Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

Thats a good point. If you really want to stay at home with them, you could take in lodgers.

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

Moved here 6 years ago from London, UK. I have a good job but we are moving back in 4 weeks. winters are too long and brutal, summers scorching, spring lasts about a week.

The local City council is just a waste of space, take years to make important decisions then they change their minds and spend millions on lawsuits! Seriously I have never met a bigger bunch of clowns, it's hilarious!

Nice suburbs, safe city in comparison to many others. Pleasantly boring place to live.Good place to raise a family. i just don't to be popping up the daises here!

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

Not everybody has the room for lodgers, or would want complete strangers around their young kids (I know I wouldn't).

I have only just gone back to work (earning nowhere near $60-70k, don't know why you think everybody can automatically earn that!) after having my children, as it's only now that my daughter is in full-time school that it makes financial sense. It was £100 a day for childcare for both of them in the UK, and there was no way I could earn enough to cover that. I would have simply broken even after taxes, commuting costs and childcare, so it just wasn't worth it for me personally.

The OP may well be the same, or may have other reasons for wanting to be at home with her children (many mothers do it out of choice you know!).

Personally, I'd have done exactly the same as her - moved locations rather than having to go out to work whilst the children were toddlers. But then I'm a big believer in mothers not working whilst children are young, if they are at all able to, whereas others may completely disagree.

Different strokes for different folks, etc. :)

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

Sorry but this post just made me laugh so much the guy tiling the kitchen upstairs asked me what was going on.

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

I'm glad it amused. I note the complaint above that it's not a new story but it does neatly summarise my experience of Ottawa. I thought the place very cold both in terms of weather and of people and I found it rife with cultural tensions; in the workplace ethnicity counted more than skills. It's a government town, which I suppose is fine if you're a governmental type of person.

I did know one person who loved it, he lived for fishing and thought it way better for that than Toronto. He eventually moved to Washington state.

Oh, it has a roundabout. That's a nice feature.

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

I went to Ottawa for about 4 hours. It was enough for me.

Interestingly the Parliament buildings were a very similar design to the old Parliament building in Victoria on Vancouver Island.

The lack of bars and entertainment really stood out.

The highlight was eating Beaver Tail.

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

I quite liked Ottawa when I visited, but it is certainly a different place than North Vancouver, that's all.

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

I'm told there are two roundabouts now although haven't seen the evidence.

I am a governmental type of person and enjoy stifled bureaucracy. I also lived in Brussels and liked that. I'm hoping to live one day in Canberra, Wellington or Pretoria. Maybe even Abuja.

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

On to Brasilia one day, no doubt.

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

I found the first one I've seen in Windsor the other day - it's outside the hockey arena, fortunately there was no one else on it, or wanting to join it, so I didn't have to work out whether the strange Canadian custom of giving way to people coming onto the roundabout applied to it....

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

Interestingly I was in Waterloo 2 weeks ago where RIM have put up 3 new buildings and they also had a roundabout there where people would enter and exit the new business park.

I was with two Canadians but I did not say anything- just marvelled at their traffic planning advancement.

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

There's actually eight or nine in Ottawa now. For the one near the Experimental Farm you have to yield to traffic entering the roundabout. The city call this a "traffic circle" to avoid confusion.

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

Just took and passed my G2 driving test on Friday. Neither traffic circles nor roundabouts were mentioned at any point in my lengthy drivers ed process.

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

Ottawa is nice to visit, the museums are great - but it just seems so small. Really, really small.

I prefer living in Montréal and making daytrips to Ottawa - depends what you want though. If you like small town, Ottawa could work for you.

BTW suburban Montréal house prices are lower than those in Ottawa.

Re: What's Ottawa like?
 

Small? Ottawa's population is greater than that of Birmingham, the UK's largest city after London (if you add in the population of its evil twin). Ottawa may seem small but that is because it is spread out over a large area. The city covers an area nearly 20 times that of Birmingham.

There is plenty to do in Ottawa. It's just not all concentrated in one area.