Ottawa (i/ˈɒtəwə/ or /ˈɒtəwɑː/; French pronunciation: [ɔtawa]) is the capital city of Canada. It stands on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec; the two form the core of the Ottawa–Gatineau census metropolitan area (CMA) and the National Capital Region (NCR). The 2011 census reported a population of 883,391 within the city, making it the fourth-largest city in Canada, and 1,236,324 within the CMA, making it the fourth-largest CMA in Canada. The City of Ottawa has since estimated it had a population of 951,727 in 2014.
Founded in 1826 as Bytown, and incorporated as "Ottawa" in 1855, the city has evolved into a political and technological centre of Canada. Its original boundaries were expanded through numerous minor annexations and were ultimately replaced by a new city incorporation and major amalgamation in 2001 which significantly increased its land area. The city name "Ottawa" was chosen in reference to the Ottawa River nearby, which is a word derived from the Algonquin word Odawa, meaning "to trade".
Ottawa is a city located at the confluence of the navigable Illinois River and Fox River in LaSalle County, Illinois, United States. The Illinois River is a conduit for river barges and connects Lake Michigan at Chicago, to the Mississippi River, and North America's 25,000 mile river system. The population estimate was 18,562 as of 2013. It is the county seat of LaSalle County and it is part of the Ottawa-Peru, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Ottawa was the site of the first of the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. During the Ottawa debate Stephen A. Douglas, leader of the Democratic Party, openly accused Abraham Lincoln of forming a secret bipartisan group of Congressmen to bring about the abolition of slavery.
The John Hossack House was a "station" on the Underground Railroad, and Ottawa was a major stop because of its rail, road, and river transportation. Citizens in the city were active within the abolitionist movement. Ottawa was the site of a famous 1859 extrication of a runaway slave named Jim Gray from a courthouse by prominent civic leaders of the time. Three of the civic leaders, John Hossack, Dr. Joseph Stout and James Stout, later stood trial in Chicago for violating the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850.
Ottawa Station (IATA: XDS) in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, located at 200 Tremblay Road, is served by Via Rail inter-city trains connecting it to Toronto and Montreal. OC Transpo’s Train rapid transit station (which, despite its name, is a bus stop) carries railway passengers into the city centre or into the eastern suburbs.
The station was designed by John B. Parkin & Associates and was built in 1966. It won a Massey Medal for architecture in 1967. In 2000, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada named the station as one of the top 500 buildings produced in Canada during the last millennium.
Ottawa’s trains once came into a large downtown Union Station a short distance from the Parliament buildings, but with the replacement of the railway tracks beside the Rideau Canal with the National Capital Commission’s Colonel By Drive scenic parkway, the former station has been converted into the Government Conference Centre.
KLM runs a connecting shuttle bus from this station to Montreal Airport, exclusive for the airline's customers only.
What am I doing in a place like this
When it's painfully clear that my face don't fit?
What am I doing acting identikit,
When all I want to do is to be the opposite?
Why am I, why are you,
Who's pretending just who's fooling who
Do we go our way or join in their merry queue.
What are we doing in the pouring rain
Walking hand in hand, I gotta be out of my brain.
What are we doing, is it all for show
Are we drifting along, going along with the flow.
I don't know, I wish I knew
Is it me or you who's fooling
What a bore, where's the door
Are we just for decoration?
What am I doing to you?
What are you doing to me too?
What are they doing to us?
Someone help me, tell me truly.
What are we doing in a place like this
Trying to prove to the world that we really exist
Standing around with all the egotists
Sticking out like a zit knickers all in a twist.
Why are we? I don't know,
Are we merely going with the flow
To prove, who we know
Or drifting along acting a part in a show?
Why am I going through this?
Why are you going through this too?
What are they doing to us?
Someone help me, tell me truly.
So do we go our own way
Or do we join their merry queue
Pretending it's O.K.
Them or us, who's fooling who?
Why are we standing in the acid rain
Watching industrial waste trickling down the drain?
What are we doing under the nuclear glow
What we all gonna do? Where we all gonna go?
What are we doing?