I have come to Ottawa to get a “close-up” of the government of Canada, and to see for myself if the city deserves its name, the “Washington of the North.” Ottawa gives one an impression of vigour, youth, and energy. It seems up to the minute, and not hanging on the coat-tails of the past like Quebec. It has some of the English flavour of Halifax, but is more modern. Like Washington, it is built on plans that, as they are developed, will emphasize its natural beauties.

Ottawa is becoming a centre of intellectual life as well as of political activity. The city is attracting people of wealth and leisure who find it a pleasant place of residence for all or a part of the year. The government service includes men and women of unusual attainments, who are less likely to lose their places on account of politics than those holding similar offices in the United States. Ottawa is also becoming the headquarters for scientific and other organizations, and is developing rapidly as an educational centre.

Washington has the Potomac, but this capital is on the banks of two rivers, the Ottawa and the Rideau. Its site was chosen only after a bitter struggle between rival cities. Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, and Toronto each wanted the honour, but in 1859 all gracefully accepted the arbitration of Queen Victoria, who chose Ottawa. It was then a town of less than ten thousand people. It now has more than one hundred thousand. It lies in the province of Ontario, but is separated from Quebec only by the Ottawa River.

In contrast with our national capital, Ottawa is an important city in its own right aside from the presence of the Dominion government. It is one of the chief lumber centres of all Canada, and besides saw mills and paper mills, has a match factory that is among the largest in the world. These industries are run by water-power. Ottawa is at the head of navigation of the Ottawa River, which here is broken by the Chaudière Falls. When Champlain saw these falls the tumbling waters presented a beautiful spectacle. Now they are reduced and obscured by mills and power stations. There is about two million horse-power available within fifty miles, one twentieth of which is developed.

Many of the industries based on the water-powers and the lumber of the Ottawa district are in Hull, across the river. Hull has about thirty thousand people, nearly all French Canadians. Its population is temporarily increased each evening, as streams of Ottawans cross the bridges from the bone dry province of Ontario to the beer and wine cafés of the adjoining territory.

To appreciate all the beauties of the capital one must ride over its thirty miles of boulevards and park drives. The Rideau Canal flows through the heart of the city, giving a picturesque appearance to its business districts, and lending a delightful aspect to the streets and homes in the residential sections. There are block after block of attractive houses that have the canal at their front doors, and others with the canal in the rear. I noticed more than one canoe moored, so to speak, in a backyard.

Indeed, the city seems entirely surrounded by water and parks. Besides the Rideau Canal, there is the river of the same name, with well-kept parks along its banks. The most commanding sites on the hillsides overlooking the rivers are occupied by fine public buildings and millionaires’ residences. There are numerous yacht and canoe clubs, while on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River, above the Chaudière Falls, are several golf courses. In their clubs the Canadians seem to be content to do things on a less elaborate scale than is common in the States, thus making it possible for men and women of moderate means to belong without feeling extravagant. In fact, though none know better than the Canadians how to entertain elaborately whenever they choose to do so, they live more simply than we, and spend more time in outdoor recreations.

Imagine yourself at my side as I write these words, and look with me out of my hotel window. We are in the Château Laurier, a modern hotel built of light-coloured stone in the design of a French chateau. It was erected by the Grand Trunk Railroad, but now, like the railroad, is operated by the government. It faces Connaught Square, opposite the Union Station, with which it is connected by an underground passage.

If we were to fall from our window, we should land on the bank of the Rideau Canal as it comes out from under Connaught Square. The canal divides Ottawa into two parts. East of the canal is Lower Town, where most of the French residents live. To the east also is Sandy Hill, a fine residential quarter. Just below us the canal descends through a ravine down to the level of the Ottawa River. Here there are six locks forming a water stairway. The canal connects the Ottawa River with Kingston, on Lake Ontario. It was constructed chiefly for military purposes. After the War of 1812, the Canadians felt that they needed an inland waterway between Montreal and the Lakes that would not be exposed to attack from the American side. For many years Ottawa bore the name of Bytown, after a military engineer, Colonel By, who built the canal.

Now look across the ravine through which the canal drops down to the river. There are the government buildings, arranged in a quadrangle. They are massive structures of rough stone and Gothic architecture that crown the bluff one hundred and sixty feet above the water. They look more like one of our universities than any of our capitols. The Parliament building, with its back to the river, forms one side of the quadrangle. In front of it are several acres of lawn that slope gently down to Wellington Street. Facing the Parliament building are other government offices, business buildings, and the white marble home of the Rideau Club, where politicians from all Canada gather during the legislative sessions.

The government has bought several city blocks near the Parliament quadrangle, on which it will some day erect appropriate structures to house its various departments. Some of them, meanwhile, are accommodated in all sorts of office buildings and remodelled dwellings, a condition that also reminds me of Washington. This fact shows, too, that in the face of the continual cry for greater economy the government machine in Canada is, like our own, getting bigger every year.

The present Parliament house is a new building that will have cost, when complete, nearly twelve million dollars. It is on the site and about the size of the one burned in 1916, except that it has one story more, and its square Gothic tower will be within two feet as high as the dome of the United States Capitol. The entrance hall, which forms the base of this tower, is a veritable forest of pillars that uphold Gothic arches. The arches and walls have a dappled gray-white appearance, due to fossils in the Selkirk limestone. Arched corridors lead to the Senate wing on the right, to the House of Commons on the left, and straight ahead into the library, the only part of the original building not destroyed by the fire.

I found the Senate chamber a beautiful room, handsomely appointed. Its walls are lined with large paintings of Canadian troops in action in the World War. The ninety-six senators who represent the various provinces are appointed for life by the government in power whenever vacancies occur. Seats in this body are often handed out as political plums. The Canadian Senate has not nearly as much power in national affairs as the upper house of our Congress, but a seat in it means both honour and a living.

The House of Commons, the real arena of Canadian political life, is a long, high-ceilinged room, with a broad aisle extending from the door to the speaker’s dais. On each side of the aisle are rows of double desks behind which sit the two hundred and thirty-five members. Those belonging to the majority party are on the speaker’s right, and those of the opposition on his left. The speaker’s big chair is patterned after the one in the English House of Commons. I sat in it and found it very uncomfortable. Above it is the coat of arms of Canada, carved in wood from Westminster six hundred years old. All around the chamber are galleries for visitors.

The members of the Canadian Congress are not as generously provided for as ours. They get salaries of four thousand dollars a year, with nothing extra for secretaries. Instead of cash mileage allowances they receive railroad passes. The Parliament must meet every year, and the sessions usually last from early in January until May or June. Because of the tendency of members to go home before the adjournment, the House passed a law imposing fines of twenty-five dollars a day for absences during the final two weeks. Our Congress might do well to enact a similar law.

Yesterday morning I drove out to Rideau Hall, a big gray stone mansion in park-like grounds overlooking the Rideau and Ottawa rivers. It is the residence of the Governor-General of Canada, the representative of His Majesty, the King of Great Britain, and the nominal head of the Canadian government. The Canadians pay him a princely salary, furnish him this palatial country residence, and make him a generous allowance for entertainment and travel. They sincerely desire that he enjoy his five years among them, provided that he does not interfere in the conduct of their affairs.

“Just consider,” said a Canadian statesman to me to-day, “that the position of the Governor-General in Canada is identical with that of the King in Great Britain. He is a symbol of the unity and continuity of the empire, but his executive duties are purely formal, as he must not take the initiative and must always get the advice of his ministers. Control of the government may shift from one party to another here as in England, but the Governor-General, like the King, continues undisturbed in his office. When his term expires the King names his successor, but no government in London dreams of making the appointment until it has consulted with Ottawa and ascertained that the man chosen is acceptable to us.”

The speaker was a man who has frequently held high offices in the government. Like other Canadians I have met, he believes his country has a more democratic form of government than that of the United States.

“You know,” said he, “we in Canada marvel at the strange spectacle you sometimes have in Washington of a president of one party confronted by a majority in Congress of another party. To us, responsible popular government under such conditions is unthinkable. The majority in the House of Commons always forms our government, or administration, as you call it, and the majority leader becomes premier and head of the cabinet. As long as it is supported by a majority of that house, the cabinet is the supreme power of the land in federal affairs. As soon as it ceases to be supported by the majority, it loses the right to govern and a new ministry comes in. Under our system an election must be held every five years, but it may be held oftener. For example, a prime minister who has met defeat in the Commons may advise a dissolution of Parliament and appeal at once to the people in a general election. You Americans vote by the calendar, every two or four years; we vote on specific issues as the need arises. Every one of our cabinet ministers is an elected member of the House of Commons or a member of the Senate, and must answer for all his official acts on the floor of the House.”

I asked as to the present attitude toward the United States.

“It seems to me,” was the reply, “the relations between Canada and the United States were never better than they are to-day. The ancient grudges on our side of the border, and the loose talk of annexation or absorption on yours, are now happily things of the past. While we have an area greater than yours, and vast wealth in natural resources, the fact that our population is only one twelfth of yours means that you will for years to come exercise a strong influence upon Canada.

“When you consider that the two countries have a joint border more than three thousand miles long, on which there is no armed force whatsoever; that they have created one joint commission that settles all boundary disputes and another that disposes of questions concerning waters common to both countries; that we are your second best customer and that you are a large investor in our enterprises; that many of our wage-workers have gone to you and many of your farmers have come to us—taking all these things into consideration, one may say that the two peoples have managed to get along with one another in pretty good fashion.

“By closing your markets to us, through high tariffs, you sometimes make things a bit difficult for some of our people. On the other hand, we have erected some tariff barriers of our own. Our fisheries, fruit industries, and manufactures now demand protection, just as your farmers and others insist on having tariffs against some Canadian products. Our people are divided by sectional interests, just as yours are, and both governments have difficulty, at times, in reconciling conflicting desires. But I think Washington and Ottawa will always understand one another, and will work out successfully their mutual problems of the future.”

Few Americans realize how independent Canada is. She pays not a dollar in taxes to the British, nor does she receive any funds from the Imperial Treasury. The relations between the Dominion and the Empire are not fixed by law, but, like the British constitution, are unwritten and constantly changing. Canada maintains a High Commissioner in London, concedes certain tariff preferences to Great Britain and the other dominions, and her premier takes part in the imperial conferences in London. In all other respects she goes along in her own way and does exactly as she pleases. She played a great part in the World War, and would undoubtedly fight again, but only of her own free will. The people regard the Dominion as a member of a “Commonwealth of Nations” united under the British flag, and care little for talk of empire. They have even passed a law putting an end to the system whereby the Crown conferred titles on distinguished Canadians.