Kingston: Birth of a Country (Complicated)

Confederation's early capital, the people who shaped it, and the costs its monuments leave out.

Coming soonKingston5 stopsEst. 22 mins driving between stops

Good for a day out
Food stops
History deep dive

Interpretive collage of Kingston limestone shoreline, harbor and Fort Henry for Kingston: Birth of a Country (Complicated).

A preview of the stories

A five-stop Kingston route through the early Province of Canada's political centre, from Macdonald's home and the first legislature to Oliver Mowat and physician Jenny Trout. It treats Confederation as a consequential political project with contested legacies, not a tidy origin story.

Starts nearDowntown Kingston, Rideau StreetEnds nearKingston City Hall, 216 Ontario Street

Map data & attributions

Interpretive collage of a limestone civic hall and market stalls in an early nineteenth-century town.

Story threads

Kingston as the first capital of the Province of Canada
John A. Macdonald and the politics of Confederation
Oliver Mowat and the making of Ontario
Bellevue House and the legacies of Macdonald’s era
Jenny Trout and women’s access to medical education

Explore these placesComing soon