It was a big day in Ontario’s capital city of Toronto on this date in 1867 as the new province’s first Dominion parliament opened with great fanfare. At the time, MPPs met at the Parliament Building on Front Street in Ontario’s largest city.The building had previously been the site of meetings of the Parliament of Upper Canada, and at various points in the same capacity for the United Provinces of Canada. It wasn’t until 1903 that the new Ontario Legislature was built and MPPs moved to Queen’s Park, where Ontario’s parliamentarians still meet in sessions today.[caption id="attachment_582784" align="aligncenter" width="486"]
Ontario's Parliament Buildings, 1867[/caption][caption id="attachment_582785" align="aligncenter" width="498"]
Ontario's first MPPs, 1867[/caption]Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.
Ontario's Parliament Buildings, 1867[/caption][caption id="attachment_582785" align="aligncenter" width="498"] Ontario's first MPPs, 1867[/caption]Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.