I’m writing from Ottawa where I’ve spent most of my day today. This morning I drove into town on the Ottawa River Parkway that follows the Ottawa River into downtown. As soon as I was near the Parliament Buildings I put the car into a parkade and wandered over to check it out. My first stop was the Supreme Court of Canada where I was given a tour and learned how the Supreme Court fits in to our justice system.

After the supreme court I picked up a ticket (free) for the 2:50pm tour through the Centre Block of Parliament. It’s neat to finally see where all the action takes place. The hour-long tour was informative and all sorts of bizarre history came out. The Parliament Building had burned down in 1916; however, the library was saved because of the steel doors that prevented the fire from reaching it.

There are also brass plaques placed on the wall for each successive government. Apparently they don’t make up a plaque until the current government has ended in case there are any changes during the ruling party’s reign. This was most famously demonstrated on the plaque for the Conservative period of rule under Sir John A. Macdonald’s last term. Three months after being elected, John A. passed away and Sir John Abbott took over the reigns, but resigned due to ill health. Sir John Thompson stepped up next but he suddenly died two years after being sworn in and Sir Mackenzie Bowell became the next Prime Minister. Bowell was forced to resign by his own cabinet and Sir Charles Tupper was put in place. His term only lasted 10 weeks though as the Conservatives were defeated by Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s Liberals in the 1896 election.

So there’s a plaque hanging in the Centre Block that has five Prime Ministers listed during one term in office! 

Yesterday, before heading to Ottawa, I wound up in Sault Ste. Marie for a few hours. One of the things I did there (other than eating greasy burgers) was to check out the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre which features a large hanger filled with all sorts of planes that were used to service Canada’s north. There were some harrowing stories from flying these old-school planes up in the north and it was interesting to see how they would use wood skiis to land on the snow up there. Many, many plane crashes too. Certainly not a career I’d be interested in. 

Tonight I’m going to head towards Montreal, where I intend to spend some time tomorrow. My intention is to be in PEI on Monday.