liberties via the War Measures Act. Although everyone lived through the same political crisis, each experience was deeply personal. Protests against war measures were forcefully expressed in Quebec by members of the young intellectual left, who were largely separatist. There were dissenting voices in anglophone Canada as well. Supporting neither the FLQ nor Quebec separatism, Anglophones nonetheless demanded that fundamental freedoms be upheld.
Click here for a video of the exhibit.
Hotel Chateau Laurier, we had taken photos the other night.
Featuring countless stories of individuals and groups that shaped Canada, this signature exhibition offers an engaging and thought-provoking look at Canada’s history from time immemorial to the present day, and considers how the past continues to inform the present.
Divided into three galleries on two levels, the Hall begins with creation stories shared by Indigenous communities. You will see Indigenous objects and learn about their stories, followed by an exploration of contact with Europeans. Gallery 2 explores colonial life in Canada through Indigenous and European perspectives. Here you will learn how the formation of the nation reverberated across different communities. Life after 1919 is the focus of Gallery 3, where the objects on display document celebrated, contested and difficult chapters in Canada’s contemporary history, from popular culture to nationalism and residential schools. At the end of the exhibition, you are invited to share your vision for the future of Canada.
We were on our way back to the hotel at 11:15.
We don't have much time for lunch but we were prepared as we had bought cheeses and crackers at the market and ate as we relaxed in our room.
Bus departs at 1 PM for short drive to Hull Marina in Gatineau QC to board the Ottawa River Tour at 1:45.
Hull Marina is in Quebec. Miracles of miracles it stopped raining although it is freezing.
This unforgettable journey will take you on a breathtaking adventure that has been the best way to explore the region since 1936. Take in over 50 focal points from Parliament Hill to the Canadian Museum of History, 24 Sussex Drive to the stunning Rideau Falls. Feel the cool breeze on your face as you relax on our spacious upper deck, sipping a refreshing beverage and gazing at the magnificent view of the city.
3 PM coach will return to the hotel after the cruise. Evening on your own.
No cool breezes for us as the group huddled downstairs in the warmth, with some brave souls venturing onto the back of the boat for a quick photo.
John played photographer for this journey.
The Fairmont Château Laurier is a 660,000-square-foot (61,000 m2) hotel with 429 guest rooms in the downtown core of Ottawa. It is designed in a French Gothic Revival Châteauesque style to complement the adjacent Parliament buildings. The hotel is above the Colonel By Valley, home of the Ottawa Locks of the Rideau Canal, and overlooks the Ottawa River.
The main dining room (now the Laurier Room) overlooks Major's Hill Park.
The reception rooms consist of the Wedgewood-blue Adam Room, the Laurier Room defined with Roman columns, the Empire-style ballroom, and the Drawing Room decorated with cream and gold plaster ornament. The hotel was designated a national historic site in 1980.
Back of the Parliament buildings, where in 1969, on my school trip, I learned the word "buttress" and have never forgotten it!!
The Library of Parliament in Ottawa, designed in a High Victorian Gothic Revival style, features 16 exterior flying buttresses that surround its octagonal base and support the lantern dome above. These buttresses, which are topped with pinnacles, help to counteract the lateral thrust of the dome and are a key architectural element of the building. The Library, inspired by medieval chapter houses, is known for its ornate stonework, pointed arches, and the impressive reading room it houses.
The Ottawa Parliament Library fire refers to two separate incidents. In 1916, the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings, including the main library, caught fire and was destroyed, but the Library of Parliament was saved by a combination of preventative measures and quick action by a library clerk. In 1952, a fire broke out in the Library's cupola, causing smoke and water damage.
Damn construction.
Douglas Cardinal sought to create form a "sculptural icon" for the country, encouraged by then-prime minister, Pierre Trudeau, to develop a symbol that "enshrined our cultures". As a result, the building was the first structure in the National Capital Region that incorporates Indigenous architectural designs. Cardinal's design for the building was largely influenced by his understanding of how geography helped shaped Canada's history and culture.
The curatorial wing was designed to evoke outcroppings of the Canadian Shield, while the southern public wing with its glass-fronted Grand Hall, was intended to evoke an image of a melting glacier. The southern wing's copper roof represents vegetation's recolonization of the lands once covered by glacial till. Both wings are curvaceous on their river sides to blend into their landscapes, although their street-side façade is more angular.
The NCC placed several restrictions on the building design, that the building does not obstruct the view of the Ottawa River, and that the building does not obstruct delineated "viewing cones" of Parliament Hill from the Gatineau side of the river. Because of these restrictions, the buildings were designed with a low-profile, to avoid obscuring the view for buildings across the street. From certain angles, the building appears as two separate pavilions, with an opening between these two sections providing an unobstructed view of Parliament Hill. Considerations also needed to be taken to protect artifacts displayed in the building. Windows were triple-glazed and coated with a film that helps contain radiant heat and reduce solar ultraviolet rays, and the southern wing's Grand Hall was intentionally designed to face direct sunlight only in the morning.
The Rideau Falls (French: Chutes de la rivière Rideau) are two 11-metre (36 ft.) waterfalls located in Ottawa where the Rideau River empties into the Ottawa River. The falls are divided by Green Island, with Ottawa's Old City Hall just to the south. To the west of the falls is the headquarters of the National Research Council while to the east are the Canada and the World Pavilion and the French Embassy. Samuel de Champlain described the falls as "...a marvelous fall...it descends a height of twenty or twenty-five fathoms with such impetuosity that it makes an arch nearly four hundred paces broad." The falls were named by the early French for their resemblance to a curtain, or rideau in French.
The back of 24 Sussex Drive, the official Prime Minister's residence, however it has not been livable for over 10 years. Justin Trudeau grew up in this house when his father was Prime Minister.
Lornado is the official residence of the United States Ambassador to Canada. It is located in the Rockcliffe Park area of Ottawa.
The house was built in 1908 for Warren Y. Soper, an American-born, Ottawa-based industrialist. Soper was the co-founder of the Ottawa Electric Railway Company—Ottawa's first public transit system—and the Ottawa Car Company. The home was constructed on the Soper family's cottage property. In homage to one of his favorite novels, Lorna Doone, Soper named the property "Lornado", a name it has kept to this day.
The United States government purchased the property in 1935 from the Soper family. From 1935 to 1938, the mansion was slightly modified by the United States Department of State, but it still retains many of its Edwardian influences.
The 32-room, 2+1⁄2-story limestone building commands a central place on the grounds of the property, which encompasses ten acres of land. The property includes manicured lawns and landscaped gardens, a greenhouse, maintenance buildings, and a gatehouse. Ornamental shelters located below Lornado and several other houses along the Rockcliffe Park Driveway testify to Soper's company's streetcar line, which once traveled this route. Access to the home is via Rockcliffe Road, a restricted access road guarded by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Another entrance at Manor Avenue is off limits.
Lady Dive Tours offers the bus and boat sightseeing including an amphibus tours of Ottawa and Gatineau. That is very low in the water!!
Library and Archives Canada is the federal institution tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is the 16th largest library in the world. The LAC reports to the Parliament of Canada through the Minister of Canadian Heritage.
This has a personal link as it my sister and two ex BILs would have their theses filed here.
Well, I didn't expect this! I figured it was just another political figure.
The Harper Memorial is a monument to bravery and friendship. The statue of Sir Galahad, the chivalrous medieval knight, honours Henry Albert Harper, a young man who drowned trying to rescue a girl who had fallen through thin ice on the Ottawa River in 1901. Harper's close friend, future prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, led the project to memorialize the heroic act.
The Harper Memorial was created by Ernest Wise Keyser in 1905.
We're back at the hotel at 3:15 and I we decided to do a mural hunt. It was freezing out!!!!
I booked Joey's Rideau for 7 PM. However, as we walked back we scouted other places for dinner as Joey's was a fifteen minute walk (we could Uber/we have Joey's in Toronto) on a very cold evening! C'mon it's May, Mother Nature!! Friday we were sitting on a patio in shirtsleeves!
We had a Scottish pub as an option but then came across Brown's Social House which was only a block away! Done, reservation made for 7:45.
Delicious steak frites!
And on a sad note! We lost game 7...
