Thomas Mackay, Ottawa’s Master Builder

Ottawa has always been easy to mock. The 19th-century British journalist Goldwin Smith called it a “Sub-arctic lumber-village converted by royal mandate into a political cockpit.” The late political columnist Allan Fotheringham memorably referred to it as “the city that fun forgot.” Like many capitals, its name is shorthand for Big Government, including the notion of it as a smug, staid place devoid of adventure.

Having lived there twice for extended periods, I can say that Ottawans generally don’t worry about any of that; they’re too content with the city’s many real charms to care. And, as the writer-historian Alastair Sweeny ably demonstrates, many clichés don’t stand up to proper study of the city’s colourful history. Sweeny, in his deeply-researched new book Thomas Mackay: the Laird of Rideau Hall and the Founding of Ottawa, paints a vivid picture of a remarkably talented, relatively little-known man who helped found the city, of its drama-filled early days and the way in which Mackay’s achievements still underpin Ottawa’s existence. [MORE]