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I've been to Canada a few times in my life (I grew up in the Great Lakes region between Chicago and Milwaukee).
When I was a kid, our family took a two week tour from Toronto through Montreal/Quebec city up through Gaspe peninsula. When I was going to college in Michigan, I would go to Canada, a few times for a day, just to experience something new.
However, I never really knew anything about Ottawa. Obviously Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver really "steal the show", and I have met people from the "prairie cities" (Calgary).
I knew some famous celebrities that made it big, (like Dan Aykroyd) is/are from Ottawa. Very recently, I rediscovered one of my favorite childhood TV shows from the 80s (on youtube), "You can't do that on television" full of rather innocent juvenile toilet humor, but thats what made it great. It pushed the envelope, but all in a fun way. I learned it started in Ottawa before moving to Nickelodeon.
Anyways, I decided to just check it up on wikipedia,etc. and had NO IDEA, of the beautiful European influenced classic government buildings, like the Parliament building and others. No one ever mentions Ottawa as a North American city that feels European, but it does look it. But Montreal usually gets the attention for a European-looking N. American city in Canada.
Do Ottawans generally feel a lot of pride, with a little annoyed that it is overshadowed by two much more well known cities in each direction? Do you guys show a lot of pride as being the capital, or is there more of a "its OK, kind of boring but good place to be from attitude?
Ottawa is a nice, pleasant, quiet place to live. It isn't an exciting, dynamic city, except for the activity around Parliament Hill. Lots of political staff and media around there. There are many international embassies, national institutions, and non-government organizations that have offices here. There's a lively restaurant/club area in the Byward Market downtown. There are some interesting "main street" type areas in many neighbourhoods that have a lot of funky small businesses. It's also kind of eclectic because of the bilingual nature of the city. Lots of people speak French and Gatineau is our neighbour across the river. There are a lot of outdoor-oriented recreational activities. There's some beautiful cottage country north of the city in Quebec. It's safe and clean.
The downside is that it's kind of overly safe, clean and quiet in many ways. The nightlife is quite lacking for a city with this size of a population (1 million). This is despite having two decent sized universities in the city. It's like a one-industry down, but in our case, the industry is the government bureaucracy. Most people here are government office workers. It's not unusual for people to head to Montreal or Toronto for the weekend for something to do. Ottawa can't compete with Montreal or Toronto when it comes to the entertainment, the shopping, etc.
I enjoy living here, and it's a wonderful place to raise a family. A bit on the dull side compared to larger cities, though.
I've been to Canada a few times in my life (I grew up in the Great Lakes region between Chicago and Milwaukee).
When I was a kid, our family took a two week tour from Toronto through Montreal/Quebec city up through Gaspe peninsula. When I was going to college in Michigan, I would go to Canada, a few times for a day, just to experience something new.
However, I never really knew anything about Ottawa. Obviously Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver really "steal the show", and I have met people from the "prairie cities" (Calgary).
I knew some famous celebrities that made it big, (like Dan Aykroyd) is/are from Ottawa. Very recently, I rediscovered one of my favorite childhood TV shows from the 80s (on youtube), "You can't do that on television" full of rather innocent juvenile toilet humor, but thats what made it great. It pushed the envelope, but all in a fun way. I learned it started in Ottawa before moving to Nickelodeon.
Anyways, I decided to just check it up on wikipedia,etc. and had NO IDEA, of the beautiful European influenced classic government buildings, like the Parliament building and others. No one ever mentions Ottawa as a North American city that feels European, but it does look it. But Montreal usually gets the attention for a European-looking N. American city in Canada.
Do Ottawans generally feel a lot of pride, with a little annoyed that it is overshadowed by two much more well known cities in each direction? Do you guys show a lot of pride as being the capital, or is there more of a "its OK, kind of boring but good place to be from attitude?
Outside the very small area of land surrounding the parliament building, Ottawa doesn't look like a European city whatsoever. I am afraid even Los Angeles looks more like Europe than Ottawa.
In fact Ottawa is a typical North American city with huge sprawl.
For example, Ottawa has a population of 890K, but it spans over 1000sq miles. In comparison, Houston has 2.1 million people on 1600sq miles, which means Houston has 4 times denser than Ottawa. Dallas has 40% more population on similar size land.
Outside the relatively small downtown area, the vast majority of Ottawa is nothing but low rise single family homes, much like you see in suburban Indiana. Much of Ottawa outside the "European like" area looks like this
Outside the very small area of land surrounding the parliament building, Ottawa doesn't look like a European city whatsoever. I am afraid even Los Angeles looks more like Europe than Ottawa.
In fact Ottawa is a typical North American city with huge sprawl.
For example, Ottawa has a population of 890K, but it spans over 1000sq miles. In comparison, Houston has 2.1 million people on 1600sq miles, which means Houston has 4 times denser than Ottawa. Dallas has 40% more population on similar size land.
Outside the relatively small downtown area, the vast majority of Ottawa is nothing but low rise single family homes, much like you see in suburban Indiana. Much of Ottawa outside the "European like" area looks like this
Interesting. Although I will say, that when you plug the city into google maps, the borders extend WAY out into the countryside, which is why city limit density can be a little misleading if it is not hemmed in by other cities.
Interesting. Although I will say, that when you plug the city into google maps, the borders extend WAY out into the countryside, which is why city limit density can be a little misleading if it is not hemmed in by other cities.
That's true, there is a portion of Ottawa that is entirely rural, with farmsland, cottages, little villages. My cottage is within the Ottawa City limits, and the area is bush surrounded by farmland.
But most of Ottawa is very suburban in character.
Downtown is more exciting than it was 30 years ago, for sure, but still pretty sedate. Lots of people like it that way.
Very recently, I rediscovered one of my favorite childhood TV shows from the 80s (on youtube), "You can't do that on television" full of rather innocent juvenile toilet humor, but thats what made it great. It pushed the envelope, but all in a fun way. I learned it started in Ottawa before moving to Nickelodeon.
A little off topic here, but this reminds me of an interesting story from a You Can't Do That on Television cast member that I read years ago. YCDTOTV was a Canadian show produced in Ottawa, but apparently it was never really very popular in Canada. In the U.S., meanwhile, where it aired on Nickelodeon, it was huge. So the cast would come to America and walk down the city streets and get mobbed, and then they'd go back home to Ottawa and nobody would recognize them.
A little off topic here, but this reminds me of an interesting story from a You Can't Do That on Television cast member that I read years ago. YCDTOTV was a Canadian show produced in Ottawa, but apparently it was never really very popular in Canada. In the U.S., meanwhile, where it aired on Nickelodeon, it was huge. So the cast would come to America and walk down the city streets and get mobbed, and then they'd go back home to Ottawa and nobody would recognize them.
Don't want to be a party-pooper here but I grew up in eastern Ontario not far from Ottawa in the years that show was on and it was definitely popular with teens in Ottawa and environs.
But it could be that it wasn't popular in Canada beyond Ottawa's sphere of influence.
Don't want to be a party-pooper here but I grew up in eastern Ontario not far from Ottawa in the years that show was on and it was definitely popular with teens in Ottawa and environs.
But it could be that it wasn't popular in Canada beyond Ottawa's sphere of influence.
Hmmm -- well, I might have just imagined the part about "going back to Ottawa." Maybe that cast member was talking about going back to Vancouver or something. That interview is probably more than 10 years old.
Hmmm -- well, I might have just imagined the part about "going back to Ottawa." Maybe that cast member was talking about going back to Vancouver or something. That interview is probably more than 10 years old.
It's certainly believable that people in places like Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto could have been indifferent to a Canadian TV show produced in Ottawa.
Hello, with family on both sides of border my experience is that outside of a few NCC-manicured streets (read: made to look euro) near Parliament, Ottawa is a pretty Midwestern medium sized city. Unfortunately, a lot of the more beautiful European-style buildings were blasted in the 1960s and 70s to put up these hideous brutalist style office towers. Most people in the city seem quite happy with this. They like safe and quiet for families.
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