Chosen by Queen Victoria for this role, the City of Ottawa is the capital and seat of government for the Dominion of Canada. The Parliament Buildings are a symbol of how far Canada has progressed from its recent history of a vast wilderness to a modern country. Close to the Parliament Buildings is the Chateau Laurier Hotel, named after the first French-Canadian Prime Minister, Wilfrid Laurier. Much of Ontario’s history centers around Jesuit missionaries who settled in an area formerly called Huronia. Small churches are historic reminders of their settlements. Ontario is a province of lakes, where its residents go for recreation. Many tourist resorts, big and small, lavish and more modest, dot many lake shores. The lakes are all connected by what seems to be an endless number of waterways. Portaging from lake to lake is a popular past-time, and where there are lakes, there are bound to be boats. But the lakes are not all about recreation, as the City of Toronto, the capital of Ontario and Canada’s second largest city, is a lake city, whose economy is dependent upon commercial lake activities, such as shipping. Across Lake Ontario from Toronto is Niagara Falls, one of the seven natural wonders of the world.