🇨🇦 Canada · Atlantic Coast / Maritime Provinces
Charlottetown is one of those small capitals you fall for because of its human scale and its weight of history. Capital of Prince Edward Island — Canada's smallest province — it's a city of tree-lined streets, colourful Victorian houses, spired churches and a lively waterfront on a natural harbour. But its greatest claim to fame is historic: here, in 1864, the Charlottetown Conference was held, the meeting that set in motion the process that led to the creation of Canada. That's why it's called the Birthplace of Confederation.
The city combines that founding weight with a relaxed, warm atmosphere very typical of the Maritime provinces. Its historic centre is walkable, among heritage buildings like Province House and the Confederation Centre of the Arts, shops, cafés and restaurants where the undisputed star is seafood: island oysters, mussels, lobster and potatoes (Prince Edward Island is famous for its potatoes and its distinctive red soil).
Charlottetown is also the gateway to the world of Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery's much-loved novel set on the island, which draws visitors from all over the world, especially from Japan. This guide covers the essentials of the city and its surroundings with a practical, warm eye: what to see in the historic centre, how to get to grips with the story of Confederation, where to eat seafood, and how to use Charlottetown as a base for discovering the red-sand beaches, the lighthouses and the nature of the whole island.
The Prince Edward Island region was the ancestral territory of the Mi'kmaq people, who called it Epekwitk (the root of 'Abegweit'). The French colonised it in the 18th century as part of Acadia, under the name Île Saint-Jean, until it passed into British hands after the colonial wars of the middle of that century. Charlottetown was founded by the British around 1764-1768 as the colony's capital, and was named after Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III. The city was laid out on a grid with squares, typical of British colonial foundations. Its decisive historic moment came in September 1864, when it hosted the Charlottetown Conference: representatives of several British colonies in North America met at Province House to discuss union, in what would be the first step towards the creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867. Hence its title of Birthplace of Confederation. The island, paradoxically, didn't join Canada until 1873. Through the 20th century Charlottetown grew as a provincial capital and cultural centre, and the worldwide fame of the novel 'Anne of Green Gables' (published in 1908 by islander Lucy Maud Montgomery) turned the island into an international tourist destination. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓Canada's smallest province: a Mi'kmaq island of red earth and green fields, 'Birthplace of Confederation' thanks to the Charlottetown conference of 1864 and the setting of the novel Anne of Green Gables.
Read the history of Prince Edward Island →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Long before the Europeans arrived, Prince Edward Island was the territory of the Mi'kmaq people, who called it Epekwitk, a word usually translated as 'resting on the waves' or 'cradled on the waves', from which the form 'Abegweit' derives. For the Mi'kmaq the island was part of their vast ancestral territory of Mi'kma'ki, which covered much of what are now Canada's Maritime provinces.
The Mi'kmaq made use of the richness of the island and its waters: they fished, hunted and gathered shellfish, moving seasonally along its coasts and through its forests. The abundance of resources in the Northumberland Strait and the Gulf of St. Lawrence made Epekwitk a valuable place within their world. Their relationship with the land and the sea ran deep, and it showed in their poetic name for the island.
European colonisation, first French and then British, radically transformed Mi'kmaq life, but their presence on the island was never entirely broken: the nation is still present on Prince Edward Island, and its history and original bond with this land form the first layer of any account of Charlottetown and the province.
The first Europeans to settle the island permanently were the French, in the 18th century, as part of Acadia. They named it Île Saint-Jean and established farming and fishing settlements peopled by Acadian colonists. For decades the island formed part of the French world of the North Atlantic, tied to the nearby fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton.
The colonial wars between France and Britain in the middle of the 18th century changed the island's fate. After the fall of the French possessions, Île Saint-Jean passed under British control, and many of its Acadian inhabitants suffered the deportation that struck all of Acadia. The island was renamed in English as St. John's Island and, later, in 1799, was given the name Prince Edward Island, after Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (son of King George III and father of the future Queen Victoria).
It was within this new British framework that Charlottetown was founded, around the 1760s, chosen as the colony's capital. The city was named after Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III, and was laid out on a grid plan with squares, typical of British colonial foundations of the period. So was born the small capital that, a century later, would play a decisive part in the history of Canada.
The event that gave Charlottetown its place in history happened in September 1864. The British Maritime colonies (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island) had called a meeting in Charlottetown to discuss a possible union among themselves. But delegates from the Province of Canada (today's Ontario and Quebec) joined that conference as invitees, led by figures such as John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier, and they arrived with a far more ambitious idea: the union of all the British colonies of North America.
The talks were held at Charlottetown's Province House and, although they produced no definitive agreement, they were decisive: the idea of a great federation was sown there. The conference came with banquets and balls that created a climate of understanding among the delegates, the future Fathers of Confederation. The process continued a few weeks later at the Quebec Conference, and culminated in the creation of the Dominion of Canada on 1 July 1867.
For having hosted that seminal meeting, Charlottetown earned for ever the title of Birthplace of Confederation. It's one of the most symbolic places in Canadian political history, and the Province House where it all happened is preserved as a National Historic Site, while the Confederation Centre of the Arts was raised in 1964 as a national monument to the centenary of that event.
One of the great paradoxes of Charlottetown's history is that, despite having been the cradle of Confederation, Prince Edward Island did not join Canada in 1867, when the new Dominion was born. The islanders, wary of losing autonomy and unconvinced of the benefits of union, chose at first to stay outside the federation they had themselves helped bring about.
The situation changed a few years later, mostly for economic reasons. The small province had embarked on building a railway that left it in a difficult financial position, and Canada's promise to take on those debts, guarantee a permanent connection with the mainland and offer other favourable terms tipped the balance. Finally, in 1873, Prince Edward Island joined the Dominion of Canada as its seventh province.
Since then Charlottetown has been the capital of the country's smallest province, in both area and population. Its modest size hasn't cost it any identity: the city has cultivated its character as a small historic capital, proud of its founding role in the creation of Canada, a role it celebrates and commemorates in many ways through the year.
At the start of the 20th century the island took on a fame very different from the political kind, thanks to literature. In 1908 the island writer Lucy Maud Montgomery published 'Anne of Green Gables', the endearing story of an orphan girl, red-haired and imaginative, adopted by mistake by a pair of elderly siblings in a village on Prince Edward Island. The novel, set in the island's rural landscapes, became a worldwide success and a classic of children's literature.
The Anne phenomenon turned the island into an international tourist destination. Readers from all over the world — with particular affection in Japan, where the novel is enormously popular — make the pilgrimage to the Cavendish area to see Green Gables, the house and setting that inspired Montgomery. Charlottetown, as capital and gateway, benefited from that flow of visitors, and the Confederation Centre of the Arts sealed the connection by premiering and keeping on the 'Anne of Green Gables' musical for decades.
Today Charlottetown combines its three souls: the small historic capital proud to be the cradle of Canada, the lively Maritime city of food and festivals, and the gateway to Anne's world and the island's red-sand beaches. With its well-preserved heritage centre, its living waterfront and its human scale, it remains one of the most charming provincial capitals in Canada.