Ottawa ( or sometimes ) is
the capital of Canada
and a
municipality within the Province of
Ontario
. Located in the Ottawa Valley in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario, the city lies on the
southern banks of the Ottawa River, a
major waterway forming the local boundary
between the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec
.The 2006 Census recorded the population at
over 812,000, making it the fourth
largest municipality in the country and second largest in
Ontario. Connected by several bridges to its Quebec neighbour, the City of
Gatineau
on the
northern shores of the Ottawa River, the two cities had a combined
2006 population of over 1,130,000, making it the country's fourth
largest metropolitan area.
There is no
federal capital district in Canada.
Although it does not
constitute a separate administrative district, Ottawa is part of
the federally designated National Capital
Region
(NCR), which encompasses Ottawa, Gatineau, and
surroundings areas, having a population of over 1,451,000.
The
National Capital
Commission is a federal crown corporation charged with the
responsibility of planning and managing the federal government's
interests in the NCR.
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.
History
The Ottawa region was long the residence of the
Odawa or Odaawaa
First
Nations people. The Odawa are an
Algonquin people who called the river the Kichi
Sibi or Kichissippi meaning "Great River" or "Grand River".
Historical evidence indicates that the Algonquins over time have
occupied portions of the lands of the Ottawa River watershed and
travelled through surrounding territory as a hunting and gathering
society. The Algonquins of Ontario assert that they never
surrendered its territory by treaty, sale, or conquest and have
made such claims since 1772. In 1983, the Algonquins of Golden Lake
(Pikwàkanagàn) presented to the Government of Canada a claim to
Aboriginal rights and title within the Ontario portion of the
Ottawa and Mattawa River watersheds. Negotiations are ongoing.
Early
European explorers of the St. Lawrence
and Ottawa Rivers sought new territories, claimed
lands in the names of their kings and queens, sought western
passages to India and Asia as well as gold and
other precious commodities. Amongst the first of commercial
enterprises to evolve in the New World
after fishing, the fur
trade industry, largely influenced by the Hudson Bay Company, used the Ottawa River
and its tributaries as the local conveyance for the delivery of fur
products to Europe via Montreal
and Quebec City
.
The first
settlement in the region was led by Philemon Wright, a New Englander from Woburn
Massachusetts
who, on March 7, 1800 arrived with his own and five
other families along with twenty-five labourers to start an
agricultural community on the north
bank of the Ottawa River at the portage to the Chaudière
Falls
. Food crops were not sufficient to sustain
the community and Wright began harvesting trees as a cash crop when
he determined that he could transport timber by river from the
Ottawa Valley to the Montreal and Quebec City markets, which also
exported to Europe. His first raft of squared timber and sawn
lumber arrived in Quebec City in 1806.
Liked by many European nations for its extremely straight and
strong trunk in heavy construction for shipbuilding and housing as
well as for furniture, the white pine (Pinus strobus) was found
throughout the Ottawa Valley, soon booming based almost exclusively
upon the timber trade. By 1812, the timber trade had overtaken the
fur trade as the leading economic activity in the area as Ottawa
became a centre for lumber milling and square-cut lumber in Canada
and North America.
In the
years following the War of 1812, in
addition to settling some military regiment families (such as the
100th Regiment of Foot at Richmond, Ontario
), the government began sponsored immigration
schemes which brought over Irish
Catholics and Irish 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 workers 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
(the U.S invasions of Canada in the War of 1812
being a 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.
Bytown was renamed
Ottawa in 1855, when it was
incorporated as a city.
After
World War I much of the National
Capital was in disrepair. Many of the old wooden frame structured
buildings had been neglected during the war and the area was in
need of many upgrades. French
urban
planner Jacques Greber was hired
to work on a master plan for the National Capital Region (the
Greber Plan). Jacques Greber was the
creator of the
National Capital
Greenbelt, as well as many other projects throughout the
NCR.
Ottawa as the capital
On December 31, 1857,
Queen Victoria was
asked to choose a common capital for the
Province of Canada (modern day Ontario
and Quebec) and chose Ottawa.
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.
The Queen's advisers suggested she 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 (the
post 1841 name for the
then united
regions formerly known as
Upper and
Lower Canada, today the Quebec/Ontario
border), making it a compromise between the two colonies and their
French and English populations; second, the War of 1812 had shown
how vulnerable major Canadian 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 supplied by water from Kingston and Montreal without going
along the potentially treacherous US-Canada border.
After
World War I much of the National
Capital was in disrepair. Many of the old wooden frame structured
buildings had been neglected during the war and the area was in
need of many upgrades. The original Centre Block of the Parliament
Buildings in Ottawa was destroyed by fire on February 3, 1916.
French
urban planner Jacques Greber was hired to work on a master
plan for the National Capital Region (the
Greber Plan). Jacques Greber was the creator of
the
National Capital Greenbelt,
as well as many other projects throughout the NCR.
The House of Commons
and Senate were temporarily relocated to the recently constructed
Victoria Memorial Museum, currently the Canadian
Museum of Nature
, located about south of Parliament Hill on McLeod
Street at 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, as 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
, Orléans, Ontario (84,695), 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.
Geography
Map of Ottawa showing urban area,
highways, waterways, and historic townships
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. Situated between
Centretown and the Ottawa River, the slight elevation of Parliament
Hill is home to many of the capital's landmark
government buildings, including the Peace Tower, and the
Legislative seat of Canada. As of June 29, 2007, the Rideau
Canal, which stretches to Kingston, Fort Henry and four Martello
towers in the Kingston area was recognized as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site.
The City of Ottawa has a main
urban area
but there are many other urban,
suburban and
rural areas within the city's limits.
The main
suburban area 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 also the community of Blackburn
Hamlet
(pop. 8,527), the community of Orléans
(pop. 110,000).
The Kanata suburban
area consists of Kanata (pop.
90,000) and the former village of
Stittsville (pop. 20,000).
Nepean is another major suburb which also
includes Barrhaven
(pop. 70,000) and the former village of
Manotick (pop. 7,545). There are
also the communities of
Riverside
South (pop. 8,000) on the other side of the
Rideau River,
Morgan's Grant (pop. 8,000) and
Greely (pop. 4,152), southeast of
Riverside South. There are also a number of
rural communities (
villages and
hamlets)
that lie beyond the greenbelt but are administratively part of the
Ottawa municipality.
Some of these communities are Burritts
Rapids
(hamlet, pop.
300);
Ashton
(hamlet, pop. 300); Fallowfield
(hamlet, pop.
600);
Kars (
village, pop. 1,539);
Fitzroy Harbour (
village, pop.
1,549); Munster
(village, pop.
1,390);
Carp
(village, pop. 1,400); North Gower
(village, pop.
1,700);
Metcalfe
(village, pop.
1,810);
Constance
Bay
(village, pop. 2,327)
and
Osgoode (
village, pop.
2,571) and Richmond (village, pop.
3,301).
There are also a number of towns in the national
capital region but outside the city of
Ottawa, one of these urban
communities is Almonte,
Ontario
(town, pop.
4,649).
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, which 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.
Climate
Ottawa
has a humid continental
climate (Koppen
Dfb) with a range of temperatures from a record high of
37.8 °C (100°F), recorded July 4, 1913, to a record low of
-38.9 °C (-38 °F) recorded on December 29, 1933 [3602], the fourth coldest temperature recorded
in a capital city (after Ulaanbaatar
, Mongolia
; Astana
, Kazakhstan
and Moscow
, Russia
).
This
extreme range in temperature allows Ottawa to boast a variety of
annual activities—more notable events such as the Winterlude Festival on the Rideau Canal in the winter and the National Canada Day celebrations on Parliament
Hill in July—and the requirement of a wide range of
clothing. Because of its relatively warm summers,
Ottawa is the second coldest capital in the world by annual average
temperature, however by mean January temperature, Ottawa ranks
second behind Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and has a colder average January temperature than
Moscow, which is much further north than Ottawa.
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 3-4, 1947 with
73
cm (2.5
feet) of snow. Average January temperature is
-10.8 °C (13 °F), although days well above freezing and
nights below -30 °C (-22 °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 2007–08 winter season snowfall
(432.7
cm / 170.3
inches) came within 10
cm (4
inches) of the record
snowfall set in 1970-1971 (444.1
cm
/ 174.8
inches). 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
moderate in length. The average July maximum temperature is
26 °C (80 °F), with occasional northerly incursions of
comfortable, cool air which drop humidity levels, although daytime
temperatures of 30 °C (86 °F) or higher are commonplace
in most summers.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 (combined temperature & humidity
index) 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.
.jpg/180px-Ottawa_River_(1).jpg)
The Rideau Canal in summer.
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. The
all-time monthly record is 243.4 mm (13.75 inches) set in July
2009. 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 in the
Ottawa area.
Some of the most notable tornadoes in the
region occurred in 1978 (F2), 1994 (F3), 1999 (F1), 2002
, 2004 
and west end Ottawa 2009 (F0) .
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.
Transportation
.jpg/180px-Canal_Rideau_(Ottawa).jpg)
Rideau Canal in Ottawa.
Inter-city services
Ottawa is
served by inter-city passenger rail service by VIA Rail, a number of airlines that fly into the Ottawa Macdonald-Cartier International
Airport
, and inter-city bus companies such as Greyhound Canada operating out of the
Ottawa Bus
Central Station
.
Highways, streets and roads
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
Highway 416 ,
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
several scenic parkways (promenades), such as the
Ottawa River Parkway, Rockcliffe
Parkway and the
Aviation
Parkway and has a freeway connection to
Autoroute 5 and
Autoroute 50, in
Hull. For a complete listing of the parkways
and roads in Ottawa, see the
List
of Ottawa roads.
Public transit
The public transit system is operated by
OC
Transpo, a department of the city. An integrated system of
services is available consisting of: (1) regular buses travelling
on fixed routes in mixed traffic, typical of most urban transit
systems; (2) a
bus rapid transit
(BRT) system - a high frequency bus service operating on the
transitway - a network of
mostly grade-separated dedicated bus lanes within their own
right-of-way and having full stations with Park & Ride
facilities further supported by on-road reserved bus lanes and
priority traffic signal controls; (3) a
light
rail transit (LRT) system known as the
O-Train operating on one north-south
route; and (4) a door-to-door bus service for the disabled known as
ParaTranspo.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.
Navigable waterways
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.
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 largest skating rink.
Bicycle and pedestrian pathways
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. 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.
Transportation Master Plan
The city's summarizes expansion and improvement plans for:
Landmarks and notable institutions
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.
In 2006,
the National Capital Commission completed work on the
long-discussed Confederation
Boulevard, a ceremonial route linking key attractions in
National Capital Region, on both sides of the Ottawa River, in
Ottawa as well as Gatineau, Quebec.
The Ottawa skyline has remained conservative in skyscraper height
throughout the years due to a skyscraper height restriction.
First
installed to keep Parliament Hill visible from most parts of the City, that initial
restriction was changed to a more realistic law many years
later. The restriction allows no building to overwhelm the
skyline, keeping almost all the downtown building around the same
25-30 story range.
Other cities with building height
restrictions like Ottawa's include Washington, D.C.
, Belfast
, Northern
Ireland
, Saint
Petersburg
, Russia, amongst
others.
Panoramic view of Ottawa
Below is a map of the National Capital Region showing the prominent
buildings and structures. Click on the stars to read articles on
the individual buildings.
Primary industries
Ottawa's primary employers are the Canadian federal government and
the hi-tech industry. Ottawa has become known as "Silicon Valley
North."
Sports
Ottawa is
home to both the National Hockey
League's Ottawa Senators who
play out of Scotiabank
Place
located in the westend suburban community of
Kanata, and the
Ontario Hockey League's
Ottawa 67's who play out of Lansdowne
Park's
Civic Centre
. The city also has a professional women's
hockey team, the
Ottawa
Senators . Ottawa recently hosted the 2009 World Junior Hockey
Championships and hosts the annual
Bell
Capital Cup tournament.
Ottawa
was home to a minor league professional baseball team, the Ottawa Voyageurs of the Canadian-American
Association of Professional Baseball which plays at the
Ottawa
Baseball Stadium
. The Voyageurs were formerly known as the
Ottawa Rapidz. The Voyageurs/Rapidz
folded after only one year. Ottawa was also home to a AAA minor
league
baseball team, the
Ottawa Lynx of the
International League.
The team was sold in
2006 and the Lynx left Ottawa following the 2007 season, moving to
Allentown,
Pennsylvania
.
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. The
Ravens are nationally-ranked in
basketball. The Gee-Gees are nationally-ranked in
football.
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 in 2006, due to financial
difficulties and poor fan attendance).
Football was played
at Frank Clair Stadium
. On March 25, 2008, CFL commissionner
Mark Cohon awarded a conditional
franchise to a group led by 67s owner Jeff Hunt. Ottawa is also
home to a semi-professional football team in the
Empire Football League, the Ottawa
Demon Deacons and 3 Major Junior Football teams in the
QJFL and
CJFL, the
Ottawa Junior Riders,
Ottawa Sooners and the
Cumberland Panthers.
Ottawa's top
association
football team is the
Ottawa Fury who
play in the women's
W-League and the men's
USL Premier Development
League.
Harness and
Horse racing can be found at Rideau
Carleton Raceway
off Albion Road
and auto racing can be found at the
Capital City
Speedway
off Highway
7. The
Rideau Canoe
Club, located at Hog's Back Park on the
Rideau River, produces and supports many
national- and international-level paddlers.
The city
also supports many casual sporting activities, such as skating on
the Rideau
Canal or curling in winter,
cycling and jogging along the Ottawa
River, Rideau Canal, and Rideau River in summer, playing
Ultimate all year round (especially
through the O.C.U.A.), skiing and hiking in the Greenbelt and the
nearby Gatineau Park, and sailing on Lac Deschenes, part of the
Ottawa River or golfing on many of the golf courses in the Ottawa
area. During the coldest parts of winter there is
ice fishing on the Ottawa river. Ottawa has many
cricket clubs for people of all ages.
Eastern Ontario's top
rugby players are
members of the
Ottawa Harlequins
which competes each summer in the
Rugby Canada Super League.
Media
Government
The Elgin Street facade of the
Heritage Building section of Ottawa City Hall.
Ottawa is governed by a 24-member city council consisting of 23
councillors each representing one
ward and the mayor, currently
Larry O'Brien,
elected in a citywide vote. As a single tier municipality, Ottawa
has responsibility for all municipal services, including fire,
ambulance, police, parks, roads, sidewalks, public transit,
drinking water, stormwater, sanitary sewage and solid waste.
In addition to being the capital of Canada, Ottawa is politically
diverse with regard to local politics. Most of the city
traditionally supports the
Liberal Party, although only some
parts of the city are consistent Liberal strongholds.
Perhaps the safest
areas for the Liberals are the ones dominated by francophones, especially in Vanier and central
Gloucester. Central Ottawa is usually more
left-leaning, and the
New Democratic Party can win ridings
there as government unions and activist groups are fairly strong.
Some of
Ottawa's suburbs are swing areas, notably central Nepean and, despite its Francophone
population, Orléans. The southern and western parts of the old
city of Ottawa are generally moderate or slightly left of centre
but periodically swing to the
Conservative Party.
The
farther one goes from the city centre into suburban fringes like
Kanata and Barrhaven and rural areas, the voters tend to be increasingly
conservative, both fiscally and socially. This is especially
true in the former Townships of
West Carleton,
Goulbourn,
Rideau and
Osgoode, which are more in line
with the staunchly conservative areas in the surrounding
counties. However not all rural areas support the
Conservative Party.
Rural parts of the former township of
Cumberland, with a large number of Francophones, traditionally
support the Liberal Party, though their support has recently
weakened.
Ottawa
became the legislative capital of the Northwest Territories when it
reverted to 1870 constitutional status, after Alberta
, and Saskatchewan
were carved out in 1905. From 1905 to 1951
almost all of the council members were civil servants living in
Ottawa. From 1951 to 1967 the territory alternated legislative
sessions with various
Northwest
Territories communities. Ottawa only held legislative sessions
of the council.
Fort Smith, Northwest
Territories
became the administrative centre and officially
housed the civil service from 1911 to 1967.
Demographics
| Ethnic Origin |
Population |
Percent |
Canadian |
227,490 |
28.4% |
| English |
194,845 |
24.3% |
| Irish |
180,525 |
22.5% |
| French |
172,165 |
21.5% |
| Scottish |
158,340 |
19.8% |
| German |
67,660 |
8.4% |
| Italian |
39,230 |
4.9% |
| Chinese |
34,435 |
4.3% |
| Polish |
25,685 |
3.2% |
| Dutch |
22,700 |
2.8% |
| North American
Indian |
21,600 |
2.7% |
| East Indian |
20,525 |
2.6% |
| Lebanese |
17,500 |
2.1% |
| African |
16,000 |
2.0% |
Map of Ottawa showing the francophone
concentrations
In 2006 the population of the city of Ottawa was 812,129 , while
the population of the Census Metropolitan Area was 1,130,761 . The
population of the pre-amalgamated city was 337,031 at the 2001
census, and had fallen to 328,105 at the 2006 Census.
The census of May
2006 estimates 1,148,800 people living in the greater Ottawa
(Ottawa-Gatineau) area. In 2001 females made up 51.23 percent
of the population. Youths under 14 years of age number 19.30
percent of the total population, while those of retirement age (65
years and older) make up 10.81 percent resulting in an average age
of 36.6 years of age.
Foreign
born residents in Ottawa made up 22.3 percent of the population in
which many come from China
, Lebanon
, northeast Africa, Iran
, and
The Balkans [3603]. Members of visible minority
groups (non-white/
European)
constituted 20.2 percent, while those of
Aboriginal origin numbered 1.5
percent of the total population. The largest visible minority
groups consisted are:
Black
Canadians: 4.9%,
Chinese
Canadian: 3.8%,
South Asian: 3.3%,
and
Arab: 3.0%, as well as smaller mixed race,
and other East Asian groups.
Because Ottawa is the core of an urban area
extending into French-speaking Quebec, the city is
very bilingual. Those who indentified their mother tongue as
English constitute 62.6 percent,
French 14.9 percent, and both 0.85
percent. An additional 21.6 percent list languages other than
English and French as their mother tongue. These include
Italian,
Chinese,
Arabic,
Spanish,
German,
Persian and many others. In terms of
respondents' knowledge of one or both official languages, the
numbers are English only at 59.9 percent, English and French at
37.2 percent, French only at 1.6 percent, and neither official
language at 1.3 percent.
As expressed in 2001 census, the most popular religion is
Christianity as 79.34 percent of the population
described themselves belonging to various Christian denominations,
the most popular being
Roman
Catholicism: 54.16%,
Protestantism: 21.85%,
Christian Orthodox: 1.68%, while the
remaining 1.64% consists of independent Christian churches like
Jehovah's Witness,
LDS etc.
Non-Christian religions are also very well established in Ottawa,
the largest being
Islam: 3.97%,
Judaism: 1.09%, and
Buddhism: 0.95%. Those professing no religion
number about 13.29 percent.
Education
Ottawa has the highest per capita concentration of
engineers, scientists, and residents with
PhDs in Canada. It has been known as the "most educated
city in Canada" with over half the population having graduated from
College and/or university.
Items of interest
Ottawa diplomatic missions and relations
Sister cities of Ottawa
See also
Notes
References
-
http://www.ottawa.ca/city_services/statistics/counts/metropolitan/index_en.html
- John H. Taylor, Ottawa, An Illustrated History, James
Lorimer & Company, Publishers, Canadian Museum of Civilization,
National Museums of Canada, Toronto, 1986, p.11.
-
http://www.aboriginalaffairs.gov.on.ca/english/negotiate/algonquin/history.asp
- David Lee, Lumber Kings & Shantymen, James Lorimer
& Company, Publishers, Toronto, 2006, p.16.
- David Lee, Lumber Kings & Shantymen, James Lorimer
& Company, Publishers, Toronto, 2006, p.21.
- David Lee, Lumber Kings & Shantymen, James Lorimer
& Company, Publishers, Toronto, 2006, p.34.
- Soviet Spy Scandal, from CBC's "Canada: A
People's History". Accessed December 22, 2008.
-
http://www.ottawa.ca/city_hall/mayor_council/mayor/index_en.html
- http://www.buzzle.com/articles/facts-about-ottawa.html
Sources
External links
's shortwave time signal station, CHU
, is
located in Ottawa.
, is named Colonel By Day in
Ottawa.
, South Korea
(1997)
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