Population Growth and Density of Ottawa-Gatineau

[sgera]

I'm born and raised in Ottawa and now live in Toronto..Ove the last two years, I've lived in two other Ontario cities: Toronto and London and I appreciate Ottawa so much more now that I'm not living here any longer. I now hope to settle back down in the city again in 5-10 years time....the quality of life in Ottawa in my opinion is so much higher than in Toronto or London for that matter. One of my friends describes ottawa as the 'little big city'...and i think that this title is very accurate...you get all the ameneties of a big metro and still have the small town feel...although in reality 'small town' feel is a bit decieving...because the metro area (Ottawa-Gatineau) is 1.2M and perhaps even upwards of 1.5M if you count some of the rural areas where upwards of 25% of their populatins work in Ottawa (which technically make it part of the metro based on Stats. Canada's definition of a CMA)..I imagine that some of these areas will be included in the CMA census in 2011.

The trick to ottawa is the greenbelt...you feel like it's a smaller city when you in the greenbelt...because...it is a densely populated area of about 550k...and then driving out 12-15km in any direction....(i.e. you leave the inner city)..toward the south, east or west direction...you've got a 5-10 mins drive on the highway with green surroundings (no build/urbanization)...before hitting the suburbs .......that's the trick to ottawa....it's the greenbelt....if you live in the burbs on the outside of the greenbelt...ottawa starts to feel a lot bigger because it is so spread out...kanata to orleans (west to east suburb) is almost 60km end to end....which is large even for Toronto standards....the commuting distance from the suburbs are comparable to other bigger metros....try driving from barhaven to orleans, or kanata to Gatineau...and tell me if you still feel Ottawa is 'small'....

Re: population sign...just drove in for the xmas holidays...and was disappointed to see the old 785k sign on the Hwy 416...guess that falls into the MTO's responsibility to update it? I still don't get why the NCC took down their population signs 5 years ago.....when the city amalgamated....they used to include the Gatineau portion of the metro (i.e. National Capital Region which is Ottawa-Gatineau)...ottawa may have a population of 900k as a standalone city..but this is not an indication of its true metro size which includes its sister city across the river...making it 1.2M including Gatineau...this may not bother many people...but in my opinion it is very important for ottawa to lose its 'small city' reputation...and get the new populatin signs up to show that we aren't a small city any more...it is very important for attracting business, especially in the high tech sector...my two cents..especially coming from Toronto where most people I meet still think Ottawa is a small town....