#mod caniss

[heatedrivalryinfo]

Ottawa, quick facts:

Ottawa is commonly misspelled as Ottowa. It's Ottawa, and it is a word derived from Algonquin

Ottawa is not that small. It is the national capital of Canada, located in the province of Ontario on the unceded territory of the Anishinabe-Algonquin Nation. It is one of the largest cities in Canada, the second largest in Ontario after Toronto. Its population is a little over a million people (1.02 million in 2021).

Ottawa is connected by bridges over the Ottawa River to a city in Quebec called Gatineau (the Gat), some amenities are shared between the two cities and public transit crosses over between the two. The legal drinking age in Quebec is 18, so a lot of high school seniors like to hop over the river to party.

Most people in Ottawa speak either English or French, and some speak both or a little bit of both. Labels, street signs and advertisements are all in both languages. It’s majority English speakers, but this depends on the part of the city, EX. Gatineau is French-dominant.

Ottawa is actually multiple cities in a trench coat, they share amenities, politics and schools, but sometimes their addresses remain, depending on the documentation (which is not confusing at all). Notable cities include Nepean and Orléans, but there are others

Ottawa has a very poor nightlife, things close down early in the night, the club scene is lacking, and the offers of public transit are awful, especially at night.

The public transit (OCtranspo) has made international news with how bad it is. More on that in a later post.

There are two universities in Ottawa, University of Ottawa (uOttawa) which is in the downtown area, and Carleton University, which is near Little Italy. There is also a college (equivalent to a community college for my fellow americans) called Algonquin College (affectionately known as the gonq or gonq).

There are many sports teams in Ottawa given it is the capital of Canada, the Ottawa Senators are the NHL team (they suck) as of 2023 the Ottawa Charge are the PWHL team (they’re great!!), the 67s are their juniors team, there are other sports but that would need its own post tbh, plus I only really care about hockey :p

There are a lot of Senators fans in Ottawa, and people who aren't Senators fans usually come from a family who have been fans of the NHL since before the founding of the Senators, or who don't originate from Ottawa. Most often you'll see fans of Montréal and Toronto, but I've seen fans of all the Canadian teams around here, as well as some of the Northeastern teams like Boston or New York. The biggest beef is with the Leafs (Toronto).

Ottawa tends to butt heads with Toronto a lot, with Montréal a close second.

Ottawa is extremely multicultural, there are a lot of immigrants and those who are first (like me!) or second generation. Plus a very large Lebanese and Chinese population. I can write a whole post on that so I won't get too much into it, but Ottawa has a lot of variety in culture.

It is simultaneously very cold and very hot. It goes from -40 to 40C (-40 to 104F) in its extreme. Usually the range is smaller than that, but we'll write a post on Ottawa's weather shortly. The cold months get similar to the temperatures seen in Moscow.

Like Boston, we think our city is awful, but we're proud to be from it.

-Mod Beigli and Mod Caniss

[heatedrivalryinfo]

Can you add a quick facts for Toronto? I'm writing about Ilya getting drafted there instead of Ottawa.

Toronto Quick Facts!

The Team:

In the books, Toronto’s hockey team is called the Toronto Guardians, and I believe that in universe, they are a decent team, but that is NOT the case IRL. Maybe Ilya would save them.

The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1967. They’re awful, but their fans (me) have this blind, unbreakable loyalty to them, so home games are always sold out, and there are flags, banners and merch all around the city.

They play at Scotiabank Arena, which is right downtown near the CN tower.

The Leafs have loyal fans all around the country, not just in Toronto, but most people in Ottawa REALLY hate the leafs. Same with Montreal, so there would be possibly an even bigger rivalry between Shane and Ilya if Ilya played for Toronto.

The City:

It’s HUGE! The GTA (Greater Toronto Area) has a population of 6 million people

Toronto is a 5h 30min drive from Montreal and 6h from Ottawa.

Toronto is comprised of 6 cities, affectionately called The Six (I turned the 6 upside-down it’s a 9 now -Drake) I would say the main cities/parts are Toronto, Scarborough, North York, Mississauga (Sauga), Markam, and Etobicoke

Our most famous landmark is the CN tower, it can be seen basically anywhere in the city and it lights up different colours at night. (What colour is the CN-Tower, it’s red tonight -Drake) It’s at the southern-most end of Toronto right on the lake.

It’s located next to Lake Ontario, which is one of the great lakes an it’s so big it looks like an ocean.

Ilya would probably live in a penthouse right downtown close to the arena.

The winter is not very cold compared to Moscow and Ottawa. This winter we finally got a decent amount of snow and the entire city shut down. The summer is HOT and SMOGGY.

The Culture:

Toronto is the most multi-cultural city in the world

The Toronto accent is kind of a myth. I feel like people in Ilya’s circle wouldn’t be talking like that, so I don’t think it’s really relevant. The more relevant accent/slang can be found in the show Shoresy!

Ilya would ABSOLUTELY be listening to Drake. And The Weekend. He’d probably party with them, too. Sorry :(

Things to do:

In Toronto, we love our sports! Everyone loves the Leafs, our baseball team the Toronto Bluejays and our basketball team the Toronto Raptors. Our PWHL team is called the Toronto Sceptres.

There’s sooooo many bars and restaurants and they’re all open super late into the night.

Church street is called the Gay Village, that’s where all the gay bars and clubs are. That’s also where most pride events take place.

It’s a go-to stop for musicians on tour. Non-Canadian musicians always put Toronto and Vancouver on their list and skip the rest.

In August, there’s a big fair called the CNE, which is accompanied by a very noisy air show.

If you have any info you think I missed, please comment!! But that’s all for Toronto, LMK if you have any other questions about it!

- Mod Caniss xx