About Unknown Ottawa

Ottawa may be our capital city but it’s also a place of contradictions. The official version offers numerous, beneficent historic sites, institutions, museums, and galleries, but there are other stories to be told. In this latest edition of Arsenal’s Unknown City series of alternative city guides for both locals and tourists, Ottawa comes alive as a diverse, quirky town that may look like a government city on the surface but boasts a small-town charm. The book charts a course through the city’s hidden landmarks, shopping, dining, and nightlife hot spots, as well as secret histories that will come as a surprise even to life-long locals.

In Ottawa, change has been the only constant. The city has gone through countless transformations over the years, from the time of the Algonquin and Outaouais First Nations peoples, to the end of New France in 1759 and subsequent British rule that brought American immigrants, including a group led by lumber baron Philemon Wright, who settled across the river in Hull Township. From the day when Ottawa was named capital of this young country, to today when Ottawa is a still-growing, bustling government town – the city continues to evolve.

Among the Unknown facts about Ottawa:

• A rumour persists that Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as Canada’s capital by playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey with a map of Canada
• When Oscar Wilde visited Ottawa in 1882, he met a young portrait painter named Frances Richards; she later moved to Europe and painted Wilde’s portrait which allegedly became the inspiration for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray
• In 1945, a clerk at the Soviet embassy in Ottawa defected, bringing along with him hard evidence of a Soviet spy ring in North America, making him a prime target for the KGB; his story became the basis of the 1948 film The Iron Curtain
• The Rideau Canal was officially named the “longest skating rink in the world” by the Guinness Book of World Records in 2005

Witty and urbane, this Unknown City book takes readers on a beguiling journey through Ottawa’s past, present, and future, warts and all.

The story of Ottawa is one that’s defined by myriad things: water travel, explorers, fire, farmers, politicians, working class folk, industry, and much more. Along the way, the city grew slowly from a Victorian lumber town (considered the most dangerous in the British Commonwealth in 1845) into a remarkably clean and green cosmopolitan hub of government, high-tech industry, and the arts. The tech boom in the 1990s (including the launch of both Nortel and Corel) made Ottawa much wealthier and more global in outlook; some feel that its identity as a cutting-edge town is better known internationally than in Canada. Others might say that Ottawa – listed as the seventh coldest world capital – has but two seasons: winter and construction.

Okay, some of the stereotypes are true, but there is still plenty of culture, activity, and excitement beyond the snowdrifts, in and around the scaffolding – in places where you might not think to look. And our summers belie the stereotypes of Canadian climate, yielding weeks of blistering muggy days. And regardless of the season, there’s always a festival to be found.

Ottawa is a city built on contradictions: green space and concrete; embassies and art galleries; an identity split between that of a national capital and that of a city all its own; a thriving, northern metropolis

that includes freaks, weirdoes, and night-owls, alongside the small-“c” conservative types who crawl into bed by 10 p.m. Ottawa can be a city that keeps itself quiet, even to the point of self-deprecation and self-mockery.

But there are strange and wonderful things here; you just have to know where to look.

Any inquiries can be sent to info(at)unknownottawa.com

(Note: all phone numbers listed in this book have a 613 area code, unless
otherwise noted.)