Canadian Birds

 Birds that make their living in and around water are focused on here.

There isn't strictly speaking a national bird for the country, but each province and territory has a designated bird. Alberta has the great horned owl, the Northwest Territories chose the gyrfalcon, and New Brunswick has the black-capped chickadee.

The sharp-tailed grouse is the provincial bird of Saskatchewan. The Yukon territory selected the common raven. And British Columbia has the Steller's jay.

The rock ptarmigan is the official bird of Nunavut. Ontario selected the common loon.

The blue jay is the bird of Prince Edward Island. Nova Scotia has the osprey. And Quebec has the snowy owl.

Rounding things out, the Atlantic puffin is the bird of Newfoundland and Labrador, while Manitoba selected the great gray owl.

Coming out into the Queens Lantern, I photographed the stained glass at the top of the windows on this level.

This is the dedication plaque, unveiled by Queen Elizabeth. The Queens Lantern is in honour of her and Queen Victoria.

It is a delight to be in.

Back into the central atrium I went, and looked up at Gaia.

History

Rounding out this visit today inside the Earth Gallery.

This large rock is rich in copper and nickel.

It was time to move onto the next gallery space. I headed out into the Queens Lantern, where some of the history of the building is examined. It is officially the Victoria Memorial Museum Building, originally built in honour of the Queen. Aside from the natural world collections, this building has housed other elements of the national museums at one point or another.

The administrative side and the larger collections of this museum are over in Gatineau.

There are stories that the building is haunted. Some suggest it's Wilfrid Laurier, whose body laid in state here before his funeral.

There have been renovations over time, including back in the 1990s.

A larger one was undertaken in the first decade of this century. Improvements were made, including additions to galleries, seismic reinforcements, and the addition of the Queens Lantern, which replaced a stone tower of the original building that had to be removed.

The Queens Lantern is a delight inside, very modern, but fitting well with the older architecture. It was dedicated by Queen Elizabeth II in 2010, and is named both for her and for Victoria.

The Moon overhead is irresistible for the photographer.

Fathers Of Confederation

 The Fenian Raids rose up following the American Civil War, with Union veterans of Irish descent trying to take Canada by force and hold it for ransom to make the British give Ireland independence. Each raid failed, with militia and regular troops driving them out. This is the rifle of a Raider; it was typical of them to wear their Union uniforms as well.

Things were chaotic in the Canadian legislature during this period, with a stable majority out of the question.

Three leaders banded together to forge the way for Confederation. John A. Macdonald, George Brown, and George-Etienne Cartier were known in the Canadas, and the other parts of British North America. Macdonald and Cartier were co-premiers of the legislature. Macdonald and Brown despised each other. But they went to work together, recognizing the need for a strong federal union.

The most eloquent voice of the Fathers of Confederation was Thomas D'Arcy McGee, a close friend of Macdonald. A lawyer and journalist, he had been a radical years before in his native Ireland before immigrating. His world view changed entirely upon seeing the workings of Parliamentary democracy in Canada, and saw that as the way to go. That change in view enraged his old comrades among the Fenians, who never forgave him.

He was assassinated one night in 1868, coming home from a session at Parliament, shot in the back of the head. This is the revolver said to be used in the assassination. A Fenian, Patrick James Whalen, was convicted and executed for the murder, though he claimed innocence.

One of the defining photographs of Canadian history- the Fathers of Confederation at the Charlottetown Conference in 1864.

Queen Victoria would would sign Confederation into law. The Canadian colonies became provinces under a federal government, and the country became a reality.

This large photograph shows the first Confederation in Kingston, Ontario, in 1867.

First Nations peoples in the west had long standing relationships with traders, taking the European goods they bartered for and trading them even more in their own long established trade routes of the west.

A Country In Progress

 This beautiful sleigh was made in Montreal during the first half of the 19th century.

Medals and chalices- a nod to the growing use of precious metals in British North America.

Montreal also saw the rise of sports clubs- from cricket to curling to lacrosse. That last sport, a game played for thousands of years by indigenous peoples, is one of Canada's two national sports.

William Logan was the first director of the Geological Survey of Canada, a government organization that went out to study the land, advancing knowledge as they went. Their first headquarters was in Montreal before moving to Ottawa.

Medals and an octant presented to Logan for the work of the GSC are displayed here.

The 1830s saw a time of rebellions in the colonies. In their wake, two colonial legislatures- Upper Canada and Lower Canada, what is today Ontario and Quebec- were fused into one. It was an ungainly fusion. And yet it would lay the groundwork for Canada becoming what it is today.

The Canadas had two co-premiers, Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine, who went to work with an agenda for responsible government by the people. 

They had the support of the governor-general at the time, Lord Elgin. Their work would lead to Confederation in the years following their time in office.

Colonial politicians would come together to discuss the formation of a country.

A big factor in that lay south of the border, where the Americans had ambitions looking north, and spent years locked in the brutal fighting of the Civil War. Canadian leaders looked at what was happening to the south, and took it as an example of what not to follow.