Ottawa Travel Guide
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Ottawa may be the most underappreciated national capital east of Ulan Bator, even though on most counts it's an urban standard against which many North American cities might well gauge themselves. Ottawa's downtown is striking, with more renovation and enlightened recycling of its 19th- and early-20th-century buildings happening every year. The miles of tidy late-Victorian brick houses serving as shops, restaurants, and homes are real characteristics of the city. The Gothic spires and towers of Parliament Hill look like the grand estate of an overachieving Scottish laird, with the voluptuous Gatineau Hills as a backdrop. In spring, carpets of tulips and daffodils embrace residences and ministries and cast visual fire against the deep greens of the city's parks. Cutting a swath through Ottawa is the Rideau Canal, a magnet for houseboats and cabin cruisers and a scene out of a Dutch painting in winter, when the citizenry takes to the ice on sleighs and skates.
The reality of Ottawa is far from the dour Calvinist sobriety often depicted. It's clean -- men with pans and brooms let not a wad of paper linger in downtown gutters -- and the city's streets are not yet choked. It possesses, in fact, a certain romance in its lanes and parks and cul-de-sacs. See for yourself with a walk down to Victoria Island. Looking east, as the Ottawa River rushes by the bluffs where Parliament stands, it doesn't take much imagination to summon a picture of those early days when waterborne fur traders and explorers sped westward and great logs rolled down these rivers to what was then a clamorous lumber town. Developers and builders have yet to obscure the treasured vistas of hills and water. And, in this most British of Canadian cities, observe troops of sentries in scarlet tunics and black shakos marching to drum and bagpipe to the morning changing of the guard, just as they do at Buckingham Palace.
Admittedly, Ottawa was an unlikely candidate for Canada's capital when it was chosen in the mid-19th century. The two provinces of Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Québec) were fused into the United Provinces of Canada, but their rivalry was so bitter the legislature had to meet alternately in Toronto and Montréal. Queen Victoria selected the village of Ottawa in 1858, no doubt in the hope that its location on the Ontario-Québec border would smooth the differences between the French and English Canadas. Her choice wasn't met with much praise: Essayist Goldwin Smith called it "a sub-Arctic village, converted by royal mandate into a political cockpit." Other assessments weren't as kind.
For nearly a century, the city languished in an undeniable provincialism and worked on its reputation for propriety. In its early days, though, it managed to nurture some colorful characters, not the least of whom was Canada's longest-serving prime minister, William Lyon Mackenzie King, who conducted World War II with the guidance of his dog, his deceased mother, and frequent consultations with his predecessor, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who was by then two decades dead.
In the 1960s, perhaps because of Canada's burgeoning nationalism or because the government wished to create a real capital, Ottawa began to change. The National Arts Centre was built, ethnic restaurants multiplied, the Byward Market area and other historic buildings were rescued, and public parks and recreation areas were created. This process has continued into the present with the building of the National Gallery of Canada. Hull, the Québécois city across the river, has been undergoing a similar transformation, highlighted by the opening of the superb Museum of Civilization and recently renamed Casino de Lac-Leamy. These twin cities are now full of unexpected pleasures -- you can watch the debates and pomp of parliamentary proceedings, take in the street scene from a sidewalk terrace, ski or camp or hike in wilderness only 15 minutes away, and then put your feet up before the fireplace of a rustic inn.
After visiting Ottawa, you may wish to explore eastern Ontario for a few days. Kingston, an appealing lakefront town, is the principal gateway to the Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence River. East from Port Hope -- a worthy stop for antiques hounds -- stretches the Bay of Quinte and Quinte's Isle, a tranquil region of farms, orchards, quaint villages, and riverside parks. Still outside the usual tourist circuits, it was settled by colonials, loyal to the Crown, who fled the American Revolution.
