Monday 24th September 2012 ­ Charlottetown Prince Edward Island Canada: The Birthplace of the Confederation of Canada - 4hrs BST

The city of Charlottetown is known as the birthplace of the Confederation of Canada.  Led by Sir John A Macdonald, reputed to be a ‘gin swilling Scot’ who became the first Prime Minister of Canada, the “Fathers of the Confederation” first met in 1864 in Province House in Charlottetown (See photo).  Macdonald was said to have brought 150,000 bottles of champagne to the meeting – to oil the wheels perhaps?  It took some three years until 1867 before the Dominion of Canada became a reality and the modern Canada of today was not completed until British Columbia (BC) joined in 1871 and later still Prince Edward Island (PEI) in 1873. BC only agreed to join on the promise of rail link to join Montreal and Vancouver.  The first train between these two cities ran on the Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1886.  For those interested in reading more about this railroad read my Grand Alaska Blog at http://terry-grandalaska.blogspot.co.uk/

Named in honour of Queen Charlotte of England the town was incorporated as a city in 1855.  Today Charlottetown is the smallest provincial capital in Canada with a population of 30,000.

Peg and I had a pleasant stroll in the warm sunshine, browsing in the shops and enjoying the elegant rows of 19th century brick houses with wide streets allowing cars to park diagonally, nose towards the kerb.  It was also good to be back amongst the friendly Nova Scotians with their smiley ‘Hellos’ and ‘Do you need help?  We didn’t stray too far since we needed to be back for our afternoon tour - hauling Lobster traps!