HOUSE PROUD
Why provincial parliamentary buildings get our vote as must-see attractions
Convincing travel-starved Canadians to spend their precious staycation time hanging around politicians may have you reaching for the ceremonial mace, but there's an argument to be made for visiting parliamentary houses — if not their oft-unloved inhabitants.
The reason is simple: Canada's legislative buildings are some of this country's most impressive and historically significant structures. And they're good-looking, to boot.
It may be unfashionable to wax nostalgic about Canada's history, but there's no denying our provincial assemblies represent our unwavering tradition of parliamentary democracy, and the dreams of millions of immigrants who forged the Dominion in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
It would be a debate worthy of the founding of Confederation to suggest which of Canada's legislative buildings is the best, so we'll leave that to the politicians.
But here are three we suggest should get your vote:
The most significant:
Province House in Charlottetown (tourismpei.com)
One of only three legislative buildings designated a National Historic Site, it has been one of the island's leading tourist attractions since the 1950s, charming day-trippers with its handsome neoclassical flourishes — designed by an English immigrant who reportedly had no formal architectural qualifications — and ornate interior.
What sets it apart, however, is its dual function as both a working assembly and a symbol of Canada's birth as a nation in 1867. It was at Province House that formal talks began to bring the Maritime colonies into Confederation, though it would be six years later before a reluctant P.E.I. signed on the dotted line as the seventh province.
Built between 1843 and 1847, Province House replaced a rotating roster of taverns and private homes that made for a “damned queer parliament.” Those odd beginnings were replicated after the successful Confederation conference in 1864 when the library was turned into a bar and the assembly into a dance floor.
Currently being restored, Province House is expected to reopen to tourists next year.
The oldest:
Province House in Halifax (novascotia.com)
With apologies to Central and Western Canada, we return to the Maritimes for our next political bear pit.
Both a national and a provincial historic site, this seat of power, built in the British Palladian style, became Canada's first permanent House of Assembly when it opened in 1819, though the first sitting had taken place as early as 1758.
Another feather in its cap: It's officially recognized as the site of the first responsible government in the Empire outside Great Britain.
“As a landmark in the constitutional evolution of Canada, it has been said that more history has been made within these four walls than in all other legislatures combined,” the N.S. government states.
It's not just the pols who've made their mark. Many notable trials were held in what is now the Legislative Library.
It was off with their heads in the 1840s — falcon heads, that is. Legend dictates that a fiery member of the legislature, fuelled by anti-American sentiment running hot at the time, used his cane to lop off the heads of decorative falcons lording over various parts of the house. It's said he mistook the falcons for eagles, symbols of republicanism to the south.
The most intriguing:
Manitoba Legislative Building, Winnipeg (travelmanitoba.com)
Smack in the middle of the country and a relative adolescent having been built between 1913 and 1920, this Beaux Arts gem has both stunning exterior and interior features as well as some of the most eye-catching follies and ornaments to be found on any public building in the land, including Canada's only circular legislative chamber.
Take the number 13. Considered a symbol of luck among the ancient Egyptians and the Freemasons, it is found throughout the three-storey building, along with other mystical iconography such as the Grecian key, the running dog, Medusa and sphinxes.
Before the pandemic, architectural historian Frank Albo conducted popular Hermetic Code tours that explore the mysteries of the building's hieroglyphic inscriptions, numerical codes and hidden symbols.
“It's an architectural crossword,” says Albo, who's been dubbed Winnipeg's answer to Dan Brown, of Da Vinci Code renown.
Less mysteriously, a pair of lifesized bronze bison — each weighing two-and-a-half tonnes — greet visitors from high stone pedestals at the foot of a grand staircase leading to the legislative chamber and symbolize the buffalo herds that once roamed the grasslands.
Formally opened in 1920 on the 50th anniversary of Manitoba's entry into Confederation, the Winnipeg landmark's crowning glory is the “Golden Boy,” a 5.25-metre-tall gilded statue based on a 16th-century design that embodies the Prairie province's spirit of eternal youth and enterprise. His right hand lofts a torch high in the air, while his left carries a sheaf of golden grain.