OTTAWA HISTORY |
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The Ottawa region was long home to First Nations peoples who were part of
the Algonquin. The first European settlement in the Ottawa region was that
of Philemon Wright who started a community on the Quebec side of the river
in 1800. Wright discovered that transporting timber by river from the Ottawa
Valley to Montreal was possible and Ottawa was soon booming based almost
entirely off timber. The city grew even further in importance when the
Rideau Canal was constructed by Colonel John By. The city was then known as
Bytown, but it was incorporated as Ottawa in 1855.
Original city leaders of Bytown include a number Wright's sons, most notably
Ruggles Wright. Nicholas Sparks, Braddish Billings and Abraham Dow were the
first to settle on the Ontario side of the Ottawa river. |
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On December 31, 1857 Queen Victoria, was asked to choose a capital for
Canada, and chose Ottawa. There are various popular stories explaining this
decision. One explanation is that she did so by sticking her hatpin on a map
roughly halfway between Toronto and Montreal; Ottawa was the nearest city to
were it landed. Another is that she liked some watercolours she had seen of
the area. In reality, the primary objective was probably to avoid
antagonising either English speakers or French speakers. The other
candidates - Quebec City, Montreal, Kingston and Toronto - were perceived as
too firmly rooted either in English or in French tradition; Ottawa seemed
more neutral. Also, at a time when the US was considered a military threat,
Ottawa was situated further from the border.
The original Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa burned down
on February 3, 1916. The House of Commons was temporarily relocated to the
Victorian era building which was then the Victoria Museum, and is currently
(2004) the Canadian Museum of Nature, located about 1 km south of Parliament
Hill at the opposite end of Metcalfe Street. A new Centre Block was
completed in 1922, the centre-piece of which is a dominant gothic revival
styled structure known as the Peace Tower which has become a common emblem
of the city.
In 2001, the city of Ottawa was amalgamated with the suburbs of Nepean,
Kanata, Gloucester, Rockcliffe Park, Vanier and Cumberland, and the rural
townships of West Carleton, Osgoode, Rideau and Goulbourn, along with the
systems and infrastructure of the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton,
to become one municipality. Ottawa-Carleton used to be just Carleton County
before the 1969 and consisted of what is now the City of Ottawa except for
Cumberland. |
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