Open Blog
Gatineau students scheduled to march today
The Ottawa Sun is reporting that Gatineau students will march today at 3:30 p.m. starting at de la Savane Rd. and Greber Blvd — about 15 minutes’ drive from downtown Ottawa.
Last night, about 200 students peacefully marched through the streets of Gatineau without violence or property damage. At the same time in Montreal, around 10,000 people protested the controversial Bill 78, which aims to curb unrest by limiting public gatherings and cancelling classes until August.
A strike by students at CEGEP de l'Outaouais in Gatineau ended early last week with a slim vote to...
Ottawa splash pads, bike days open this weekend
Families throughout Ottawa should get their swimming trunks and bike shorts ready because this weekend serves notice that you should really be outside for the rest of the summer.
Splash pads around Ottawa open today, while the Alcatel-Lucent Sunday Bikedays on the Ottawa River Parkway, Colonel By Drive, Rockcliffe Parkway, and in Gatineau Park kicks off its 2012 season on — you guessed it — Sunday.
Splash pads — more colloquially known as “...
Ottawa digital billboard comments closing in June
Could Ottawa have its own Times Square?
The City of Ottawa’s planning department will stop taking comments regarding its study on digital billboards in a little over a month. Three pilot billboards across Ottawa have been in operation since August 2010, and residents have been asked for feedback in order to tailor possible regulations.
The three current locations for pilot billboards are:
- St. Laurent Boulevard at Tremblay Road
- Carling Avenue at Kirkwood Avenue
- Carp Road southeast of Highway 417
Though...
Saturday Reads: Let’s move the capital, Lansdowne: a lament, MPs recall blue-collar youths
Since we’ve all got Queen Victoria on our minds this long weekend, Kelly Parland of the National Post decided to question one of her former highness’ most important Canadian decisions: Making Ottawa the capital of our fledgling country in 1857.
Mr. Parland breaks his argument down in two ways: The $5 billion cost of restoring the Parliament buildings (plus likely cost overruns) and the fact that the country has changed greatly since Victoria picked this ol’ logging community to be the capital.
There is immense historic and cultural value in the...
MorningFile: Royal flyover, punk market, hoedown misses deadline
What a beautiful weekend it’s going to be in our fair city for the next few days. The Weather Network reports that Ottawa will have a high of 27 degrees today and Sunday could be as high as 30 degrees. Hit the beach!
Monday, May 21, is a holiday across Canada, but Victoria Day should have a special meaning for the residents of Ottawa because Queen Victoria chose this city to be the capital of Canada on February 10, 1857. Unfortunately, this means that...
The week in music: Summer albums, lion photos, and Jim Bryson's "awesome" project
CBC Radio personality Grant Lawrence has compiled a list of the albums by Canadian musicians being released this summer. It includes new music from Ottawa folk-rockers Orienteers, indie band Kalle Mattson, and frequent capital dweller Snailhouse.
Jim Bryson is going to produce an "awesome project" with singer-songwriter Suzie Ungerleider—who's better known by her stage name, Oh Susanna.
...
Why isn't Ottawa buried under a heap of dead pigeons?
What happens to pigeons when they die? No, this isn't Introduction to Avian Metaphsyics 101; it's actually a serious query posed by John Metcalfe of the Atlantic Cities blog:
Any fair-sized city in the United States is lousy with pigeons, hoovering up bread crumbs from public squares and head-bobbing so much they look little Jay Zs groovin' to some fresh beats. The favorite rumpus room of the pigeon, New York City, is thought to contain anywhere between 1 and 7 million of the flapping rats of the sky.
So where are all the dead ones?...
PhotoFile: Welcome to construction season
It's said that Canada has two seasons: Winter and construction season.
Now that the fluffy white stuff is behind us for good (did it ever really arrive)? We're eagerly awaiting the start of summer — or as it's commonly known, construction season.
This week's PhotoFile was partly inspired by the sights and sounds over at OpenFile headquarters. Construction workers, trucks and equipment are all over our neighbourhood and we work happily to the sounds of pounding, banging and drilling.
But enough about us, let's get to the photos!
Ooh, a shiny new timewaster for Ottawa transit lovers
One hundred gold stars to Ottawa Citizen city hall reporter David Reevely: on his Greater Ottawa Blog, Reevely passes along news of Mapnificent, a fantastic new toy that shows how far you can travel on mass transit in a specific amount of time.
Mapnificent is work of Stephen Wehrmeyer, and it features dozens of European, Australian, and Canadian cities—including Ottawa. It'...
