Here's an example from Manchester, UK, the
Salford Quays, with some very familiar names populating the area:
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...,345.4,,0,6.11
Perhaps what we need to do in Ottawa is to extend the canal system upriver. Turn that aqueduct through LeBreton Flats into an actual canal for instance, then add a few more runs of locks and canal up to Lac Deschênes.
Though I'm sure the local NIMBY brigade(s) (and Ken Gray) would have a fit, we could truck the spoil from the rail tunnel west along the Transitway and tip it into the Ottawa River near Dominion Station. The stretch of the Parkway shoreline west of there is all artificial anyway (trust me - I've walked it at river level - there's noting remotely natural or worth saving about it except one or two remnant points which are easy enough to spot if you're looking) so we could create ourselves a nice river-level marina development right smack next to a rapid transit station and Westboro. It could probably pay for the entire canal building project. We could also take the opportunity to mitigate the stormsewer water inflows in the area that constantly foul up Westboro Beach.
The Westboro Docks anyone?