National Park at the Doorstep of Canada’s Capital

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter describes the historical transformation of the Gatineau Hills, starting from the recognition that the entire area constitutes the unceded territory of the Algonquin people. As shown in section one, the Algonquin used the Gatineau Hills mainly for the purposes of hunting; this hunting territory was distributed among Algonquin families through rights of inheritance. Beginning in the 1800s, the first settlers began to occupy the area and over time displaced the Algonquin. Irish and Loyalist farm families found the Gatineau Hills to be marginal, and most of the pioneer families migrated westward. The second section discusses how the Gatineau Hills became a summer retreat for federal politicians and civil servants who sought an escape to nature from the “lumbertown” of Ottawa, the capital of Canada. The third section details the proposals to establish a protected area in the Gatineau Hills, such that the area would be preserved for future generations as a national park. This was the desire of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King who approved funds for the park; above all else, King wanted a national park in the Gatineau Hills. The fourth section recounts how, in the 1920s, cottagers established organizations which pursued the goals of beautification and improvement, including new roads to the Gatineau Hills. These organizations would be the catalyst to the creation of “Gatineau Park” by the Federal District Commission in 1938. The fifth section describes the first debates in Parliament on the FDC and a national park in the Gatineau Hills, with Prime Minister Mackenzie King accused of having a conflict of interest in wanting the federal government to improve Kingsmere.