Ottawa is the Capitale Canada, located in the province of the Ontario, with the junction of the Rivière of Outaouais and the Rivière Curtain. The city is the result of fusion in 2000 of the old town of Ottawa and 10 neighbouring municipalities. The population, in 2001, was of approximately 822  600 people. Since December 2006, the mayor of the city east Larry O' Brien.

Ottawa is the core of an agglomeration of about 1.110.500 inhabitants, including the town of Gatineau, Quebec (in the past Aylmer, Hull, Gatineau, Buckingham and Masson-Angers), located on other bank of the river of Outaouais. The town of Ottawa established a policy of bilingualism in 2002.

The economy of the city is based on the activities of the ministries and organizations of the federal government as of the Canadian Parliament but there is an important fringe of employment in the sectors of high technologies and tourism. The tourist poles of the area include the Hill of the Parliament, the By Market (Photo); 24, walk Sussex, the official residence of the Prime Minister of Canada; and Rideau Hall, the official residence of the General governor of Canada.

Ottawa gathers also several museums, of which the Musée of the fine arts of Canada, the Canadian Musée of the war and the Canadian Musée of civilizations in Gatineau. Two universities sit at Ottawa: the University of Ottawa and the University Carleton.

The town of Ottawa is served by the international airport Macdonald-Cartier. It is the terminus of the Canal Curtain.

History

The area of Ottawa was for a long time an establishment of the nation of the Outaouais ( Ottawa in English; Odawa in algonquin), from where its current name. The River of Outaouais, bordering the city was called Kichi Sibi or Kichissippi by the algonquin, meaning " Large rivière".

The first European establishment of the area was that of the farmer Philemon Wright, native of the Massachusetts to the the United States, which is established in 1800 side Québécois of the river, on the current site of the old town of Hull. Wright discovered that it was possible to transport wood blocks since the valley of Ottawa until Montreal thanks to the flow of the river, which made increase considerably the number of colonists being established in the area.

During the War of 1812, the United States having tried to invade the British provinces of Canada, it is decided that a channel would be built in order to avoid the portion of the Fleuve the St. Lawrence narrowing close to the state of New York, in order to avoid the possible American attacks. The lieutenant-colonel John By undertook to install on the hill overhanging the river a camping in order to supervise construction of what would become the Canal Curtain. Under the direction of the governor, it made there build a hospital like several military barracks (in English: barracks ) in order to place its men on the hill then completely timbered, which became known under the name of Barracks Hill . It also indicated two sites having to contain the future colonists, one in the west of the hill, the high-city and the other in the east of the entry of the future channel, the low-city. In 1828, the village of almost 1.000 inhabitants took the name of his founder, Bytown. The city quickly became the center of the industry of wood in Canada. In 1855, with an aim of ensuring the city a more eloquent candidature at the time of the choice of the Canadian capital, it was re-elected under its current name, Ottawa.

The December 31st 1857, Ottawa was selected like capital of the Province of Canada by the queen Victoria, with an aim of solving a conflict opposing Montreal, Toronto, Quebec and Kingston, all wishing to become capital province. Ottawa was finally indicated capital thanks to its geographical location, on the border between the High-Canada and the Low-Canada (in order to not support neither the english-speaking nor French-speaking people) and also thanks to the distance which separated it from the border with the the United States, protecting it from a possible American attack. The city also had the ground chosen for the construction of the seat of the government, from where the sight on the river was impressive. This choice, astonishing for several was criticized considerably, being given the character very rural and moved away from the city at the time.

The December 20th 1859 began the building work from the buildings of the Parlement of Canada on Barracks Hill which then became the Colline of the Parliament. After the fire of 1916, which left intact only the library of the Parliament, the rebuilding of the buildings is undertaken to finish four years later, the February 26th 1920, date of the first session of the legislative body of the government in the new buildings.

Demography

According to the census of 2001, there are 774.072 inhabitants, 310.132 households, and 210.875 families which live in the city. The Population density is of 278,6 habitants/km ².

Point of the native tongues, the city is to 51% english-speaking, French-speaking person with 32% and 17% Allophone.

Approximately 81% of the population (80,90%) are Caucasian. Among the other inhabitants, 4,54% are Noirs, 3,62% Chinese, 2,84% South-Asian , 2,67% Arab , 1,14% Asiatiques of South-east, 1,13% Amerindian, 0,85% Latino-américains, 0,66% Asiatiques Westerners, 0,64% Filipino, 0,20% Japan Korean boards and 0,19% . The remainder of the population is other origins (0,31%) or belongs to multiple visible minorities (0,33%).

Ethnicité

  • Canadian - 463.280 (people for the majority of origin English/Irish/French which lived in Canada during several generations)
  • French - 272.085
  • English - 200.900
  • Irish - 183.130
  • Écossais - 152.215
  • German S - 63.295
  • Italian - 37.440
  • Chinese - 31.595
  • Autochtones - 25.780
  • Polish - 23.695

There are 210.875 families of which 72,8% are married couples living together, 11,1% are couples in free union, and 13,2% single-parent families where the relative is of female sex.

Composition according to the age of the population: 25.3% of the inhabitants have less than 19 years, 6,9% have from 20 to 24 years, 32,5% from 25 to 44 years, 23,8% from 45 to 64 years, and 11,5% are 65 years old and more. The Middle Age is 36,7 years. The distribution men/women for the whole of the groups of age is of 95,1 women for each man hundred. On the other hand, for each woman 18 years `hundred and more, one counts 92,1 men.

The average individual income is of $39 713 and the average family income is of $73 507. The men have an average revenue of $47 203 and the women of $31 641. The incomes per capita are of $23 061.

Tourist attractions

As a capital of Canada, Ottawa has several sites of interest, museums and institutions which attract a great number of visitors. Here a list of most important:

  • the Hill of the Parliament

  • the 24, walk Sussex, official residence of the Prime Minister
  • Rideau Hall, official residence of the General governor
  • the Canal Curtain
  • the Musée of the fine arts of Canada
  • the Canadian Musée of the war
  • the Musée of sciences and the technology of Canada
  • the Musée of the aviation of Canada
  • the Canadian Musée of nature
  • the Canadian Musée of contemporary photography
  • the national Memorial of war of Canada and the from the Unknown soldier
  • the Monument to the Valorous
  • the Monument falls to the maintenance of peace
  • the Canadian Monument for the rights of the person
  • the Castle Bay-tree, a historical hotel
  • the National center of Arts
  • Place Banks Scotia, arena where play the Senators d' Ottawa
  • the Embassy of France in Canada: by the architect Eugene Beaudouin. The dining room is decorated of a mural decoration ordered by the Minister for State education Albert Sarraut with the painter Alfred Courmes in 1938. This work happy France covers a surface of one hundred twenty square meters. The embassy is also decorated with sculptures of Louis Leygue, and Jean Prouvé: Large Hermine .

Transport

Public transport

Public transport is ensured by OC Transpo whose network comprises local circuits of bus with frequent stops, fast circuits on reserved way called Transitway and a Train-tram called O-Train. The Shipping company of Outaouais (STO), which serves Gatineau Québécois side of the Rivière of Outaouais, account certain circuits towards the town of Ottawa and OC Transpo makes in the same way towards Gatineau. The whole gives an extremely dense network of public transport. The transport documents of the two networks are valid without supplement on the regular lines.

Interurban bonds

VIA Rail offers trains towards Montreal and Toronto. Greyhound directly connects Ottawa with several Québécois destinations Ontarian and with the remainder of Canada and the United States by conrrespondance starting from the Central Station of Bus of Ottawa.

The highway 417, the Queensway , crosses the southern part of the city, connects it to Montreal towards the east and to the north of Ontario in the other direction. It belongs to the Route transcanadienne. The highway 416, the Highway commemorative of the war veterans , moves towards the highway 401 and connecting it towards Toronto. Road 17 and 174 are also major axes of interurban transport. Two bridges on the river of Outaouais make the junction towards Quebec

Maritime

Ottawa is with the confluence of the rivers of Outaouais and Rideau. After the War of 1812, the construction of the Canal Curtain was undertaken in order to connect the British colonies of the Haut and Low-Canada by avoiding the proximity of the American border along the St. Lawrence river between Cornwall and Kingston. These two maritime bonds have development assistance of the area largely, especially by allowing the transport of the wood of the forests more north.

Since the development of the roads after the Second world war and the prohibition of the floatation of wood in the Years 1970, the maritime transport is gradually disappeared but that of pleasure took the changing. The Rideau channel is particularly snuffed in summer by the navigators and into winter it is transformed into linear skating rink.

There has broad network off paved multi-uses pathways that wind to their way through much off the city, including along the Ottawa River, Rideau To rivet, and Rideau Channel (UNESCO World Heritage Site has). Thesis pathways are used for transportation, tourism, and re-creation. Because most streets either cuts wide curb lanes gold bicycle lanes, cycling has popular mode off transportation in the area throughout the year.

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Airport

The airport international airport MacDonald-Cartier accommodates, according to the statistics of January 1998, a hundred flights each day:

The airport of Gatineau also serves the area for flights of businesses and some flights regional.

Heraldic

Quartered: with 1st with the old engine with its tender travelling on a bottom of mountain; with 2nd with a landscape with a radiating sun and a fir tree accosted with dextral of a reindeer lying and sinistral of a reindeer upright; with 3rd with the lock with six levels passing under a bridge and crossing a hill; with 4th with a river with its fall of water, banks connected by a suspended bridge; the whole with the naturalness.

Archbishop's palace

Sporting teams

The town of Ottawa also accommodated two teams playing in the Canadian Ligue of football: the Rough Riders (of 1958 to 1996) and the Renegades (of 2002 to 2005). This last frankness is suspended since 2006 in waiting from a possible transferee.

See too

External bonds

  • Official site of the town of Ottawa
  • Galerie photographs of Ottawa
  • Info Centers of Ottawa
  • Musée Bytown - '' Canada' S Capital ''
  • viruelle Visite
  • Info Butt Your City: Ottawa

Random links:Gold angle | Giovanni Galbaio | Low register | Theorem of Müntz | Alfred Robaut