Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Best Fundy spot for Canada Day

It's Canada Day today! If you're Canadian you may immediately think of our nation's capital (Ottawa) or, in Atlantic Canada, perhaps Charlottetown, PEI, as the place to be on Canada Day today. I'd like to offer up a lesser known Bay of Fundy hotspot for Canada Day celebrations: the Ottawa House by the Sea Museum & Historic Site in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia.

The full 9 chapters (240 yrs) of history of the Ottawa House are too extensive to mention in a single blog post, but suffice to say that the building (and adjacent Partridge Island) have played a prominent role in trade, the Age of Sail, Canadian sovereignty, early settlement & growth of the region, etc., since it was first constructed in the 1770s.

What makes the Ottawa House most suited to Canada Day celebrations is that it was Sir Charles Tupper's summer home in the 1860s, in the years leading up to Confederation. It was here that Tupper regularly hosted his fellow Fathers of Confederation and other notables who were instrumental in forming our great nation in 1867.

Canada Day is joyfully celebrated each year at the Ottawa House. The museum (overlooking the Minas Basin of the Bay of Fundy) offers an afternoon of flag raising, speeches, tours, performances by the Parrsboro Citizens Band, and, of course, birthday cake!

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