Rideau Hall and Supreme Court

Final Day (Tuesday May 21, 2013): Rideau Hall and Supreme Court

On our last day in Ottawa, Sohi and I went to visit a few more political and judicial institutions. Rideau Hall was our first stop.

Outside of Rideau Hall

Rideau Hall is the official residence and working place of Canada's Governor General, David Johnston, and has housed all the previous governor generals as well. We thought we'd take a tour to view the largest residential mansion and its heritage gardens. The Hall is located right across 24 Sussex Drive, which is the Prime Minister's home. Seeing the PM's house was a bonus too. It is a classified federal heritage building and going through the tour, we learned a great history related to this building. One of the most spectacular views in Rideau Hall was its recently installed Painting of Her Majesty.

Beautiful gardens and we even saw an inukshuk!

Rideau Hall encompasses a history of governor generals as well as a history of Canada that can be seen and learned by the public. The Hall was a really interesting touristic site that gives the opportunity to foreigners to learn a bit of Canada's political system and representatives.

Our next stop was the Supreme Court of Canada. We were lucky that regular tours started in May. The Supreme Court is Canada's highest judicial court as well as an Ottawa landmark, located on Wellington Street. As a high institution, the Court symbolizes the strong and independent judiciary guarantees of the government in accordance with Canada's constitution. The Court hears appeals from both the federal court system and provincial court system. What's interesting is that the Supreme Court of Canada functions as a national court, whereas in the United States, the courts function merely at the federal level.

The outside. It's massive!

In our tour, we got to see several rooms such as the Main Courtroom, Judges' Conference Room and Judges' Gallery. The building is enormous and gives off a powerful air. Overall, this building represents and encompasses Canada's prevailing judicial system.

Main Courtroom

In the evening, we packed our bags, paid our hotel fee and headed back to the Ottawa MacDonald-Cartier International Airport. We were happy to have spent our last day touring some of Ottawa's most influential sites.