The name “Canada” comes from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word “Kanata” which means “village” or “settlement.” The French explorer Jacques Cartier stayed for a while in the village of Stadacona in 1535 and later used the designation Canada in referring not only to the village, but to the entire region. By 1545, European books and maps were using this designation. Control of all of Canada passed from France to the British in 1763.
Initially, Canada referred to that portion of New France along the St. Lawrence River and the northern shores of the Great Lakes. Administratively, the British divided the area into Upper Canada and Lower Canada in 1791. The designations “upper” and “lower” referred to their location along the river. Upper Canada was predominately English-speaking and Lower Canada was predominately French-speaking. In 1841 the two provinces were unified as the Province of Canada.
In 1867 Canada became a self-governing dominion which retained ties to the British crown. Canada’s largest cities are Toronto (5.4 million), Montreal (3.8 million), Vancouver (2.2 million), Ottawa (1.2 million), and Calgary (1.2 million).
The map of Canada shown above is from the CIA World Factbook.
Ottawa:
Ottawa is the capital of Canada and its fourth largest city. Ottawa was originally settled by Europeans in 1826 and given the name Bytown. The settlement came into existence because of the preliminary work on the Rideau Canal which was being supervised by Colonel John By. Colonel By laid out streets for an upper town and lower town separated by the canal.
Bytown in 1839 is shown above.
The Rideau Canal is shown above.
In 1855, the town was incorporated and its name changed to Ottawa. The name “Ottawa” comes from the Algonquin Indian word “adawe” which means “to trade.” The Ottawa Nation was a part of the Three Fires Confederacy which included the Anishinabe (Ojibwa) and the Potawatomi. The tribes of the Three Fires Confederacy were once a single people living in the east according to oral tradition. At the time of separation, the tribes were living in the area of the Straits of Mackinac.
In 1857, Queen Victoria selected Ottawa to be the capital for the Province of Canada.
Toronto:
The site of present-day Toronto was inhabited by the Huron Indians when the first Europeans entered the area. Huron is an Iroquoian language and Deganawida, the founder of the Iroquois League of Five Nations (also known as the Iroquois Confederacy), was Huron. The Huron, however, were not a part of the League. In fact, the area around Toronto had probably been Iroquois territory at one time. The name “Toronto” comes from the Iroquois word “tkaronto” which means “place where the trees stand in the water.” This refers to the fact that the Huron had planted trees in the northern end of Lake Simcoe as part of a fishing weir.
The first Europeans to come into the area were French traders who established Fort Rouillé in 1750. This trading post was abandoned nine years later. During the American Revolution, many British loyalists fled from the new American republic and settled in the area. In 1787, the British negotiated what they called the Toronto Purchase with the Mississauga (Ojibwa) to obtain more than a quarter million acres in the area.
The Mississauga had begun “selling” land to the British in 1784. The Mississauga understood that they were simply renting their land to the British in exchange for gifts and presents in perpetuity. The British, on the other hand, had assumed that they had extinguished the Native title to the land and that the Crown had obtained full proprietary rights.
In 1793, Governor John Graces Simcoe established the town of York at the site. York was named for Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. In 1791, the British divided the Province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada and in 1796 the capital of Lower Canada was moved from Newark to York. In 1813, the Battle of York ended with the plunder of the town by American forces.
In 1834, York was incorporated as Toronto. At this time it had a population of 9,000 which included escaped African American slaves.
Montreal:
When the French under the leadership of Jacques Cartier first visited this area in 1535 it was inhabited by the St. Lawrence Iroquoians. Seventy years later, the French explorer Samuel de Champlain reported that the Iroquoian settlements had disappeared. In 1611 Champlain established La Place Royal, a fur trading post, on the island.
Montreal was established as a missionary colony under Paul de Chomeday de Maisonneuve in 1642. The Roman Catholic mission was operated by the Société de Notre-Dame de Montréal. They hoped to create a New Jerusalem, blessed by God, and composed of citizens destined for heaven. It was originally named Ville-Marie (City of Mary). It was later renamed Mont Réal (Mount Royal) which became Montreal.
Vancouver:
What is now Vancouver, British Columbia, began in 1867 as Gastown, named for a tavern established by “Gassy” Jack Deighton. In 1870, it was renamed Granville in honor of Lord Granville, the Secretary of State of the Colonies. In 1886, it was incorporated and renamed Vancouver in honor of George Vancouver. Vancouver had led the 1791-1795 British expedition which explored and charted the Northwest Coast.
Vancouver is located in the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people: Squamish, Musqueam, and Tseil-Waututh. Archaeological evidence suggests that the area has been inhabited for at least 10,000 years.
The first European to explore the area was Simon Fraser of the North West Company in 1808.
Calgary:
The Calgary area has been inhabited for more than 11,000 years. The first European to visit the area was fur trader David Thompson who spent the winter with a band of Peigan Indians in 1787. In 1876, the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) established Fort Brisebois at the site. The fort was named after NWMP officer Éphrem A. Brisebois. However, Colonel James Macleod soon renamed it Fort Calgary, after Calgary on the Isle of Mull in Scotland.
There are two possible origins of the name “Calgary.
It may have come from Old Norse (the area had been conquered by the Vikings) “kaid” and “gart” meaning “cold” and “garden.” On the other hand, the name may stem from the Gaelic “Cala ghearraidh” which means “beach of the meadow.”
Nineteenth-century Calgary is shown above.