First Meeting of the Executive Council of Upper Canada National Historic Event

Kingston, Ontario
Detailed view of the HSMBC plaque on the Whig Standard building in Kingston, ON © Parks Canada / Parcs Canada, 1989
View of the HSMBC plaque
© Parks Canada / Parcs Canada, 1989
View of the placement of this HSMBC plaque on the Whig Standard Building © Parks Canada / Parcs Canada, 1989Detailed view of the HSMBC plaque on the Whig Standard building in Kingston, ON © Parks Canada / Parcs Canada, 1989
Address : 306 King Street East, Kingston, Ontario

Recognition Statute: Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date: 1920-01-30

Other Name(s):
  • First Meeting of the Executive Council of Upper Canada  (Designation Name)

Importance: 1792 meeting with Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe

Plaque(s)


Existing plaque: Front of Whig Standard Building 306 King Street East, Kingston, Ontario

Because of the Loyalist influx into the western part of Quebec after the American Revolution, the province was divided into Upper and Lower Canada ( now Ontario and Quebec). The constitutional Act of 1791 provided for representative government in each of the new provinces. On July 8, 1792, John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, met his Executive Council in St. George's Church which once occupied this site. In the following three weeks the Council divided the province into counties and allocated representation to the Assembly that was to meet at Newark (later Niagara-on-the-Lake) in September.