With hundreds of thousands of visitors descending on the capital for the 150th Canada Day, this humble and unassuming city is flashing a bit of skin

Ottawa in the spotlight: as Canada turns 150, has its capital finally come of age?

Ottawa in the spotlight: as Canada turns 150, has its capital finally come of age?

Ottawa is not a grand capital city. It lacks the stunning boulevards of Paris, or economic oomph of London. But it is a fitting capital for Canada all the same – or, at least, for the vision of the country many Canadians like to project: humble, unassuming, getting the job done in the shadow of more grandiose neighbours (in Ottawa’s case, Montreal and Toronto).

The city’s Parliament Hill overlooks the Ottawa river valley which divides Ontario and Quebec, and where the lines between the nation’s two solitudes most obviously and frequently blur as a reminder of Canada’s unity.

And national unity is at the heart of the city’s biggest annual party on 1 July, Canada Day, marking the 1867 confederationof four colonies into a dominion.

A sea of red and white

Ottawa’s streets are packed each year with a sea of Canadian colours. This year would be no different except for one thing: it’s 2017, the nation’s 150th birthday.

The capital will likely see more than the average 350,000 people take in the Canada Day festivities. There’ll be fireworks, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be there, and artists from Gordon Lightfoot to Alessia Cara are set to perform on the massive stage set up on the expansive parliamentary front lawn.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walks to parliament following on national indigenous peoples day on 21 June. Photograph: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock

Ottawa in numbers …

145,000 – federal government employees in the National Capital Region (Ottawa-Gatineau), making up 16% of Ottawa’s total population

1 – Ottawa’s ranking in MoneySense magazine’s 2016 best places to live in Ontario

98 metres – height of the Peace Tower, the clock tower that sits above the main entrance to Centre Block on Parliament Hill

7.8 km – length of the portion of the Rideau Canal that is turned into the world’s longest skating rink every winter

1855 – the year Ottawa was incorporated as a city. Prior to this, it was known as Bytown

In pictures …

#parliamenthill #tulips #canada #ottawa #wavingflag #beautifulday #tulipfestival A post shared by @wings.of.liberty.16 on Jun 7, 2017 at 8:48am PDT

History in 100 words

Ottawa is named after the Odawa First Nation, and sits on traditional Algonquin territory. French explorer Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1613, turning Ottawa into a fur-trading and timber outpost. Ottawa became capital of the province of Canada in 1857 (pre-confederation), 16 years after Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec) had been united as one province. It was a contentious move: Queen Victoria was asked multiple times to settle an ongoing dispute over the capital’s location, eventually deciding on Ottawa because of its safe distance from the American border, and its position between the two halves of the province. But most politicians of the day rejected her decision: it took nine years for a parliament to finally be convened here.

Since then, Ottawa-Gatineau has grown into Canada’s fifth-largest metropolitan area, with around 1.3 million residents. While it remains mostly known for being the nation’s centre of government, it has recently become a tech hub, home to 70,000 tech-related jobs and the e-commerce platform Shopify.



Ottawa in sound and vision



Ottawa-based A Tribe Called Red is an electronic dance trio of DJ NDN, Bear Witness and 2oolman, founded in 2008. The group describes itself as “a modern gateway into urban and contemporary indigenous culture and experience, celebrating all its layers and complexity”. As Canada grapples with its dark history of abuse in residential schools and the countless missing and murdered indigenous women, there is no better time to listen to ATCR’s politically charged beats.

What’s everyone talking about?

In the second-most Ottawa story ever, the federal government is still trying to figure out how its payment system for federal employees, which was rolled out in 2016, has left some people overpaid, others underpaid, and still others not paid at all. Nearly half of all federal employees live and work in Ottawa, so it continues to be an ongoing headache for many of the city’s residents.

But in first place spot is this zinger: the city has decreed that, while children’s lemonade stands are permitted on land run by the National Capital Commission, the young proprietors must sign a three-page contract beforehand. The paperwork stipulates, among other things, that any signage advertising the stand must be in English and French. The move appears to stem from an incident last year when two young girls set up a lemonade stand on NCC land. Their $52 profit was marred when a passerby reportedly informed the girls they weren’t allowed to set up shop in that spot. The story went viral , casting the NCC – and the city of Ottawa – as the no-fun police.

What’s next for the city?

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Fewer lemonade stands, but better transit. Ottawa is looking opening its cross-city light rail transit, the Confederation Line, in 2018. The city already has a transit train, the O-Train, which runs north-south, but given Ottawa’s layout is largely east-west, in the past many commuters have been confined to riding a large fleet of buses – so the Confederation line will happily alleviate some of this traffic pressure. Construction of the project has not come without its snags, however. In June 2016, a huge sinkhole opened up a few hundred metres from parliament. And in May, construction caused a major gas leak downtown, forcing the evacuation of nearby high-rises. Nevertheless, Ottawa’s hope is that its new LRT line will be “a transportation system worthy of one of the world’s leading capital cities”.

Close zoom

Unlike some other major capitals, Ottawans lack a breadth of local news coverage. Both major dailies, the Citizen and the Sun, are part of the troubled national Postmedia chain, suffering layoffs and financial constraints. One blog, Apt613 (a reference to the city’s telephone area code), has established itself as go-to for more hyper-local coverage of daily events, restaurant reviews, and city guides.

Do you live in Ottawa? What key facts, figures have we missed?

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