Architecture of the Canadian Parliament

The most magnificent grouping of building in Ottawa happens, appropriately enough, on Parliament Hill. It was here that it was decided Canada's new capitol buildings would be when Ottawa became the capital in 1857. The decision was made by Queen Victoria because Canada's politicians couldn't make it on their own. She chose the site because of its picturesque beauty, its location at the border of Upper and Lower Canada, and because it was some distance away from the United States which has been known to invade their neighbors to the north from time to time. Ottawa became known as "Westminster in the Wilderness." In response to the capital designation, the young but bustling Anglo-French community had to scramble to put in place the things needed by all the lawmakers expected to follow this decision. £250,000 pounds were set aside for construction of the neo-Gothic capitol, but the designers blew through this sum in just the first year. There was the obligatory round of finger-pointing, with people accusing the politicians, the architects, the builders, and others of squandering the money. Construction stalled while a formal inquiry was launched. But three years later, no malfeasance was found and additional funds were provided. It was 1866 when the first session of Parliament was held in the building. Again, the capitol was built in a hurry and was not yet complete when this meeting happened. The construction schedule was so swift that the architects had to troubleshoot problems on the fly that would normally have been solved on paper before the first spade of dirt was turned. The Parliament complex is divided into the Centre Block, the East Block, the West Block, the Library of Parliament, and the Peace Tower. The Peace Tower contains the Memorial Chamber which opened in 1928. Inside is the Altar of Sacrifice. It, and five others, contain books of rememberance which bear the the names of 111,546 Canadians who were killed in war. The altar is made of Hopton Wood, which is a stone used in military cemeteries. On the Altar is Canada's Book of Remembrance. The floor is made of stones from battlegrounds where Canadians fought in World War I, and the walls are stone from France and Belgium. The Peace Tower is also a carillon tower -- a large musical instrument common in Germany, northern Belgium, and northern Kentucky. The Centre Block is where the work is done. The Prime Minister has his office here. The House of Commons and the Senate also meet here to shape the laws of the land. The Senate chamber's ceiling is adorned with gold leaf from which a pair of two-ton chandeliers hang. To complete the opulent look, the chamber's red upholstery is complemented by thick red carpeting is underfoot. In contrast, the House of Commons Chamber is green with white Canadian oak and Tyndall limestone from Manitoba. You can see fossils embedded in the stone. The ceiling is covered with linen hand-painted after it was hung. There is also a frieze in the lobby which shows a history of Canada created by Eleanor Milne. The Centre Block is adorned on the outside with gargoyles and other grotesques so often missing from today's architecture. The East Block has the Governor General's office restored to look as it did during Lord Dufferin's days in office (1872-1878.) The offices of Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir Georges Étienne Cartier, and the Privy Council Chamber have also all been restored to their late-1800's glory. The West Block is where the present-day politicians have their offices. On 3 February, 1916 a massive fire started in the Parliamentary Reading Room and swept through the capitol. It consumed the west wing, and destroyed the Victoria Tower (which was replaced by the Peace Tower). But a quick-thinking clerk managed to save the library by closing the thick iron doors that separate it from the rest of the building. The library is one of the jewels in this magnificent crown -- a 16-sided building with a lantern roof. At the center, Marshall Wood's 1871 marble statue of Queen Victoria rests on a parquet floor made of cherry, walnut, and oak.

During the Christmas season, a tree is put in Confederation Hall and decorated with toys donated by Canada's embassies around the world.
The Peace Tower is 302 feet tall. Its clock faces are 16 feet in diameter.
One of the least-known features of the Parliament complex is the Cat Sanctuary. Here, homeless cats have been cared for and fed by a volunteer since the late 1970's.
1 May, 2002 - Politicians are outraged when they realize they're spending CAN$4,800.00 a month to pay people to shoo pigeons away from Parliament and its monuments. According to the Ottawa Sun, Alberta M.P. John Williams thinks shooting the birds would be more cost-effective.