Canada Guide
Ontario
Bellevue House
Address: 35 Centre St
Opening time: Daily: April– May & Sept– Oct 10am–5pm; June– Aug 9am–6pm
Price: $3.95
Website: www.pc.gc.ca
Born in Glasgow, Sir John Alexander Macdonald (1815–91) emigrated to Canada in his youth, settling in Kingston, where he became a successful corporate lawyer, an MP – representing the town for nearly forty years – and ultimately prime minister (1867–73 and 1887–91). A shrewd and forceful man, Macdonald played a leading role in Canada's Confederation, with a little arm-twisting here and a little charming there, to ensure the grand plan went through. In the 1840s, Macdonald rented Bellevue House, a bizarrely asymmetrical, pagoda-shaped building located about 2km to the west of the city centre, beyond the university campus. The idea was that the country air would improve the health of Macdonald's wife, Isabella, whose tuberculosis was made worse by the treatment – laudanum. Isabella never returned to good health and died after years as an invalid, leaving Macdonald alone (with the bottle). Both the house and gardens have been restored to the period of the late 1840s, when the Macdonalds lived here.