On a bright November morning, His Excellency Whit Fraser, viceregal consort of Governor General Mary Simon, realized a longstanding dream to renew the hockey-sized skating rink nestled at the edge of the woods at Rideau Hall, the official residence of the governor general in the nation’s capital. The rink has been a favourite destination for hockey, figure skating, curling and winter sports for 153 years, but due to climate change was getting less use in recent years.

A little more than a year ago, Fraser created a team to renew “Canada’s rink,” raising the funds necessary to update the rink with a refrigerated ice surface to extend the skating season by three months.

Now, thanks to the new surface, visitors will be able to enjoy high quality skating from November to March.

Sporting a Team Canada jersey and holding a hockey stick, Fraser told a crowd of more than 100 skaters about the history of the rink.

In 1872, as viceregal consort, Lady Dufferin transformed the Rideau Hall grounds into a winter wonderland for the public to enjoy. She established a toboggan run on a nearby hill, while teams of oxen hauled water in barrels from the Ottawa River to the grounds to create an outdoor skating rink. Of course, on the day the rink was flooded in 1872, the temperature was -26 C, not the 3 C temperature on opening day in November 2025.

“She called it the grande déluge,” recounted Fraser, describing the initial flooding of the rink to laughter from the crowd. “We are a nation of skaters, and 153 years later we are still a nation of skaters.”

The rink’s proud history includes the first Stanley Cup games, which were played in the 1890s between the best teams in the Dominion of Canada, and the first recorded women’s hockey game.