A Walking Tour of Ottawa, Ontario (Look Up, Canada! series)

There is no better way to see Canada than on foot. And there is no better way to appreciate what you are looking at than with a walking tour. Whether you are preparing for a road trip or just out to look at your own town in a new way, a downloadable walking tour from walkthetown.com is ready to explore when you are.

Each walking tour describes historical and architectural landmarks and provides pictures to help out when those pesky street addresses are missing. Every tour also includes a quick primer on identifying architectural styles seen on North American streets.

Imagine what John By would think if he saw Ottawa today, a metropolitan area of over one million residents. Back in 1826 By, an officer in the British Army Corps of Royal Engineers, received his orders to report to Upper Canada and build a canal to facilitate transportation between Lake On- tario and the Ottawa River. There were concerns about the unpredictable Americans looking to flex their new muscles in British North America.
When By arrived at the Chaudiere Falls he found a small settlement barely two decades old where the residents clawed out a living harvest elm and maples trees and shipping the timber to Montreal. By set about his work, which included laying out streets and carving out building lots for the work- ers he would need. The place was called Bytown. Six years later the job was complete. By was re- tired and sent home to England. There was no ceremony for the Rideau Canal, not commendation, no mention of the feat whatsoever. Just another mission checked off of a long to-do list in manag- ing the British empire. By died a few years later at the age of 55.
The Rideau Canal - it is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the best preserved slackwater canal from the golden era of canal building in North America in the first half of the 19th century - kickstarted the lumber trade so acutely that Bytown was conferred as a city in 1854. It also took the name of the river, which appropriately enough, derived from the Algonquin word for “trade.” In 1857 Queen Victoria, partly because the Crown owned Bytown, designated Ottawa as the capital of the unified Province of Canada, ending a game of Parliamentary musical chairs between Quebec and Toronto.
The surprising choice of Ottawa for Dominion Capital did not go down well when word filtered back across the Atlantic Ocean. Was it the Queen’s choice or merely a recommendation debated local politicians. After all, in recent years there had been more than 200 votes on where to place a permanent capital since Upper and Lower Canada were welded in 1841. Bytown was typically the least popular of all the vote chasers in those referendums. A motion to ask the Queen to reconsider was quickly introduced. Political wrangling ensued and the Canadian Parliament finally reached a last vote to ratify the wishes of Queen Victoria in 1859. Ottawa won by a scant five votes.
So Ottawa became a government town. Although the city is the agricultural center of eastern On- tario a federal job is the most common occupation in the city. In 1950 Jacques Greber submitted an integrated plan of development designed to beautify the capital city and de-emphasize some of its industrial trappings like the railroads that chugged into the city’s core. The ramifications of the Greber Plan are still in evidence. Ottawa is one of the cleanest major cities in the world (#4 in one ranking) and more than seven million tourists come each year. The focal point for most visits is Parliament Hill and that is where we will begin our explorations...