Good reasons why Ottawa is the capital of Cananda..?

Question

Can you give me some good reasons why Ottawa is the Capital of Canada?

Answer 1

Kingston Ontario was the original capital city. In the 18 century, Canada (British) was at war with the Americans, They would burn Kingston in one of their raids upon Canada. We burned Washington, only fair. The capital city was re-located to Ottawa, where it was believed that it was too far for U.S. forces to invade. This the truth. Read Canadian history books for further details.

Answer 2

Despite what JT said, most of which was correct, the reason that Ottawa was selected as the capital in the end had nothing to do with language and culture.

Consider this: In 1857, when Ottawa was selected as the capital, it was only 20 years after the rebellions of the 1830s, where loyalism was a huge issue. Despite Canada not being a nation yet, the Queen was incredibly concerned with Canada's capital being in a primary anglophone city, which is why Kingston was also in the running.

Ottawa was chosen, not for its language, but actually because it was not situated on a major body of water that could be accessible to attacks. It wasn't until the 1830s or 1840s that the Rideau Canal was built, and it was actually built for commerce more than military purposes. There was a great deal of fear that Canada, as a British colony, would be attacked by the US or by France, which is why Ottawa is the capital: It's an anglophone city that is well protected.

Answer 3

Ottawa is the capital because it was actually 'in the middle of nowhere'.

It was far enough from everything and not supper close to the united states.

The Queen chose it a LOOONG time ago because of those reasons, she wanted to avoid invasion.

Answer 4

Ottawa's original name was Bytown, named after Colonel John By of the Royal Engineers who was charged with the task of building the Rideau Canal.

At time of the conferences leading up to Confederation, there was a concern that making Toronto the capital would offend the Francophones in Canada East (which was what Quebec was called at the time) and making Montreal the capital would offend the Anglophones in Canada West (which is what Ontario was called at the time).

In true Canadian form, a compromise was found.  The capital would be on the boundary between the two Canadas - the Ottawa River.  So, Bytown's name was changed to Ottawa and it became the capital of the new Dominion.

Answer 5

Queen Victoria decided on Canada's capital. She had narrowed it down to either Montreal, Kingston, Toronto, or Ottawa. She basically looked at the advantages and disadvantages of each city. Montreal and Toronto were definetly the most well-known cities out of the nominies. However, dispite its popularity, Ottawa was chosen as the capital. Why do you ask? Well, it was mainly because of Ottawa's location. If you look at the map, you can see that Ottawa is located on the border of Ontario and Quebec. This location is what makes Ottawa the capital. The queen thought that it was important for the nation's capital to represent Canada. Since Canada is both French and English speaking, it was important for the capital to be like this as well. Since Ottawa is on the border of the French speaking province and an English speaking province, it represents the multi-culturality of Canada, especially linguistly speaking. Ottawa, the capital describes Canada. It is a multicultural city, as is Canada a country.

Also, the rideau canal was ideal for transportation and communication among cities.

Ottawa was in a safe location too; far off from where the U.S.A could invade Canada. At the time, Canada was at major risk of this invasion.

I really hope this helps!

Answer 6

Ottawa was chosen as the capital of Canada by Queen Victoria.  While there have been stories that she chose the city by sticking a pin in a map or she liked the colours that the city was placed in (on the map) this is, of course, not true.  There were several reasons that Ottawa was chosen as the Capital of Canada:

Ottawa was on the border (at that time) of Eastern (French) Canada and Western (English) Canada.  As such it was seen as a compromise location for the new Capital.  It's population was comprised of both French and English people as well.

There were concerns at the time, raised as a result of the War of 1812, about the possiblitiy of invasion from the US.  Ottawa was seen as far enought away from the border to make it easily defensible.  The Rideau Canal provided a method of both travel and communication between Ottawa and the major cities so troops and supplies could be easily transported there.

There had been situations in the past where rioters had destroyed government buildings in larger cities.  Ottawa was seen as small enough that this event was unlikely.

Answer 7

I cannot give you any direct reasons, it was chosen to be the national capital around the time of Confederation in 1867, before that, Toronto was the capital of Upper Canada, and Quebec City lower Canada, most of the other province joined in sucesstion right up until 1949 when Newfoundland completed the deal.