Citizen set to celebrate our first 175 years of chonicling the capital
Confederation. The naming of Ottawa as Canada’s capital. The great fire of 1900, and the one that decimated the Parliament Buildings in 1916. War and conscription. The razing of LeBreton Flats. The War Measures Act. The 1980 referendum. The rise of the internet. The building of great national-capital museums. The return of the Ottawa Senators. 9/11. The victory of a second Trudeau prime minister. The advent of light rail.
The Ottawa Citizen, founded in 1845 (when it was called the “Packet”), has been present for each of these historic national and local milestones. As we mark a fresh decade in 2020, we’re also celebrating the 175th birthday of a publication long dedicated to covering the major events that affect national capital residents.
The Citizen’s history has been shaped by — and has helped shape — the character of Ottawa and the country itself. This newspaper pushed for the designation of humble Bytown as the capital of the Province of Canada. Its executives risked prison for reporting on the problems of the Ross rifle during the First World War. Our publishers helped create Carleton College (now a great university). At various points in its early history, The Citizen counted a mayor, two MPs and a city councillor among its owners. In the 19th century, the paper considered Sir John A. Macdonald an unabashed hero, but our editorial writers endorsed Liberal prime ministers solidly from the mid-1920s until the rise of Joe Clark in 1979.
Citizen reporters have covered everything from the fall of the Berlin Wall to sprinter Ben Johnson’s drug disgrace at the 1988 Summer Olympics. The Citizen told the story of the double agent code-named Gideon, who was betrayed by the Mounties, and hosted Nobel Laureate and Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov when he was finally freed from internal exile. We’ve covered the space program, the Middle East, the Afghanistan war, climate change, courts, cops and crime.
We’ve investigated the failures and successes of our health-care system, and delved into dirty tricks in political campaigns.
A newspaper is a unique historical document because of the breadth of history that can be found in its archive.
Did you know, for instance, that the first asphalt road was laid in Ottawa in 1895? You could read all about it in your Citizen (no word on when the first letter to the editor about potholes appeared, however).
Did you know that when the automobile was introduced, licence plates in the nation’s capital were made of leather? Or that the Citizen finally got its first female editor-in-chief in 2016? (As of 2020, we welcome our second.)
Later this week, courtesy of local historian and journalist Randy Boswell, you’ll read a bit more about this publication’s storied past, and how closely tied it is to the evolution of Canada’s greatest city.
Leading up to our actual 175th birthday, in March, there will be plenty of other coverage.
Today, meanwhile, we’re adding a birthday tag to our page one nameplate.
History matters — it’s a guide to what has been achieved and what is possible for the future.
This year, we’re proud to share some of our history with Citizen readers. Thanks for being with us in 2020.
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