A stately sendoff for Laurier, distinguished son of Canada

To mark our 175th anniversary year, we feature a different front page each week from past Ottawa Citizens. Today: Feb. 22, 1919

After lying in state in the Centre Block for two days, the body of Sir Wilfrid Laurier was laid to rest on Feb. 22, 1919. An estimated 100,000 people lined Ottawa’s streets to watch as his cortège passed from the Victoria Memorial Museum (now the Canadian Museum of Nature) to the Basilica on Sussex Drive, and afterward to Notre-Dame Cemetery. Eight Dominion police, serving as pallbearers, were followed by 10 sleighs, each carrying floral tributes and drawn by black horses. Thousands more made up the cortège, which took 45 minutes to pass spectators.

“The roar of the city’s industry and commerce has ceased,” the Citizen wrote, “business is suspended and practically the whole population of two cities, augmented by thousands from outside points, is doing honour to the memory of the dead statesman. Thousands of people came to Ottawa yesterday, and this morning, hotels were crowded and hundreds unable to secure accommodation were forced to seek it in private homes throughout the city. In all the government and city offices it is a holiday, and all the principal places of business closed their doors during the forenoon. It is, withal, a most impressive tribute to the Great Canadian.”

An estimated 50,000 people had already paid homage to Laurier as he lay in state, while his procession to the Basilica and Notre-Dame Cemetery was attended by the governor general, cabinet ministers, MPs, senators, judges, clergy, the mayors of Ottawa and Hull, and hundreds representing various groups and societies.

“They were all there,” the Citizen wrote, “high and low, men of every calling, every nationality, every colour of political faith and every creed, united in their last leave-taking of Ottawa’s distinguished citizen, Canada’s great son and a striking figure in the politics of the world.”

Laurier, who famously boasted in 1904 that Canada “shall fill the 20th century,” was prime minister for 15 years and 86 days, making him the country’s fourth-longest-serving PM, after William Lyon Mackenzie King, Sir John A. Macdonald and Pierre Trudeau. His tenure as a Member of Parliament, at 44 years and 11 months, remains the longest in Canadian history. bdeachman@postmedia.com