Ottawa-Gatineau Tourism

[roger1818]

No rating system is perfect, but using the ratings on Trip Adviser, the top 20 Museums (though in reality it seems to be expanded to include attractions) in Canada are ranked as follows (3 are in Ottawa):

1. Royal BC Museum
2. Canadian Museum for Human Rights
3. Dundurn Castle
4. Canadian War Museum
5. Fort Henry National Historic Site
6. Canadian Museum of History
7. Western Development Museum
8. Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
9. Royal Ontario Museum
10. HMCS Haida National Historic Site
11. Hockey Hall of Fame
12. Royal Tyrrell Museum
13. Burnaby Village Museum
14. TELUS World of Science - Edmonton
15. St. Catharines Museum and Welland Canals Centre at Lock 3
16. Art Gallery of Ontario
17. Canada's Penitentiary Museum
18. Canadian Museum of Nature
19. Science North
20. Muttart Conservatory

https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attractio...49-Canada.html

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by phil235

Toronto beats Ottawa on historic sites? Not sure about that one. Fort York is a good place for a beer festival, but as a historic site its kinda second rate. Like most of Southern and southwestern Ontario, Toronto also managed to tear down just about every building of significance that predated the 1950s. The few that managed to slip through (Old City Hall, St. Lawrence Hall, a couple of re-purposed factories) feel more like anomalies than historic places. I'd take Ottawa (and Montreal and Quebec City) on history every day of the week.

Ummm Distillery District, Casa Loma, Maple Leaf Gardens, etc. There's a lot more than just Fort York.
More importantly, you can actually interact with the historical sites there. Other than light shows at Parliament, what exactly do we have? We could and should make Byward our equivalent of the Distillery District. We should put up more dining near the Canal. Etc.

[YOWhopeful]

Originally Posted by Zmonkey

And museams are just part of it. Summer people like going to Jays/Toronto FC, people take their kids to Wonderland, the aquarium, do a show, see parts of downtown or Lake Ontario, great restaurants, shop, party, concerts etc etc etc.
For most people even if Toronto's museums are not best in the country, they will be good enough for their needs.

You need a good mix of a lot. This is what Ottawa will lack from a tourists point of view. I think people are mixing up what tourists want vs where they want to live. How many people in Ottawa are travelling to a city like Ottawa?

To me the best Museum in Canada is in Winnipeg. I am not going there just for a museum.

For tourism, a big thing the city could do is work with conferences and International events. Canada has a great reputation so have large conferences weather political or not in the city. That will lead to more air service.

Speaking about conferences, I wonder if the Feds actually love the city or just squat the space while they’re on power.
They pushed for the world AIDS conference to be held in Montreal. Why not Ottawa? Makes you wonder…

[phil235]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Ummm Distillery District, Casa Loma, Maple Leaf Gardens, etc. There's a lot more than just Fort York.
More importantly, you can actually interact with the historical sites there. Other than light shows at Parliament, what exactly do we have? We could and should make Byward our equivalent of the Distillery District. We should put up more dining near the Canal. Etc.

You can actually interact with Maple Leaf Gardens? I guess if you want to buy some broccoli. I'm also not sure that a rich guy spending a lot of money to build a fake castle counts as "historic". And while the Distillery District is cool, other than the actual buildings they are in, I think it's a stretch to link condos and upscale boutiques to industrial history. Toronto does history very poorly.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by phil235

Toronto beats Ottawa on historic sites? Not sure about that one. Fort York is a good place for a beer festival, but as a historic site its kinda second rate. Like most of Southern and southwestern Ontario, Toronto also managed to tear down just about every building of significance that predated the 1950s. The few that managed to slip through (Old City Hall, St. Lawrence Hall, a couple of re-purposed factories) feel more like anomalies than historic places. I'd take Ottawa (and Montreal and Quebec City) on history every day of the week.

Neither are really national leaders in historic sites, regardless.

Originally Posted by phil235

You can actually interact with Maple Leaf Gardens? I guess if you want to buy some broccoli.

I mean, you can still enter the building and view plaques and such. Moreso than, say, the Montreal Forum, or the plaque on Gladstone that commemorates the original home of the Ottawa Senators.

Originally Posted by phil235

I'm also not sure that a rich guy spending a lot of money to build a fake castle counts as "historic".

You may be disappointed to find out that many old buildings now considered historic were payrolled by some rich guys.

I'd consider St. Lawrence Market more historic than Distillery at this stage, I guess. I don't know.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by phil235

I'm also not sure that a rich guy spending a lot of money to build a fake castle counts as "historic".

Regardless of who built it or whether it was typical of the time, Casa Loma was constructed from 1911 to 1914, so it is over 100 years old. Old enough to be historic by Canadian standards. Granted in Europe or Asia it would be a modern building.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by phil235

I think that you are missing few of our museums short. The National Gallery and the Aviation Museum are both very good. And a hard disagree that either the ROM or the Museum of Anthropology beat the combo of the Museum of History/Museum of Nature. As you say, the War Museum is exceptional. We've got good attractions in the that department.

Forgot about the National Gallery. It's decent. But even here, it's sort of disappointing to go there as a tourist and find out the the best known Canadian paintings are at a gallery in Vaughan. That said, it's definitely more successful that most of the other museums in Ottawa.

The Aviation Museum. I'm torn on. And I say this as an aerospace engineer. It's got an okay collection. But it's also only substantially relevant if you're Canadian. Who else is going to go gaga over the Avro Arrow cockpit? It's not the same as say the Smithsonian Air and Space. It's not something I think an international visitor would go out of their way to see. Especially when you add accessibility issues on top.

Agree to disagree on the ROM and Museum of Anthropology. You need two museums here to compete. And those places do that they do really well, with some world leading collections.

Part of the problem here is that our decentralized federation means that collections of national importance often don't end up in Ottawa. It's not the worst thing for the country. But it can make Ottawa collections kinda "meh" sometimes.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by YOWhopeful

Speaking about conferences, I wonder if the Feds actually love the city or just squat the space while they’re on power.
They pushed for the world AIDS conference to be held in Montreal. Why not Ottawa? Makes you wonder…

International conferences are going to be held in cities that are easy to travel to internationally. What I question is why national conferences aren't held in Ottawa. My wife works for a national non-profit industry group based in Ottawa. Their conferences are held in Toronto or Vancouver. I get that this is where their clients are. But I kinda wish they pushed to have their conventions in Ottawa more.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by YOWhopeful

Speaking about conferences, I wonder if the Feds actually love the city or just squat the space while they’re on power.
They pushed for the world AIDS conference to be held in Montreal. Why not Ottawa? Makes you wonder…

In general, the GofC favours Montreal for international activities.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by phil235

You can actually interact with Maple Leaf Gardens? I guess if you want to buy some broccoli. I'm also not sure that a rich guy spending a lot of money to build a fake castle counts as "historic". And while the Distillery District is cool, other than the actual buildings they are in, I think it's a stretch to link condos and upscale boutiques to industrial history. Toronto does history very poorly.

This is just whiny nitpicking at this point. I actually agree that Toronto fares poorly on protecting history. Most Canadian cities do. But, at the end of the day, I can actually enjoy more of the sites there. What exactly do I have to look forward to here? Dodging drunks and cars at Byward? Sorry I'll pick Distillery over that every time.

Ugggh. This is how all these conversations go in Ottawa. Even on this forum.

"Hey. They are doing this cool thing over there. We should learn from it and make our thing better."

"Why do you hate Ottawa? Toronto sucks. If you hate it here, why don't you just leave?"

I don't get why people find it so hard to admit that we have things to fix. Oh well. This whole tangent started with discussing attracting travelers here. You can make all kinds of arguments. But ultimately people vote with their feet and dollars.

[roger1818]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Part of the problem here is that our decentralized federation means that collections of national importance often don't end up in Ottawa. It's not the worst thing for the country. But it can make Ottawa collections kinda "meh" sometimes.

It also comes down to the negative view most Canadians have of Ottawa. Part of that is because it is too far away for a large percentage of Canadians to ever visit and part of it is because the media usually refers to parliament as "Ottawa." Since most of those actions are viewed in a negative light, it causes people to have a negative view of the city.

A consequence of this is instead of having a desire to build up Ottawa as a shining showcase of Canada, they want equal treatment across the country (with everyone believing they are getting the short end of the stick).

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by roger1818

Regardless of who built it or whether it was typical of the time, Casa Loma was constructed from 1911 to 1914, so it is over 100 years old. Old enough to be historic by Canadian standards. Granted in Europe or Asia it would be a modern building.

Literally over a decade older than Centre Block. But it can't be historic because some rich guy built it in Toronto.

It's really hard to take these discussions seriously when it's driven almost entirely by emotions and reflexive sibling rivalry and Napoleon complex.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by roger1818

It also comes down to the negative view most Canadians have of Ottawa.

Let's now consider the negative view that most Canadians have of Toronto!

Originally Posted by roger1818

Part of that is because it is too far away for a large percentage of Canadians to ever visit and part of it is because the media usually refers to parliament as "Ottawa." Since most of those actions are viewed in a negative light, it causes people to have a negative view of the city.

Ottawa's problem is that it's smack dab between two far larger (and better) cities. Why go to Ottawa when you can go to Montreal? Why go to Ottawa when you can go to Toronto? This isn't Ottawa's fault, just a natural thing that it has no control over. Ottawa needs to excel at whatever it is that separates it from those other two cities.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by JHikka

Ottawa's problem is that it's smack dab between two far larger (and better) cities. Why go to Ottawa when you can go to Montreal? Why go to Ottawa when you can go to Toronto? This isn't Ottawa's fault, just a natural thing that it has no control over. Ottawa needs to excel at whatever it is that separates it from those other two cities.

This. Very much this.

Ottawa's downtown is compact, surrounded by decent natural features. And has prominent buildings. Ottawa should have an exceptionally lively downtown. But instead of building on this by aiming for a nice walkable core, we keep building up the city as a giant suburb and keep trying to design the core to appeal to suburbanites.

[bartlebooth]

This is a really interesting topic but I feel like it deserves it's own thread. Is there any willingness to do that?

[Peenermcnoober]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

This. Very much this.

Ottawa's downtown is compact, surrounded by decent natural features. And has prominent buildings. Ottawa should have an exceptionally lively downtown. But instead of building on this by aiming for a nice walkable core, we keep building up the city as a giant suburb and keep trying to design the core to appeal to suburbanites.

I wish we had the Montreal or Toronto contrarian haters on this forum instead of the Ottawa version of you guys.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by Peenermcnoober

I wish we had the Montreal or Toronto contrarian haters on this forum instead of the Ottawa version of you guys.

Yes. We know. Fragile egos in this town can't take constructive criticism. We should never deviate from the orthodoxy of saying Ottawa is just perfect. At least in Toronto and Montreal, nobody whines about critics being "contrarian haters".

By the way, given your post history here following me around and whining constantly about me not liking the city, wanna let us know what your main username is? At least I don't hide behind an alt.

[Peenermcnoober]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

wanna let us know what your main username is? At least I don't hide behind an alt.

Yikes

[Peenermcnoober]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Fragile egos in this town

You could just pretend I have a serious name like Purecold11

[bikegypsy]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

This. Very much this.

Ottawa's downtown is compact, surrounded by decent natural features. And has prominent buildings. Ottawa should have an exceptionally lively downtown. But instead of building on this by aiming for a nice walkable core, we keep building up the city as a giant suburb and keep trying to design the core to appeal to suburbanites.

One big issue that I see (or at least perceive) in Ottawa is that it's a city that doesn't belong to itself. I always felt like a "tenant", rather than a full fledge resident. Authorities have worked too hard to make this a (fuckxxx) "city for all Canadians", which has some merits, but falls short of pleasing and catering to locals. This has contributed to a strange self-deprecating phenomenon or lack of civic pride. I'm old enough to remember when the city was trying to get a new NHL franchise and reading in the Citizen's sports comment section "why go see a hockey game in Ottawa when you can "just" go to Montreal".... So bizarre and wet noodle-y.

The feds - and by extension the NCC - have performed an abundance of urban design faux pas. Granted, there have been a few winners over time (the NAC, the Rideau canal, the parliamentary district overall and Sussex drive come to mind), but the bad far outweighs the good:

• The Greber plan is a disaster and encourages suburban exodus and a massive urban sprawl
• The feds never gave a rat's ass when expropriating downtown Hull communities and building those horrible towers... The result? An evil dystopian hell that you want to escape at all cost
• They bulldozed Lebreton (which today would be a thriving inner city community with thousands of households, multiple restaurants and shops) to make way for government buildings that never materialized and ended being a brown field which is the laughingstock of people all over the country
• Tunney's Pasture is an eyesore and a complete joke in terms of user experience
• That parcel of land that now houses the US embassy should have been developed in a small entertainment district, with restaurants and bars, or a museum... Not that disastrous bunker.
• The NCC imposed that silly height limit downtown, which resulted in dozens of fat, stubby buildings with zero street interaction to save on space.
• And my all-time favorite NCC blunder: Union Station. This stunning design should be a train station, not another lifeless government building. Imagine the vibe in that area if it were allowed to live it true purpose... I'm heartbroken.
• There are other less well known cases, but it gives me a headache thinking about them
• I also console myself when I hear my Korean friends say "Canada is a boring heaven, but Korea is an interesting hell)... we're not the only ones with a mediocre urban landscape, but I digress.

Having said that, there are some encouraging signs on the horizon such as Zibi, the various building being proposed at Lebreton, a dozen+ cranes downtown, better designs being proposed, a loosening of those silly height limits, the growth of downtown eastward and westward, and that big city feel that is becoming more apparent with each passing year. I think that Ottawa is about to begin its golden age... I hope I'm right.