Ottawa—Birthplace of the Cold War?

The Cold War was inauspiciously launched at 511 Somerset Street West, in an apartment building now adjacent to the Beer Store. Don’t believe it? On September 5, 1945, Russian-born Igor Gouzenko, posted to the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa as a cipher clerk, walked into the offices of the late daily the Ottawa Journal and, in essence, defected. He brought with him 109 carefully selected documents that he had been collecting for weeks, establishing conclusively the existence of a Soviet spy ring in North America. A royal commission was appointed the following February to investigate. In 2003, a plaque for Gouzenko (who, with his family, was given a new identity and relocated by the Canadian government) was erected in Dundonald Park across from his former home. Gouzenko, who had adopted an assumed name, died in 1982 in Mississauga.

Stopwatch Gang

The Stopwatch Gang, led by Ottawa’s own Paddy Mitchell (who grew up in Little Italy), Stephen Reid (of Massey, Ontario), and Lionel Wright, are perhaps Canada’s most infamous bank robbers. The trio, whose orchestrated meticulous heists never took longer than 90 seconds, robbed more than 100 banks and armoured cars during the 1970s and 80s in the United States and Canada. Their most notorious job was a 1974 gold heist (worth $750,000) at the Ottawa airport, earning themselves a place on the FBI’s most-wanted list. The gang’s exploits were detailed in several movies, including Point Break (1991) and The Heist (2001), as well as in the book The Stopwatch Gang (1992) by Toronto Sun reporter Greg Weston, and in Mitchell’s own memoir, This Bank Robber’s Life, which he wrote in prison and sold over the Internet. While still in jail, Reid wrote his own book, a semi-autobiographical novel titled Jackrabbit Parole. Through this book he met his editor, West Coast poet and writer Susan Musgrave, and in 1986 they married while he was still imprisoned. Upon his release a year later, he and Musgrave attempted to live a quiet life on Vancouver Island, and had a child as well. He appeared as a rifle-toting security guard in a 15-second cameo (as well as acting as the film’s bank heist consultant) in the independent movie Four Days (1999). Unfortunately, in the spring of 1999 in Victoria, BC, his heroin addiction resulted in a return to crime and a botched robbery and shootout; currently, Reid remains in prison. The leader of the gang, Patrick “Paddy” Mitchell, called “North America’s most famous, most successful and, especially, most likeable bank robber of our time” by his son, grew up on Preston Street in Ottawa, and died of cancer on in 2007 in a US prison while serving a 65-year sentence. Wright served his sentence, and according to a 2005 report from the CBC, worked as an accountant for Corrections Canada. The gold from the airport robbery in 1974 was never recovered.

Oscar Wilde in Ottawa

In May 1882, the infamous playwright Oscar Wilde made a two-day stopover in Ottawa during a lecture tour of North America, with his performance making the front page of the Ottawa Citizen. During his stay, he visited a sitting of Parliament, and met Frances Richards, a young Ottawa portrait painter. The following year Richards visited Wilde in Paris and eventually moved to London in 1887. In late December that same year, she painted his portrait which, according to Christopher Millard, a contemporary London art critic, was the inspiration for Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Richards, who later became Mrs W. E. Rowley, Esq., had ties to another Canadian expatriate living in London, Mrs Augusta Ross, daughter of Robert Baldwin, the premier of the Province of Canada (1848-51). And, according to many of Wilde’s biographers, it was Ross’s third son, Robbie, who, through a meeting with Wilde, helped the famous writer recognize his homosexuality (he had previously shown little interest in the male sex and was even known as quite the ladies’ man). “Faithful Robbie” became not only Wilde’s first recorded male lover, but was with Wilde when he died, in Paris in 1900, disgraced and abandoned by
the public.

Country Fairs In and Around Ottawa

Throughout the Ottawa Valley, whether in Ontario or across the river into Quebec, you can find a county fair almost every single weekend of the summer. Here are a few of the highlights, if you feel like going for a short day trip.

The Shawville Fair: Shawville, Quebec (1 hr drive west): Started in 1856, this county fair is held on the Labour Day weekend every year. Carp Fair: Carp (1 hr drive west): Held near the end of September every year, the Carp fair also holds an ongoing Farmer’s Market .

The Glengarry Highland Games: Maxville (1 hr drive east along the 417 Hwy.)

the largest Highland Games in North America, and one of the largest in the world. Founded in 1948, the games are held from Thursday to Saturday on the August long weekend (the first weekend of the month) in Glengarry County. Events include the North American Pipe Band Championships and the highland dance competition, as well as the usual caber, sheaf, and hammer toss, and more kilts than you can shake a stick at. Glengarry is not only the oldest county in the province, but the home of the largest concentration of Scottish immigrants in Canada.

The Williamstown Fair, Williamstown (11/2 hr drive east)

Called the home of Canada’s oldest annual fair, Williamstown sits in the middle of
of Glengarry County .

Other Ottawa Valley Fairs

Ottawa Festivals

Perhaps Ottawa should be dubbed the “City of Festivals,” given the numerous events held here per season. To name just a few of them, there is Winterlude, the Ottawa Fringe Festival, West Fest, and the Ottawa Greek Fest.

There are well over 45 festivals, special events, and fairs that take place in Ottawa annually, with a variety that is sure to provide something for everyone.

Winterlude

Staged over three consecutive weekends in February, the annual Winterlude festival consists of more than 120 indoor and outdoor activities, which, after 20 years, attract over 1.2 million visitors to the Ottawa region annually. Events include: live music shows, professional figure skating performances, snow sculpting and ice carving competitions, the world’s largest skate-a-thon, and a bed race that draws crowds from miles around. In Gatineau, Jacques Cartier Park is transformed into a winter wonderland, the world’s largest children’s snow playground. Another feature is the downhill and cross-country skiing, including the Winterman and Winterwoman Sports Weekend, the 21-kilometre (13-mi) run that follows “Canadas discovery route” (Confederation Boulevard). World renowned, the event also is part of the prestigious world loppett (cross-country ski race) circuit. And, of course, always a highlight of Winterlude is skating on the Rideau Canal, featuring a “rink’ that stretches 7.8 kilometres (4.8 mi) from the Chateau Laurier to Dow’s Lake.

Ottawa Fringe Festival

This annual festival in June showcases local, national, and international performers and playwrights, some with shows touring other Fringe Festivals across Canada.

Ottawa Greek Fest

Every August, spend a few weeks of living “the Greek way.”

Ottawa International Animation Fest

The largest event of its kind in North America, this competitive festival showcases the best of cutting-edge, trend-setting animation as well as industry standards.

Ottawa International Busker Festival

Showcasing “five days of unorthodox entertainment,” the Busker Festival has some of the best musicians, jugglers, fire-eaters, storytellers, comedians, magicians, and mimes from Canada and around the world.

Ottawa Lumiere Festival

Ottawa’s nighttime festival, celebrating “the magic and mystical beauty of light” in New Edinburgh, with dance, music, poetry, and thousands of lantern.

West Fest

Westfest is Ottawa’s newest large-scale festival, a diverse celebration that includes, multidisciplinary arts, including music, performance art, literature, spoken word, media art, visual art, dance, theatre, and live animation. Starting Friday, June 12 through Sunday, June 14 an estimated 100,000 people will stroll through the community of Westboro Village in Ottawa. Join us on Richmond Road, between Golden Avenue and Island Park Drive. West Fest takes place on Richmond Road in Westboro, and shockingly enough, it is FREE.

For more information, see westfest.ca.

Ottawa Greenspaces

There were complaints about Ottawa city planner Jacques Gréber when he started creating a horseshoe of green space around Ottawa in the 1950s (frustrated developers called him “Jacques Grabber”). But thanks to him, we now have 200 square kilometres (124 sq mi) of greenbelt around the downtown core alone. For picnicking, swimming, Frisbee, hiking, snowshoeing – you name it – here are some locations worth considering (depending on your goals, of course). (Inline skaters can use the miles and miles of paths that line either side of the Rideau Canal, from Wellington Street/Rideau Street all the way down to Hog’s Back, and back.)

Andrew Haydon Park, Acres Road and Carling Avenue: In the west end of the city, this park is named after a former mayor of the City of Nepean. It sits on the Ottawa River and has a view of Britannia Bay. Includes a picnic area, artificial lake, road concession, and yacht club. Considering the state of some parts of the Ottawa River, swimming is not recommended.

Commissioners Park (at Dow’s Lake), Carling Avenue at Queen Elizabeth Driveway: Home to the Dow’s Lake Boathouse, with concessions and restaurants, this is a popular spot during many regattas, as well as during the Tulip Festival in May, and the Winterlude carnival in February.

Confederation Park, Elgin Street at Laurier Avenue: Across the street from the new City Hall (110 Laurier Ave. W.), this is the site of various events throughout the year, including Winterlude, the Ottawa Jazz Festival, and Canada Day celebrations, as well as many others. The fountain here once stood in Trafalgar Square in London, England.

Dow’s Lake: Formerly Dow’s Swamp, Dow’s Lake was created during the construction of the Rideau Canal, and its proximity to Confederation Park, the Central Experimental Farm, and Dow’s Lake Boathouse make it a good spot for picnickers and boat enthusiasts.

Garden of the Provinces, Wellington at Bay Streets: Across from the Library and Archives Canada building, this park commemorates the union of 10 provinces and the territories with flags, bronze plaques featuring the provincial flowers, and a symbolic fountain overlooking LeBreton Flats and the start of the Ottawa River Parkway.

Gatineau Park: a 15-minute drive north of downtown Ottawa, this park is home to a whole slew of trails for biking, walking, snowshoeing, skiing, or hiking. Hog’s Back Falls (officially known as Prince of Wales Falls), Hog’s Back Road at Colonel By Drive: Near Carleton University, these falls are where the Rideau Canal passes through the first locks in Ottawa, with a swing bridge to enable sailing boats to pass under the roadway.

Hog’s Back Park and nearby Vincent Massey Park are both popular spots. Jacques Cartier Park, Rue Laurier, Gatineau: This park, situated between the Interprovincial and Macdonald-Cartier bridges, has great views of Rideau Falls and Nepean Point, and is a popular festival events location, with the Outaouais Tourism office nearby, and the Canadian Museum of Civilization across the street. Pathways connect to Leamy Lake and the Gatineau River.

Leamy Lake Ecological Park and Archaeological Site, Leamy Lake Parkway, accessed from Boulevard Maissoneuve, Gatineau: Where the Gatineau River meets the Ottawa River, this was once a stopping-off point for the First Nations peoples as well as French fur traders, and has since been recognized as a rich site for archaeological digs. The park also has a lake with swimming and windsurfing, and a concession stand. The new Casino de Hull is directly across from Leamy Lake beach.

Major’s Hill Park, Mackenzie Avenue (behind the Château Laurier Hotel): The city’s oldest park, it was developed in 1874 for its view of the Parliament Buildings, and was once the home of Lieutenant-Colonel John By (though his home is long gone). Currently the park is the site of the Astrolabe Theatre and the noon gun, fired daily off Nepean Point.

Mer Bleue Conservation Area, Anderson Road off Inness Road: This parkland is a peat bog, more typical of what you might find in Canada’s far north, despite being located southeast of the city.

New Edinburgh Park, Stanley Avenue and Dufferin Road: On the eastern bank of the Rideau River, this park has plenty of wildlife, including blue herons, muskrats, turtles, and butterflies. In the winter, there is an outdoor skating rink. Pine Grove Forest, Hunt Club at Conroy Roads: This 12-square-kilometre (7.5-sq-mi) urban forest, managed by the National Capital Commission, combines natural and planted forest, and offers wide and level trails for hiking.

Vincent Massey Park, Heron Road (west of Riverside Dr., 733-7704): Just north of Hog’s Back Park and Mooney’s Bay, this park, named for Canada’s first Canadian-born Governor General, is used for events involving large groups, with numerous picnic tables and fireplaces as well as softball fields, horseshoe pits, and a bandstand; in winter, it has some of the best tobogganing hills in the city. A parking fee of $4 is charged from May to October each year.

For the Birds

One of the foremost birders in North America is Ottawa-born Bruce Di Labio, who currently lives just outside Ottawa in the village of Carp. A member of the Ottawa Field- Naturalist’s Club (which is the oldest natural history club in Canada, dating back to 1879), Di Labio spent much of the 1980s working for the Museum of Nature in ornithology before working for the Canadian Nature Federation as Staff Naturalist and finally launching his own birding business in 1998. He conducts birding classes, field trips, and local group tours in Canada, and has also led birding tours to Arizona, Alaska, Texas, New Jersey, California, Costa Rica, Cuba, and Churchill, Manitoba. (See also the Ottawa Field-Naturalists)

Life’s a Beach

If you feel safer with lifeguard supervision while you’re out in the sand, here are some beaches the City keeps an eye on: Britannia Beach (2805 Carling Ave., 820- 1211), Mooney’s Bay Beach (2926 Riverside Dr., 248-0863), and Westboro Beach (follow Ottawa River Pkwy. to Kitchissippi Lookout).

Sam Bats: A Bat Maker of our Own

Batter Up: Ottawa may be a hockey town, but it’s also home to a little factory that just happens to produce bats for Major League Baseball’s all-time home run king. Barry Bonds and a number of other major leaguers use bats produced by the Original Maple Bat Corporation, founded by Ottawa’s Sam Holman, who produces well over 10,000 bats a year in his inconspicuous shop.

Developed in 1997, the “Sam Bat” is made out of Canadian maple; it doesn’t dent easily and thus lasts longer than any others. Holman claims that living in Ottawa offered an advantage for developing his product.

As the company’s website says: “[Ottawa] was a researcher’s dream centre: home of the Canadian patent library, two first-rate universities, the Wood Council, the Canadian Forest Research Centre, the National and other extensive Libraries – all in the centre of the richest deciduous forest in North America.”

The Birthplace of the Stanley Cup

It’s appropriate that the Stanley Cup, the ultimate trophy awarded for our “national game,” originated in the nation’s capital. In 1892, at a dinner of the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Association, Lord Kilcoursie, a player on the Ottawa Rebels hockey club, delivered a message on behalf of Lord Frederick Stanley, Governor General of Canada, announcing the awarding of a trophy to the best team in Canadian hockey. (Unfortunately, since Lord Stanley returned to his native England in the midst of the 1893 season, he never witnessed a championship game nor attended a presentation of the trophy.) There’s a plaque in front of a laundromat at Gladstone Avenue and Percy Streets, the former site of Patinoire Dey’s Skating Rink, where one of the first games for the cup was played, and where the Ottawa Senators (popularly known as “the silver seven”) defeated the Montreal Victorias on March 10, 1903 to give Ottawa its first Cup title. Today, the Stanley Cup is the oldest trophy that can be won by a professional sports team in North America.

Sparks Street

The site of the first asphalt laid in the capital in 1895, Sparks Street was named for Nicholas Sparks – not the well-known contemporary author who shares the same name, but an illiterate Irish labourer who became Bytown’s first tycoon and one of the founding fathers of Ottawa, serving on the first town council in 1847 as well as on the first council of the City of Ottawa. In 1826, he purchased – for £95 – 200 acres of farmland in the heart of the present capital in the area now bounded by Wellington, Rideau, Waller, Laurier, and Bronson streets. He married the widowed daughter of Ottawa lumber baron J. B. Booth and helped raise her nine children, and the land he received as dowry he later sold for the construction of the Rideau Canal (specifically, to then- Governor General, the Earl of Dalhousie). Sparks Street was opened as a pedestrian mall in 1960, originally on a trial basis. Every few years the city decides to revitalize Sparks Street, without always improving it (in much the way the city tries to do the same with Rideau Street). The city’s only pedestrian mall, the city planners spent years changing their minds on whether or not cars should be allowed on the street at all, but they’ve finally left it alone, and the current mall remains a model for other urban communities in North America (including Washington, DC, and Philadelphia).

Sparks Street Bones

On the morning of March 11, 1977, a Fuller Construction backhoe and crew discovered a damaged skull and the partial remains of two bodies while working an excavation site on Queen Street at Metcalf, right behind the Bank of Commerce building at 62 Sparks Street (now home of Ian Kimmerly Stamps). The police turned the bones over to the coroner, Dr Tom Kendall, who determined that the remains were over a century old, and that the couple in question had died of natural causes. The area had been the site of a graveyard in the 1880s, and officials speculated that the bones had perhaps been disturbed and shifted a number of times during previous excavations. The remains were then collected and reburied.