I’ve been to the Canadian side of Sault Ste. Marie before I visited the American side because COVID-19 meant that the borders were closed. The Soo Locks on the American side are more difficult to access, so head up the Tower of History to see it after visiting the largest Read more…
This small city in Ontario has a surprisingly large three-story museum. There’s an exhibition on the contributions people in the region have made to war efforts, but I didn’t get to see it because it was being rearranged. Upstairs on the second floor, there’s a gallery on the history of Read more…
Parliament Hill in Ottawa has been under renovation since 2019 and there’s about a decade of work left. While the Senate was moved to the old Union Station, the House of Commons stayed in the same building. It moved its chamber from inside the building to the courtyard and covered Read more…
The Senate of Canada was founded in 1867 with its confederation, but it is currently held in an old train station in Ottawa built in 1912 opposite the senate’s original purpose-built building. Funnily enough, the former train station is older than the 1920 Parliament Centre Block, which has been undergoing Read more…
Located right across the street from the Kingston Penitentiary, Correctional Service Canada’s museum is housed inside Cedarwood, the former house of the prison warden. Entry is free. The lower level has exhibits on early forms of punishment, basically torture, for prisoners until 1969. Water boarding, locking inside a coffin, and Read more…
Sharing the grounds with the Kingston General Hospital, the Museum of Health Care has the same long history as the 1830s hospital. It is the largest hospital between Toronto and Ottawa and only hospital in Canada to still be in its original building. The museum building used to be dormitories Read more…
The oldest Lighthouse on Prince Edward Island is Point Prim Lighthouse built in 1845. It’s 60 feet tall and a $5 fee will let you climb up to the top. It’s 20 feet wide at the bottom by narrows to just 10 feet at the top, so extremely fat people Read more…
The confederation of Canada happened in Charlottetown. In 1864, 23 representatives from the five eastern provinces excluding Newfoundland and Labrador met here to discuss forming a federal union. A competition began in the 1950s to build the Confederation Centre of the Arts and over 40 submissions were entered. In 1964, Read more…
The Acadian Museum in Moncton is run by the University of Moncton. It has to be visited with forts Beauséjour and Lawrence to understand the context of the conflict between Acadian, the French, the British, and indigenous Mi’kmaq people in the mid-18th century. The experience is largely dependent on reading Read more…
Charlottetown is the provincial capital of the smallest province in the confederation, Prince Edward Island, which is several times smaller than Vancouver Island. Though small, it played the biggest part in confederation by hosting the meeting that led to the confederation of Canada. In 1964, the city built a replica Read more…