New Year's Eve 2008

On New Year's Eve, 1857, Queen Victoria named Ottawa as Canada's capital. Imagine how the people in Toronto and Montreal felt. And even those in Kingston and Quebec City. In those days Ottawa was a filthy lumber town full of untoward people. As the Toronto Globe put it in 1858, "Nearly five-eighths of the whole were Roman Catholic, more than half French, the remainder Irish". Can you imagine?

Conventional wisdom nowadays says that Ottawa was chosen because it was the least objectionable choice. If Toronto had been chosen, Montrealers would have rioted. And vice versa. There was a general sentiment of "Well, at least she didn't choose {Toronto / Montreal / Kingston / Quebec}". Ottawa was acceptable to most as a second choice, or according to Dave Mullington, of the Historical Society of Ottawa, as quoted in the Ottawa Citizen, "the least worst, the least obnoxious" option.

So this past New Year's Eve, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the selection of Ottawa as the capital, there was a big fireworks show, symbolically starting at 6:57 p.m. (or 1857). Thank you to all Canadians for supporting the show through your taxes (via the National Capital Commission). It was tough to get there... my people had to trudge through the snow single file. It was compared to a pilgrimage.


But there were lots of people too. The newspaper estimated the crowd at around 20,000, but my people would have guessed higher, especially considering the people lining the river in Gatineau.

Enjoy the show!

P.S.: Did you hear the guy shouting "Happy New Year Canada"? I imagine he's the same guy who would attend a golf tournament, watch Tiger Woods tee off from 500 yards away, and shout "Get in the hole!".