Ottawa²

 

(ŏt'əwə), city (1991 pop. 313,987), capital of Canada, SE Ont., at the confluence of the Ottawa and Rideau rivers. Hull, Que., just across the Ottawa at the mouth of the Gatineau River, forms part of the metropolitan area. The Rideau Canal separates the city into upper and lower towns; along its banks and those of the rivers are many landscaped drives as well as much of the city's land area, which totals 1,500 acres (607 hectares). Although Ottawa is not primarily an industrial center, it has industries that produce, among other goods, paper and paper products, printed materials, telecommunications equipment, and electronics. The area's industries utilize the hydroelectric power of the Ottawa (Chaudière Falls) and Gatineau valleys. Since 1940, the largest employer in Ottawa has been the federal government. The city is largely bilingual because federal government employees are required to know both English and French.

The National Capital Commission, a developer of public works, has done much to redevelop the core of the city, removing old rail lines and building new parks (Confederation Square) and national buildings (National Arts Center, National Defence Building, Bank of Canada Building). In part because of these development projects, tourism has become Ottawa's second largest industry, attracting about 4 million people annually.

Ottawa proper was founded in 1827 by Col. John By, an engineer in charge of construction of the Rideau Canal. At first called Bytown, it was named after the Ottawa, an Algonquian-speaking people, in 1854. In 1858, Ottawa was chosen by Queen Victoria to be the capital of the United Provinces of Canada, and in 1867 it became capital of the Dominion of Canada.

The government buildings, built between 1859 and 1865, were burned in 1916 but were immediately rebuilt on an enlarged scale. Other notable buildings are Rideau Hall, the residence of the governor-general, the Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedrals, the Bytown Museum, the Canadian Museum of Nature, the National Gallery, the National Arts Centre, the National Aviation Museum, the National Library and Public Archives Building, the National Museum of Science and Technology, the Dominion Observatory, the Royal Mint, and the Rideau Centre complex. The Univ. of Ottawa, St. Paul Univ., and Carleton Univ. are in the city. The Canadian Football League's Renegades play in the city; the National Hockey League's Senators in suburban Kanata.

Bibliography

See R. B. Haig, Ottawa (1970); D. B. Knight, A Capital for Canada (1977); J. Taylor, Ottawa: An Illustrated History (1986).

City of Ottawa/Ville d'Ottawa
Flag Coat of arms
Nickname: O-town- O.T - The 613
Motto: Advance Ottawa/Ottawa en avant
Location of the City of Ottawa in the Province of Ontario
Coordinates: 45°25′15″N 75°41′24″W / 45.42083, -75.69
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Established	1850 as "Town of Bytown"
Incorporated	1855 as "City of Ottawa"
Amalgamated	January 1, 2001
Government
- Mayor	Larry O'Brien
- City Council	Ottawa City Council
- MPs	List of MPs Mauril Bélanger Paul Dewar John Baird Royal Galipeau David McGuinty Pierre Lemieux Gordon O'Connor Pierre Poilievre
- MPPs	List of MPPs Lisa MacLeod Jean-Marc Lalonde Dalton McGuinty Phil McNeely Madeleine Meilleur Yasir Naqvi Norm Sterling Jim Watson
Area [1][2]
- City	km²  ( sq mi)
- Metro	km² ( sq mi)
Elevation	m ( ft)
Population (2006)[1][2]
- City	{{formatnum:875000 (Ranked 4th)}}
- Density	/km² (/sq mi)
- Metro
- Metro Density	/km² (/sq mi)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
Postal code span	K0A, K1A-K4C
Area code(s)	(613)
Website: http://www.ottawa.ca

Ottawa is the capital of Canada and the country's fourth largest municipality,^[3] as well as the second largest city in the province of Ontario.^[4] It is located in the Ottawa Valley on the eastern edge of the province of Ontario. Ottawa lies on the banks of the Ottawa River, a major waterway that forms the boundary between Ontario and Quebec.

There is no federal capital district in Canada. Ottawa is a municipality within the Province of Ontario. Although it does not constitute a separate administrative district, Ottawa is part of the federally-designated National Capital Region, which includes the neighbouring Quebec municipality of Gatineau. As with other national capitals, the word "Ottawa" is also used to refer by metonymy to the country's federal government, especially as opposed to provincial or municipal authorities.

The current mayor of Ottawa is Larry O'Brien, who succeeded Bob Chiarelli on December 1, 2006. Ottawa has the highest per capita concentration of residents with PhDs in Canada.^[5]

History

The Ottawa region was long home to First Nations peoples who were part of the Algonquin. The Algonquin called the river the Kichi Sibi or Kichissippi, meaning "Great River". The first European settlement in the region was that of Philemon Wright who started a community on the Quebec side of the river in 1800. Wright discovered that transporting timber by river from the Ottawa Valley to Montreal was possible, and the area was soon booming based almost exclusively upon the timber trade. Favoured by many European nations for its extremely straight and strong trunk, the White Pine was found throughout the valley.

In the years following the War of 1812, in addition to settling some military regiment families, the government began sponsored immigration schemes which brought over Irish Catholics and Protestants to settle the Ottawa area, which began a steady stream of Irish immigration there in the next few decades. Along with French Canadians who crossed over from Quebec, these two groups provided the bulk of labourers involved in the Rideau Canal project and the booming timber trade, both instrumental in putting Ottawa on the map.

The region's population grew significantly when the canal was completed by Colonel John By in 1832. It was intended to provide a secure route between Montreal and Kingston on Lake Ontario, by-passing the stretch of the St. Lawrence River bordering New York State (with the 1812 conflict with the U.S.A. being in recent memory). Construction of the canal began at the northern end, where Colonel By set up a military barracks on what later became Parliament Hill, and laid out a townsite that soon became known as Bytown. Original city leaders of Bytown include a number of Wright's sons, most notably Ruggles Wright. Nicholas Sparks, Braddish Billings and Abraham Dow were the first to settle on the Ontario side of the Ottawa river.

The west side of the canal became known as "Uppertown" where the Parliament buildings are located, while the east side of the canal (wedged between the canal and Rideau River) was known as the "Lowertown". At that time, Lowertown was a crowded, boisterous shanty town, frequently receiving the worst of disease epidemics, such as the Cholera outbreak in 1832, and typhus in 1847.

Ottawa became a centre for lumber milling and square-cut timber industry in Canada and, in fact, for North America as a whole. From there, it quickly expanded further up (or westward along) the Ottawa River, and logs were boomed by raftsmen great distances down the river to the mills. Bytown was renamed Ottawa in 1855.

On December 31, 1857, Queen Victoria was asked to choose a common capital for the then province of Canada (modern Quebec and Ontario) and chose Ottawa. There are old folk tales about how she made the choice: that she did so by sticking her hatpin on a map roughly halfway between Toronto and Montreal, or that she liked watercolours she had seen of the area. While such stories have no historical basis, they do illustrate how arbitrary the choice of Ottawa seemed to Canadians at the time. While Ottawa is now a major metropolis and Canada's fourth largest city, at the time it was a sometimes unruly logging town in the hinterland, far away from the colony's main cities, Quebec City and Montreal in Canada East, and Kingston and Toronto in Canada West.

In fact, the Queen's advisers had her pick Ottawa for many important reasons: first, it was the only settlement of any significant size located right on the border of Canada East and Canada West (Quebec/Ontario border today), making it a compromise between the two colonies and their French and English populations; second, the War of 1812 had shown how vulnerable the major cities were to American attack, since they were all located very close to the border while Ottawa was (then) surrounded by a dense forest far from the border; third, the government owned a large parcel of land on a spectacular spot overlooking the Ottawa River. Ottawa's position in the back country made it more defensible, while still allowing easy transportation via the Ottawa River to Canada East, and the Rideau Canal to Canada West. Two other considerations were that Ottawa was at a point nearly exactly midway between Toronto and Quebec City (~500 km/310 mi) and that the small size of the town made it less likely that politically motivated mobs could go on a rampage and destroy government buildings, as had been the case in the previous Canadian capitals. The Ottawa River and the Rideau Canal network meant that Ottawa could be maintained by water from Kingston and Montreal without going along the potentially treacherous US-Canada border.

The original Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa was destroyed by fire on February 3, 1916. The House of Commons and Senate were temporarily relocated to the recently constructed Victoria Memorial Museum, currently the Canadian Museum of Nature, located about  km ( mi) south of Parliament Hill on Metcalfe Street. A new Centre Block was completed in 1922, the centrepiece of which is a dominant Gothic revival styled structure known as the Peace Tower which has become a common emblem of the city.

On September 5, 1945, only weeks after the end of World War II, Ottawa was the site of the event that many people consider to be the official start of the Cold War. A Soviet cipher clerk, Igor Gouzenko, defected from the Soviet embassy with over 100 secret documents. At first, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) refused to take the documents, since the Soviets were still allies of Canada and Britain, and the newspapers were not interested in the story. After hiding out for a night in a neighbour's apartment, listening to his own home being searched, Gouzenko finally persuaded the RCMP to look at his evidence, which provided proof of a massive Soviet spy network operating in western countries, and, indirectly, led to the discovery that the Soviets were working on an atomic bomb to match that of the Americans.

In 2001, the old city of Ottawa (estimated 2005 population 350,000) was amalgamated with the suburbs of Nepean (135,000), Kanata (85,000), Gloucester (120,000), Rockcliffe Park (2,100), Vanier (17,000) and Cumberland (55,000), and the rural townships of West Carleton (18,000), Osgoode (13,000), Rideau (18,000) and Goulbourn (24,000), along with the systems and infrastructure of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton, to become one municipality. Ottawa-Carleton used to be just Carleton County before 1969 and consisted of what is now the City of Ottawa except for Cumberland.

See also: List of Ottawa mayors

Motto

"Advance" is the motto of Ottawa ^[6] and The Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa. From the Highlanders' homepage:

“

The 43rd Ottawa and Carleton Battalion of Rifles was first permitted to adopt the motto "ADVANCE" and to bear the same upon its appointments in accordance with General Order - 82 dated 13 January, 1882. This motto has been perpetuated by all successors to the 43rd, including the Regiment today. It is the motto of the City of Ottawa."[7]

”

Although Ottawa is often associated with the Governor General's Foot Guards (who wear the distinctive scarlet tunic and Bearskin headdress, and parade regularly on Parliament Hill during the summer), the Cameron Highlanders have a special privilege: marching with bayonets fixed when they march through town. This is part of the "Freedom of the City" honour, accorded to the unit by the mayor of Ottawa in May 1969.

Geography and climate

Ottawa is situated on the south bank of the Ottawa River, and contains the mouths of the Rideau River and Rideau Canal. The oldest part of the city (including what remains of Bytown) is known as Lower Town and occupies an area between the canal and the rivers. Across the canal to the west lies Centretown (often just called "downtown"), which is the city's financial and commercial hub. Between here and the Ottawa River, the slight elevation of Parliament Hill is home to many of the capital's landmark government buildings, and is the Legislative seat of Canada. As of June 29, 2007, the Rideau Canal, which stretches  km ( mi) to Kingston, Fort Henry and four Martello towers in the Kingston area was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The City of Ottawa includes many urban areas. The main one extends a considerable distance to the east, west and south of the centre, and includes the former cities of Gloucester, Nepean and Vanier, the former village of Rockcliffe Park and the suburban communities of Blackburn Hamlet and Orléans. In addition to the main urban area, there is the Kanata urban area consisting of the urbanized part of the former city of Kanata and the former village of Stittsville (pop. 70,320). There are also a number of satellite towns and rural communities that are also urban areas (urban fringes) that lie beyond the greenbelt but are administratively part of the Ottawa municipality. These are Constance Bay (pop. 2,327); Kars (pop. 1,539); Metcalfe (pop. 1,610); Munster (pop. 1,390); Osgoode (pop. 2,571); Manotick; and Richmond (pop. 3,287).

Across the Ottawa River, which forms the border between Ontario and Quebec, lies the city of Gatineau. Although formally and administratively separate cities in two separate provinces, Ottawa and Gatineau (along with a number of nearby municipalities) collectively constitute the National Capital Region, with a combined population exceeding one million residents, and the area is considered a single metropolitan area. One federal crown corporation (the National Capital Commission, or NCC) has significant land holdings in both cities - including sites of historical and touristic importance. The NCC, through its responsibility for planning and development of these lands, is an important contributor to both cities.

Around the main urban area is an extensive greenbelt, administered by the National Capital Commission for conservation and leisure, and comprising mostly forest, farmland and marshland.

Ottawa itself is a single-tiered city, meaning it is in itself a census division and has no county or regional municipality government above it. Ottawa is bounded on the east by the United Counties of Prescott and Russell; by Renfrew County and Lanark County in the west; on the south by the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville and the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry; and on the north by the Regional County Municipality of Les Collines-de-l'Outaouais and the City of Gatineau.

Ottawa is made up of eleven historic townships, ten of which are from historic Carleton County and one from historic Russell. They are Cumberland, Fitzroy, Gloucester, Goulbourn, Huntley, March, Marlborough, Nepean, North Gower, Osgoode and Torbolton.

See also: List of Ottawa neighbourhoods

Ottawa has a humid continental climate (Koppen Dfb) with a range of temperatures from a record high of 37.8 °C (100 °F) in the summers of 1986 and 2001, to a record low of -38.9 °C (-38 °F) being recorded on December 29, 1933, the third coldest temperature recorded in a capital city (after Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and Moscow, Russia). This extreme range in temperature allows Ottawa to boast a variety of annual activities, and the requirement of a wide range of clothing. Because of its relatively warm summers, Ottawa is only the seventh coldest capital in the world^[8] by annual average temperature, however by mean January temperature, Ottawa ranks third behind Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and Astana, Kazakhstan.

Snow and ice are dominant during the winter season. Ottawa receives about 235 centimetres (93 in) of snowfall annually. Its biggest snowfall was recorded on March 4, 1947 with 73 cm (2.5 feet) of snow.^[9] Average January temperature is -10.8 °C (13 °F), although days well above freezing and nights below -25 °C (-13 °F) both occur in the winter. The snow season is quite variable; in an average winter, a lasting snow cover is on the ground from mid-December until early April, although some years are snow-free until beyond Christmas, particularly in recent years. The year 2007 was notable for having no lasting snow cover until the third week of January. High wind chills are common, with annual averages of 51, 14 and 1 days with wind chills below -20 °C (-4 °F), -30 °C (-22 °F) and -40 °C (-40 °F) respectively. The lowest recorded wind chill was of -47.8 °C (-54.0 °F) on January 8, 1968.

Freezing rain is also relatively common, even relative to other parts of the country. One such large storm caused power outages and affected the local economy, and came to be known as the 1998 Ice Storm. Summers are fairly warm and humid in Ottawa, although they are typically short in length. The average July maximum temperature is 26.5 °C (80 °F), with occasional incursions of cool northerly air which drop humidity levels, although temperatures of 30 °C (86 °F) or higher occur frequently. A maximum temperature of 39.5 °C (103 °F) was recorded in the summer of 2005 at certain locations. During periods of hot weather, high humidity is often an aggravating factor, especially close to the rivers. Ottawa annually averages 41, 12 and 2 days with humidex readings above 30 °C (86 °F), 35 °C (95 °F) and 40 °C (104 °F) respectively. The highest recorded humidex was 48 °C (118 °F) on August 1, 2006.^[10]

Spring and fall are variable, prone to extremes in temperature and unpredictable swings in conditions. Hot days above 30 °C (86 °F) have occurred as early as March (as in 2002) or as late as October, as well as snow well into May and early in October (although such events are extremely unusual and brief). Average annual precipitation averages around 943 millimetres (37 in.). The biggest one-day rainfall occurred on September 9, 2004 when the remnants of Hurricane Frances dumped nearly 136 mm (5½ inches) of rain in the city. There are about 2,060 hours of average sunshine annually (47% of possible).

Destructive summer weather events such as tornadoes, major flash floods, extreme heat waves, severe hail and remnant effects from hurricanes are rare, but all have occurred. Some of the most notable tornadoes in the region occurred in 1978 (F2), 1994 (F3) and 1999 (F1). However, it is very unlikely that F4 or F5 tornadoes like in the U.S. Plain States will occur since it is located much farther away from the interaction of the airmass from both the Gulf of Mexico and the Rockies, which can produce strong to violent tornadoes further south.

On February 24, 2006, an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter Scale struck Ottawa. On January 1, 2000, an earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter Scale struck Ottawa. On average, a small tremor occurs in Ottawa every three years. ^[11]

Transportation

Ottawa is served by VIA Rail passenger service, a number of airlines that fly into Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International Airport, and inter-city bus companies such as Greyhound through the Ottawa Bus Central Station.

The capital city of Canada is also served by a network of freeways, the main one being provincial Highway 417 (called The Queensway), Ottawa-Carleton Regional Road 174 (Formerly Provincial Highway 17), and the newly constructed Highway 416 (Veterans' Memorial Highway), connecting Ottawa to the rest of the 400-Series Highway network in Ontario. Highway 417 is also the Ottawa portion of the Trans-Canada Highway. The city also has a few Scenic Parkways (Promenades), such as the Ottawa River Parkway, and has a freeway connection to Autoroute 5, in Hull. For a complete listing of the parkways and roads in Ottawa, see the List of Ottawa roads.

Ottawa's main mass transit service is OC Transpo (provided by the City of Ottawa). The Ottawa rapid transit system includes the transitway (a network of mostly grade-separated, extremely high-frequency, reserved bus rapid transit lanes with full stations instead of stops) and a light rail system called the O-Train. A new light rail system, including a tunnel under the downtown core, was considered for connecting the north-south and the east-west sections of the city, however the city had cancelled an expansion plan of the north-south line that would have linked Barrhaven to downtown in 2009. Both OC Transpo and the Quebec-based Société de transport de l'Outaouais (STO) operate bus services between Ottawa and Gatineau. A transfer or bus pass of one is accepted on the other without having to pay a top-up fare on regular routes.

The Rideau Canal, which starts in Kingston, Ontario, winds its way through the city. The final flight of locks on the canal are between Parliament Hill and the Château Laurier. Also, during the winter season the canal is usually open and is a form of transportation downtown for about 7.8 kilometres (4.8 mi) for ice skaters (from a point near Carleton University to the Rideau Centre) and forms the world's longest skating rink.

There is a large network of paved multi-use pathways that wind their way through much of the city, including along the Ottawa River, Rideau River, and Rideau Canal (a UNESCO World Heritage Site). These pathways are used for transportation, tourism, and recreation. Because most streets either have wide curb lanes or bicycle lanes, cycling is a popular mode of transportation in the region throughout the year.

Ottawa sits at the confluence of three major rivers: the Ottawa River, the Gatineau River and the Rideau River. The Ottawa and Gatineau rivers were historically important in the logging and lumber industries, and the Rideau as part of the Rideau Canal system connecting the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River with the Ottawa River.

See also: List of airports in the Ottawa area, List of Ottawa parks, List of Ottawa roads

Landmarks and notable institutions

See also: Architecture of Ottawa, National Capital Region

Ottawa is home to a wealth of national museums, official residences, government buildings, memorials and heritage structures. Federal buildings in the National Capital Region are managed by the Public Works Canada, while most of the federal lands in the Region are managed by the National Capital Commission or NCC; its control of much undeveloped land gives the NCC a great deal of influence over the city's development. Below is a map of central Ottawa showing the prominent buildings and structures. Click on the stars to read articles on the individual buildings.

• List of bridges in Ottawa
• List of Ottawa buildings
  • List of Ottawa churches
  • List of Ottawa schools
  • List of Ottawa-Gatineau's 10 tallest skyscrapers
  • List of embassies and high commissions in Ottawa
  • List of designated heritage properties in Ottawa

Primary industries

Ottawa's primary employers are the Canadian federal government and the hi-tech industry. Because major companies have offices in the city, it has become known as "Silicon Valley North."^[12]

See also: List of Major Technology Companies in Ottawa, Canada

Sports

Ottawa is home to one major league sports team, the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League. The Sens play at Scotiabank Place. They are the reigning Eastern Conference champion, having defeated the Buffalo Sabres in the 2007 Eastern Conference Final of the National Hockey League playoffs, but lost in five games to the Anaheim Ducks in the Stanley Cup finals.

Ottawa was also home to a AAA minor league baseball team, the Ottawa Lynx of the International League, which was affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies. Until the team's sale (effective November 16, 2006), the team was a farm team of the Baltimore Orioles. Under the terms of the sale, the Lynx left Ottawa following the 2007 season. In April 2008, the team will begin play as the Lehigh Valley IronPigs at newly-constructed Coca-Cola Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Ottawa had a significant presence in the Canadian Football League with the Ottawa Rough Riders football team and an attempted revival with the Ottawa Renegades (established 2002 - suspended operations 2006). Football was played at Frank Clair Stadium. The CFL has stated its intent to return to Ottawa.

Ottawa also has a major junior ice hockey team, the Ottawa 67's of the Ontario Hockey League. Ottawa's two major universities, Carleton University and the University of Ottawa both have athletic associations; the team names are the Carleton Ravens and the Ottawa Gee Gees respectively. Ottawa's top