Rebuilding Ottawa: an overdue political metaphor or party planning?: Delacourt


Many times over the past year, I have been tempted to apologize to tourists visiting Canada’s capital.


The downtown area around Parliament Hill is a mess of construction and closed streets. A giant sinkhole that opened at the corner of Rideau and Sussex just before Canada Day seemed a fitting symbol for 2016: the year of getting around dangerously in Ottawa.


Within one block or so of that sinkhole (now fixed) several massive renovation projects were under way in the past year, and many of them promise to linger into Canada’s 150th birthday year, 2017, or even beyond. They include:


• Excavation of streets and construction of transit stops to make way for light-rail transit, all along the routes just in front of Parliament Hill.


• Major transformation projects at the West Block and the Government Conference Centre, to create temporary new homes for the House of Commons and the Senate.


• A …
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