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Everyone to Parliament!

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The Present-Day Place D'Youville

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Place Royale

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Place d’Armes

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Notre-Dame Street

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Champ-de-Mars

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Assembly Mace

Upper section of the Legislative Council’s mace. A large cup is topped with a four-arched royal crown. On the dome are bas-reliefs of figures dressed in togas and naval scenes. The mace is made of gold.

The Senate Mace (detail), Senate of Canada.

Canada’s Parliament inherited British traditions and symbols, including the mace, the central emblem of parliamentary authority. The Senate’s mace (formerly that of the Legislative Council) represents the power of the monarchy, while the Legislative Assembly—like today’s House of Commons—has its own mace, a symbol of its legislative authority.

The Mace

Upper section of the Legislative Council’s mace. A large cup is topped with a four-arched royal crown. The dome features bas-reliefs of figures dressed in togas and naval scenes. The mace is made of gold.

The Senate Mace, Senate of Canada.

A ceremonial object representing the monarchy, the Assembly’s mace was placed on the clerk’s table when the members sat. During the 1849 fire, rioters carried it out of the Parliament, but the government later recovered it. It would not, however, survive the 1916 fire at Ottawa’s Parliament.

The ceremonial mace of the Legislative Council, however, escaped the disasters of 1849 and 1916. Today, it is preserved at the Senate in Ottawa.

Andrew Morris Painting

19th-century painting of the Council Chamber of Montréal’s Parliament. At the centre of the back wall, a throne is topped by a circular red canopy, with a man seated beneath it in black military dress. Two immense paintings in gilded frames hang on either side of the throne. A crowd fills the room.

Andrew Morris, “Sir Charles Metcalfe Opening Parliament in Montreal” (detail), Library and Archives Canada, R13801-0-1-F.​


In this painting by Andrew Morris, depicting the Legislative Council chamber, the sixth figure to the Governor’s left carries the mace. He is Olivier Vallerand, Sergeant-at-Arms of the Legislative Council—today’s Senate.