Why is Ottawa not its own independently run Province?

Question

In the United States, the land encompassing the national capital, Washington, DC, is not in any of the 50 US states.

The little piece of land encompassing Washington is in a separate district "District of Columbia" which is locally run by the Federal Government in a way similar to any other US state.

If any other state controlled the capital city of the country, it would be deemed unfair to the other 49 states not given that privilege to host the national capital.

So how come Ontario governs the national capital? Why isn't it "The District of Ottawa? "Ottawa, DO" or something.

Answer 1

Because we don't ever want to be like the US....eeeew!

But seriously, our other provinces don't have issues where they feel it's "unfair" for Ontario to "control" the capital.

Ottawa was chosen as the capital city by Queen Victoria. We are happy with that. We don't really care that it's in Ontario and not in another province. We share stuff here.

Answer 2

I can't think of any reason why it should be. Not sure why 'hosting the national capital' is an unfair privilege. I've never heard any complaints to that effect.  

Answer 3

A distinct area similar to Washington, DC has been discussed but there is no apparent need to change things. However there is a specially defined area called the National Capital Region but it's a socio-economic structure rather than a political structure. You can read more at this link: (National Capital Region)

As a point of interest, the capital city of Canada has changed 6 times over the years. (See Province of Canada link)

Answer 4

Ottawa (originally called ByTown) was chosen to be Canadas capital by queen victoria as it was approximently mid-way and central between the population centres of Toronto and Montreal regions which was what canada was at the time.  Since then the country has expanded and ottawa is no where near centre anymore but still we prefer to have all the gas bags in one place and ontario really fits the bill

Answer 5

Just because the USA and Australia do it doesn't mean Canada has to do it the same way.

Also, our National Capital Region encompasses Ottawa in Ontario, and the Gatineau, Quebec area just across the river.

Answer 6

Our federal government is run differently. We have the Parliament and that's it, in practice. The parliament is made up of members from every part of the country, based on population (1 MP for every 100k people.) We have a senate which is appointed by the prime minister but it doesn't really do anything. We have no president, our head of state is the queen of england. I don't think that having Ottawa as part of Ontario is really any kind of advantage for the city or the province.

Answer 7

Because Canada and the US are two separate countries and their governments are not run in the same way.

The establishment of Ottawa as the nation's capital dates back to pre-Confederation days. As additional provinces joined the confederation, they accepted Ottawa as the national capital. We're quite happy to have it that way and no one feels left out because they can't host the national capital.

Ontario has its own capital - Toronto - as does every other province, and there is no need to set up a separate province for Ottawa.