Guest Speakers

Alastair Sweeny, Author "Thomas Mackay, The Laird of Rideau Hall and the Founding of Ottawa"

Details

How did Bytown begin? And how did this backwoods lumber town, within just a few short decades, miraculously emerge as the capital of the nation? What was Thomas Mackay's integral role in all of this?

The Rideau Canal, Rideau Hall, New Edinburgh, Ottawa's first railway, and our choice as Canada's capital — all irrefutably bear the stamp of this key founder of our city. Alastair Sweeny traces the inseparable stories of Thomas Mackay and that of our city's beginnings.

View the full presentation on the YouTube channel of the Historical Society of Ottawa.