It was 175 years ago this month in February 1841 - Feb. 10 to be exact - that Kingston's destiny forever changed. In the aftermath of the rebellions of 1837 in both Upper and Lower Canada, it was clear to British authorities that what would eventually become Quebec and Ontario were, to use a modern phrase, failed states. Great British Liberal Lord Durham studied the situation after the rebellions and issued his famous - infamous even today for French Canadians - report. And from that came the creation of the United Province of Canada. And on Feb. 10, 1841, Gov. Gen. Lord Sydenham made Kingston's role in the governing changes official: This united province would have a new capital. Her name was Kingston. I'll let Sir John A. Macdonald biographer, the great Richard Gwyn, describe what happened next in our community back then. "This town of some 5,000 souls had gone into an instant and ecstatic boom," Gwyn wrote in Volume 1 of his majestic biography of Macdonald.  "Civil servants streamed in, along with the governor general and his mini-court. Construction was soon under way for at least 400 new houses.  Town officials took delighted note of the fact that a grand new town hall just happened to have, in its second storey, two high-ceilinged chambers ideal for the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council, or upper chamber.  Until this building was completed, the Assembly met in a newly built but empty hospital, with 84 overstuffed armchairs equipped with an attached writing table hurried in for the 84 legislators." It is also important to note that a Scottish immigrant, yes John Alexander Macdonald, was already on the rise.  He would soon join town council as an alderman and his rise to Canadian greatness would follow. But I'm getting ahead of the story. However, I will also note that in recent years the federal Department of Canadian Heritage declared this year, largely because of Kingston's role as the first capital and what happened here in the 1840s, a priority commemoration for all Canadians as we head to 2017 and the 150th birthday of our beloved country. While the story of Kingston as the first capital does not end happily for our community - or for Lord Sydenham, who fell off his horse and ended by dying here in great agony from lockjaw (even typing the word is painful) - for as we all know, the capital was shortly moved, the work that was done here had great benefit to Canada. And we enjoy some of the fruits of the work that was done here, starting 175 years ago to this very day. I speak, of course, of responsible government. Today most of our eyes will glaze over upon hearing that term, reminded of civics classes in primary or early high school. So, for those who need a refresher, here is how the Canadian Encyclopedia defines the term: "Responsible government refers to a government that is responsible to the people. In Canada responsible government is more commonly described as an executive or cabinet that is dependent on the support of an elected assembly, rather than on the monarch." It was here, at Kingston and at what is now Kingston General Hospital, that the first attempts at achieving responsible government for what had been Upper and Lower Canadians took place. Members of the Legislature arrived in Kingston for the opening of the first Parliament expecting their colony would be governed the old way - with the executive depending on British Governor General for support. I'll let the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (DCB) section on Lord Sydenham describe what instead occurred. "Nothing Lord Sydenham did was illegal, unconstitutional, or inconsistent with the basic principle of responsible government," the DCB notes. "And by the end of the session of 1841 at Kingston that principle had become the established practice in the legislature of the United Province." In fairness, it must be noted that part of the reason Kingston was chosen by the British as Canada's first capital was the fact we were a bastion of the English language. Part of the reason Upper and Lower Canada were united was with an eye to the eventual assimilation of French Canadians. But again, turning to the DCB, we discover that certain seeds were planted here at Kingston that would forever and positively impact the future course of Canadian history. And the assimilation of French Canadians? I don't - thankfully - think so! "Ultimately, the union was not so disastrous to French Canada as its critics had predicted," DCB contributor Phillip Buckner writes. "French Canadians became a minority, but were numerous enough to defend their vital interests and secure enough to open a new era of collaboration with the Anglophone majority. Without this imposed cooperation, Confederation, which was not a feasible solution to the Canadian problem in the 1840s, might never have taken place." And watching here in Kingston as the new Parliament forced French-speaking and English-speaking Canadians to work together whether they liked it or not? A young Kingstonian by the name of John A. Macdonald. He would then go on to extend the hand of friendship and compromise to Cartier of Quebec. And the rest, my friends, as they say, is history.   Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist.  He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy.  A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.