Montmorency Park National Historic Site
Montmorency Park was designated as a national historic site in 1966.
The Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada reviewed this designation in 2022.
Commemorative plaque: Port-Dauphin and Côte de la Montagne Streets, Québec, QuebecFootnote 1
Montmorency Park
For nearly a century, the legislative councillors and members of the Parliament of Lower Canada (1792–1838), the Province of Canada (1852–1854; 1860–1865) and the Province of Quebec (1867–1883) met here. This place is associated with milestones in Canada’s political and constitutional history, notably the deliberations of the Québec Conference of 1864, where delegates from the British North American colonies drafted 72 resolutions that formed the basis of Confederation in 1867. After the fire that destroyed the Parliament Building in 1883, this site ceased to be a centre of political power and became a public park ten years later.
© Jeff Frenette Photography / Destination Québec cité
© Destination Québec cité
Reasons for designation
For more than a century, the site was the location of a number of buildings of parliament, starting with that of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, from 1792 to 1838.
It is one of the sites where the Parliament of the Province of Canada met between 1841 and 1866 and the place where the Quebec Conference of 1864 was held during which were drafted the 72 resolutions, upon which the British North America Act is based.
The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Quebec sat at that location between 1867 and 1883.
Review of designation
Reviews are undertaken on an ongoing basis to ensure that designations reflect current scholarship, shifts in historical understandings, and a range of voices, perspectives and experiences in Canadian society.
In 2022 , this designation was reviewed due to an absence of a layer of history in the initial reasons for designation and in the commemorative plaque text. The original text, approved in 1986, recognized Montmorency Park as one of the sites where the Parliament of the Province of Canada met between 1841 and 1866 but did not include its role as the site of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada (1792—1838), the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Quebec (1867—1883), and the Québec Conference of 1864.
The reasons for designation and plaque text were broadened to include these aspects of early legislative history. A new plaque was installed in 2022.
Source: Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Minutes, April 2022.
The National Program of Historical Commemoration relies on the participation of Canadians in the identification of places, events and persons of national historic significance. Any member of the public can nominate a topic for consideration by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.
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