It's Official!

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society celebrates its new headquarters with an official VIP opening

“This is the most important moment in The Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s 90-year history.”

That’s the kind of statement that might raise eyebrows in geography circles around the nation. After all, in the last five years alone, the RCGS has been part of the team that discovered the wreck of Sir John Franklin’s long-lost HMS Erebus on the Arctic Ocean bed, published the groundbreaking Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada in collaboration with Canada’s major national Indigenous organizations, and grew its cross-country education network to 23,000 teachers and volunteers.

But RCGS CEO John Geiger did not speak lightly during the official opening of the Society’s new permanent home at 50 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, on May 13, 2019 — an event that marked one year since the RCGS moved into the elegant glass-walled building overlooking the Ottawa River and began to animate it with public talks, workshops and exhibitions. The opening celebration was attended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, RCGS Honorary President Alex Trebek, Honorary Vice-Presidents Roberta Bondar (the first Canadian woman in space), Wade Davis (a famed anthropologist and author) and Dr. Joe MacInnis (a legend of underwater exploration), and a host of other Society VIPs. All echoed the fact that the headquarters — a.k.a. Canada’s Centre for Geography and Exploration — is the key to the organization’s ability to continue making strides in its mandate to make Canada better known to Canadians and to the world.