Where We Started

Canada’s foreign relations were originally in the hands of the British Foreign Office and controlled in Canada by the Governor General from the East Departmental Building. The Prime Minister directed individual departments, some of which were in the building, to respond to issues in their purview which they did or did not. In 1909, the Department of External Affairs was created to bring some order to the system but bureaucratic intransigence obliged it to set up in the Trafalgar Building at Bank and Queen Streets. In 1914, Prime Minister Borden, as the first Secretary of State for External Affairs, brought the miniscule staff of EA in from the cold – primarily to provide him as PM with administrative support.

The Department remained headquartered in the East Block but growth after the Second World War led to offices being established in the Langevin Block on Wellington Street, the Daly Building at Rideau Street between Sussex Drive and Mackenzie Avenue, and, to Postal Station B at Sparks and Elgin Streets. In 1973, the Department was installed in the Lester B. Pearson Building on Sussex Drive.