Canada’s big day
As their glamorous leader prepares to visit Ireland, we wish their nation well on their 150th birthday today and trust that Ottawa will be jumping
IPushed unintentionally by a skater who happens to look like Canada’s ‘pin-up’ Prime Minister Justin Trudeau an acci- dent is averted in the nick of time.
Canadians, famous for being nice, super tolerant and accommodating are always apologising…. for everything! A tsunami of ‘mea culpas’ comes my way.
Temporarily abandoning the pursuit of love – his figure skating ice queen has whizzed off – my handsome assailant is embarrassingly contrite, apologising both in English and French.
The elderly pair I have collided with meanwhile, almost knocking them flat, are also inexplicably apologising.
It’s an ‘intimate’ encounter with Canadians that brings a glow of warmth to a subzero exploration of Ottawa’s famous Winterlude festival. Waving our farewells, limbs still intact the ‘other’ North Americans win the award for being the nicest most polite folk on the planet.
The Rideau Canal dug by Scottish and Irish workers in the early part of the 19th century and Canada’s first UNESCO heritage site stretches from the heart of Ottawa to Lake Ontario 126 miles away, following an ancient Indian canoe route.
Come winter it is a typical Dutch Old Master painting brought to life. From toddlers to senior citizens they skate, skip, slide even stagger over its icy expanse. Springtime brings a riot of tulips to Otta- AM sliding between a rock and a hard place among zillions of skaters gliding over the world’s longest natural ice skating rink, Ottawa’s Rideau Canal covered with a dusting of fresh snow.
-wa’s green spaces and parks. Skates cross country skis and sledges have been packed away and canoes and kayaks take to the water. Summer sees sizzling temperatures while Autumnal weather is idyllic and warm enough for short sleeves and enjoying eating outside when trees turn flame red and gold.
Peaceful law-abiding Ottawa is a far cry from the wild and dangerous frontier town it once was. Back in the day Irish ’shiners’ (infamous bands of truncheon carrying quarrelsome labourers) ferocious fur traders, rough timber loggers and ruffians regularly caused mayhem downtown.
Queen Victoria put manners on Ottawa deciding it was ‘the least objectionable place’ to locate the seat of the new government, heralding a sedate stately future.
Why pick Ottawa and not Ontario’s capital of Toronto or Montréal in Quebec, you may ask. History tells us that creating Canada’s capital in the Paris of the Americas would alienate the English. The Crown risked enraging French-speaking Canadians by opting for Toronto, today Canada’s largest and most important metropolis.
So the bustling English-speaking port just across the river from French-speaking Quebec was deemed the ideal compromise and Canada’s capital was born.
Ottawa’s reputation for being merely a government centre and a staid one at that whose ‘sidewalks were rolled up’ after parliament and the offices closed for the day may have been true in the past. Long out from under the shadow of Montréal, two hours to the east, and Toronto, a four-hour drive west, Ottawa has developed its own unique identity and vibe. It’s a noticeably happy, laidback and friendly city brimming with families enjoying life, even in the depths of winter.
Ottawa’s museums are world class – interesting and beautifully presented – while her quirky turret-crazed Gothic architecture housing the parliament sits comfortably between the modern cityscape. The city is also picturesquely situated on two waterways convenient to the great outdoor wildernesses of Ontario and Quebec.
Good eating options and a compact walker- friendly downtown add to Ottawa’s appeal from fine dining to all manner of ethnic restaurants reflecting the city’s multiculturalism.
Canadian food won the toss for me far above US fare, much more flavoursome and with manageable portions.
Take casual small plates restaurant Play Food and Wine on 1 York Street where a two-course delicious lunch – luscious fresh figs served with walnuts, prosciutto, blue cheese and chive followed by barbecue-grilled hanger steak, mushrooms and crispy frites cost a reasonable €16.
ASTAND-OUT much loved true taste of Canada ‘Poutine’ originating in Quebec was an exception to ‘ small plates’ and should be called ‘cholesterol pot’.
There are many varieties of the heartiest of one-dish classics. The most traditional features pulled pork or beef brisket, covered with hand-cut French fries, topped with cheese curds and finished off with piping hot brown gravy. Get a big dish of Poutine (to Francophiles, it’s Poutineriere ) inside you and skating the length of the Rideau canal will be a cinch.
Savouring only a few forkfuls of a companion’s mountainous Poutine my spoon had to be prised away from another’s, a platter of fluffy golden pancakes. Stuffed with fresh blueberries and drooling maple syrup they were well worth any cholesterol overload.
Canada is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year and the capital is the epicentre of the 12-month long celebrations under the banner ‘Ottawa Welcomes the World’ showing insights into the world’s second largest country’s multicultural diversity and achievements.
Canada Day which is today, July 1, is the stellar happening... happy birthday, my Canadian friends. A symbolic open-air picnic is being held on the bridge connecting English-speaking Ottawa with its French speaking sister city of Hull-Gatineau, Quebec. Linguistic rows are unlikely amid all the fireworks, festivals, free music concerts, flyovers by the famed Snowbirds air demo squad, parades and ceremonies.
Ottawa’s two leading museums, the National Gallery and the Canada Museum of History, have put years of preparation into anniversary exhibitions celebrating Canada’s origins from the earliest human aboriginal settlements through frontier days into its multicultural present with art and artifacts.
Arriving in Ottawa’s historic downtown we make straight for ByWard market close to our hotel, The Andaz.
The stylish high rise 4-star hotel offers bedroom mini-bars of complimentary soft drinks and snacks (*hotels abroad please copy!) and its lively penthouse bar commands the best views of turreted Parliament Hill and Notre Dame Cathedral in the distance..
ByWard Market is Ottawa’s old- est neighbourhood. Packed with specialist shops, restaurants, bars and clubs there’s plenty of nightlife and as chic or spit ’n’ sawdust as you fancy.
Mercury Lounge, billed as the best 21st-century soul club on ByWard Market Square, was our late-night choice where a fantastic eight-piece jazz band belted out tremendous volume for multigenerational dancers and drinkers.
In the early days of the settlement, commercial barges could travel right through the ByWard market using the Bywash, an overflow stream from the canal. Chateau Lafeyette or as its better known ‘The Laff’, Ottawa’s longest functioning tavern (spit’n’sawdust time) serves the Bywash bullet, named after the murky waterway that ran through before sewers were installed.
Barack Obama put a maple leafshaped cookie he enjoyed while visiting historic ByWard on the map. A Trump truffle is the next
sweet treat from one of the market's chocolate shops, I read but could find none. 'How about bulls eyes or better still job stoppers with the Trump logo,' joked a woman queuing at the nearby Beaver Tail stall when asked where a Trump truffle might be on offer. Beaver tails are dearly loved and I can't wait to taste one again. Boxed for takeaway to keep them warn or eaten on the run these deep-fried spears of dough are a similar shape to the leathery extremity of Canada’s tree chompdent. The traditional version is dipped in cinnamon sugar or smeared with chocolate and erushed hazelnuts. My near accident on the frozen Rideau Canal has a Beaver Tail connection. My assailant happens to be speeding away with his boxed Beaver Tails from a stall parked on The canal side when our paths dansly cross. Having tasted one now it all somehow makes sweet sense.