The birthplace of Canadian Confederation — where Charlottetown sits on a harbour in central Prince Edward Island, and the Fathers of Confederation chose this city for the September 1864 conference that began the negotiation of Canadian Confederation because the Province of Canada (Ontario/Quebec) and the Maritime colonies needed a neutral venue that was accessible by sea, not dominated by any single colonial interest, and that had an appropriate conference hall: Province House (1847 — a Georgian sandstone building on Richmond Street) is still standing and still functioning as the Confederation Chamber in the middle of downtown Charlottetown, the province of Prince Edward Island (the smallest province in Canada, 5,660 km² — smaller than Luxembourg) is famed for its red iron-oxide soil (the reddest agricultural soil in North America, which has tinted the island's beaches pink), its Malpeque Bay oysters (rated by many critics as the finest oysters produced in North America), and Anne of Green Gables (Lucy Maud Montgomery's 1908 novel, set on the island, is one of the most widely translated books in Canadian literature and has created a Japanese fan culture so devoted that the Anne of Green Gables Museum at Cavendish receives proportionally more Japanese visitors than almost any other heritage site in Atlantic Canada), and the city's Victorian architecture (intact blocks of late-19th-century townhouses and commercial buildings in Charlottetown's Old Historic District) is the most photographed streetscape in Atlantic Canada
Charlottetown (40,000 city; 70,000 metro) is the capital and largest city of Prince Edward Island — the smallest province in Canada. Charlottetown is known as the 'Birthplace of Canada' for hosting the 1864 Charlottetown Conference that initiated Canadian Confederation. The city combines Victorian architecture, seafood (especially Malpeque oysters), and a tourism economy built around PEI's literary heritage (Anne of Green Gables), beaches, and Red Sand Shore.
The Mi'kmaq people called Prince Edward Island 'Abegweit' ('cradle in the waves') and used it as a seasonal fishing ground for thousands of years. Charlottetown was founded in 1765 as the capital of the British colony of Isle Saint-Jean (formerly Île Saint-Jean under French rule from 1534). The 1864 Charlottetown Conference — hosted here because PEI was considered a neutral venue among the competing British North American colonies — produced the initial agreement that led to the British North America Act (1867) and Canadian Confederation. PEI itself did not join Canada until 1873, six years a…