Statue of Queen Victoria

     As part of their royal tour of Canada in 1901, the Duke and Duchess of York and Cornwall visited Ottawa, the city that Queen Victoria had selected as the capital in 1857. On September 21 they officiated at a “dual ceremony,” unveiling the statue of the late queen and presenting medals to Canadian soldiers returned from the Boer War in South Africa. The ceremony thereby emphasised Canada’s participation in this essentially British imperial conflict. At the same time, the statue’s location on Parliament Hill, alongside monuments to Canadian leaders, brought it into a distinctly Canadian historical narrative.