Who chose Ottawa as the capital of Canada?

Discover Canada records this in one direct sentence. The guide writes: Ottawa, located on the Ottawa River, was chosen as the capital in 1857 by Queen Victoria, the great-great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II. The monarch the test wants is therefore Queen Victoria.

The date the guide attaches matters. Discover Canada dates the choice to 1857 — ten years before Confederation in 1867. So Queen Victoria's choice predates the country itself: Ottawa was named the capital first, and the Dominion of Canada was created around it. The guide also notes elsewhere that Confederation in 1867 happened "during Queen Victoria's" reign — making her presence in early Canadian nation-building doubly visible.

The royal lineage is part of the same sentence. Discover Canada calls Queen Victoria the "great-great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II." So although Elizabeth II reigned in modern Canadian memory, the sovereign who actually picked Ottawa was four generations earlier. The capital choice is a Victorian-era decision, not a modern one.

An older tie-in deepens the story. Discover Canada writes that "The Duke of Wellington sent some of his best soldiers to defend Canada in 1814. He then chose Bytown (Ottawa) as the endpoint of the Rideau Canal," and that Wellington "played a direct role in founding the national capital." So Ottawa's path to capital status begins with Wellington's military engineering in the 1810s and is sealed by Queen Victoria's royal decision in 1857. Today the city is described as "Canada's fourth largest metropolitan area," with the National Capital Region covering 4,700 square kilometres.

The question is testing whether new citizens know which monarch picked Ottawa as the capital. Discover Canada commits to one name: Queen Victoria, in 1857. The right test answer matches that.

The wrong answer choices each pick a different historical figure. Queen Elizabeth II reigned much later — the guide identifies her as Victoria's great-great-granddaughter, not the capital chooser. King George VI is not named in this connection. Sir John A. Macdonald was the first Prime Minister, but the guide places the capital choice with the Sovereign, not the politician.