Touring Parliament

Talk about learning something new every day, I was able to learn a lot about Canada today! There are two tours of Parliament Hill, one outside, and one inside the building. Outside is very interesting; the tour consisted primarily of looking at statues and hearing the history of the country. Did you know that women weren’t even considered people until 1929 in Canada? Five women came together to petition the court to become considered people, but all of the courts in the country disagreed that they were people. Fortunately, at that time the Supreme Court could be overruled by the monarch in England. The court findings were overruled ultimately, and women became people at that time. Library and Archives Canada has a great summary of the case if you want to read it.

After the outside tour, we got to go inside and see Parliament. One of these pictures is of the House of Commons. There are almost 400 people that serve in the House. We also got to see the Chambers of the Senate, but I forgot to take pictures in there. After the tour was over, we had the opportunity to go up into the peace tower. From my other pictures, you’ve seen the highest point on the tower? The peace part of the tower is just 100 feet below the bottom of the clock. So I got to go very near to the top. I was able to get a picture of the bear from the peace tower overlooking the tower of the Library of Parliament. If you want to know more about the Library, click HERE.