For those like myself, who live in Kingston, today is annually a sad one on the Canadian calendar.  It was, of course, on this date in 1844 that Kingston’s days as the first capital of the United Canadas ended, with the capital moving to Montreal. It should be noted that though Kingston was the first to have the honour from 1841-44, the capital of the Province of Canada - aka the United Canadas - changed 6 times in 26 years.  The capital was in Montreal from 1844-1849 -- until protesters burned down Montreal's parliament buildings -- and then moved to Toronto until 1852.  Quebec City served as capital from 1852 to 1856.  In 1857 Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the capital and initiated construction of parliament buildings.  But, given that the construction of parliament buildings would take quite a few years, the capital moved from Quebec City to Toronto for 1858, before returning to Quebec City from 1859 to 1866.  The last official session of the Province of Canada took place in 1866, in Ottawa's new parliament buildings. But, getting back to the dastardly matter that occurred on this day in 1844, the decision to move the capital from Kingston came in a vote in the legislature only three years – and three sessions of the Parliament – after Governor General Lord Sydenham had chosen Kingston as the capital of the United Canadas in the first place. Kingstonians were rightly furious: “We have been fooled, bamboozled, and humbugged,” a local editorial writer, his name lost to history, thundered in the Kingston press. “We have been sold like merchandise.  Our rights have been bartered like wheat.  Our views have been despised and rejected as if we had been a community of simpletons.  Our feeling has been entertained as if we had been so many logs of wood.” In the aftermath, Kingston would be plunged into a lengthy economic depression that took more than a decade to recover from.  But citizens of the Limestone City soon moved forward – as they always do – and peace and prosperity again ruled the day. caption id="attachment_557058" align="aligncenter" width="400" Parliament Building, Kingston/caption 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.