Ottawa

Fabulous views of part of Ottawa's CBD from the hotel room

And so it begins... the PM's apology for the residential schools had barely passed his lips when one of the Tory MPs had to apologize for saying that indigenous Canadians need to learn the value of hard work more than they need compensation for abuse suffered in residential schools. He's in big time trouble - not. Canadians are divided over how classy his words were, with the usual criticisms coming through about paranoid political correctness. I'm not sure how long the media will spin the apology story for - from what I can tell it lost headline status within 24 hours. Meanwhile, the smear campaign against Obama has turned its attention to his wife, Michelle, accusing her of using the term 'whitey' in a fiery sermon some years ago - like that's a major crime.

As for me, this week I returned to the research agenda. Library and Archives Canada is an easy walk from where I'm staying, along 'Confederation Boulevard' which is a route through the city that takes in the key government and related sites like the National Arts Centre, Parliament, the Supreme Court, Federation Square, the War Memorial - you get the picture. The Library and Archives is near the Ottawa River, and I keep half expecting to glimpse the sea, just because of the way the land falls away in that part of town. The Museum of Civilisation is across the river and therefore across the state border in Quebec. Hopefully I'll get time to visit on the weekend, but they're so civilised here that the Archive and Library is open on Saturdays and Sundays. Service is pretty good. You can take your handbag (or manbag if you're a boy) in, but most things are on microfilm and original files are held off-site and take days to bring in. I've got plenty to look at on microfilm (yuk - headache material) but it means copying can only be done on the machines at 20 cents a sheet. Interesting stuff, more indigenous snap, this time about the Indian Homemakers' Clubs which were very similar to the Maori Women's Welfare League.

Ottawa meant I was back to getting stared at and misunderstood in this grand multi-ethnic city, where most people seem to slip easily between French and English. The most honest response was from the woman at the deli who said "what!?" when I asked for a bagel and cream cheese. When I asked again, she laughed. Spent Sunday out and about in the very beautiful Gatineau Hills with Danielle who I met in Vancouver. The Hills are over in Quebec where the bilingualism ends and all the road signs etc. are in French. We lunched at a little village called Chelsea; again, very French. While we were there we were treated to a spectacular storm - thunder, lightning, hail, downpours. It stayed warm though, and sunny in between storms. We were still happy to not be one of the hundreds of hikers and bikers that were out that day, not to mention the many people swimming and canoeing at Meech Lake (not only pretty, but also historical: the site of negotiations for the Meech Lake Accord, basically a failed attempt to amend the Canada Constitution. The Accord was opposed in numerous quarters but really fell dead in the Manitoba legislative assembly where the First Nations protested an attempt to bypass public consultation and Native MP Elijah Harper famously raised an eagle feather to record his opposition in a vote that needed to be unanimous). My last dinner in Ottawa was at a Mexican place where Danielle and I were joined by another friend, Marlene. The restaurant is called Ahora - another thing for my name to get mixed up with. The area we ate in was v. nice, an older part of town but all tarted up for the 21st century; a pretty place for a late night stroll under a nearly full moon and a sky clearing after a day of storming.

I like Ottawa, and think I could easily come back here. It's a big city but apparently has a population of less than 800,000. It looks like a diverse city to me - or at least it's not a standardised city, or it's got no defining characteristic that I could put my finger on. It has different kinds of architecture, and different nationalities (Jamaican, North African, Middle Eastern, Asian) and languages and foods. The embassies are here, but they're not obviously lined up in a single neighbourhood like they were in DC. Even parliament and the national museum and some of the government agencies are spread out in the city rather than in one precint. So though Ottawa has got all the components of a capital city, it's not obviously a capital city.

Here's Hiki at one of Ottawa's war memorials. This one was built c.1950 from memory. It's an arch between two buildings and one of the buildings was to house the Veterans' Affairs Department. It's an interesting French-like look.

It's Monday morning now, and I've got to pack my stuff (again) and catch a plane to Winnipeg. I'm going to hang out with Mary Jane for a couple of days and then I think we're driving to Saskatoon for the last of the conferences I'm here for - better write that conference paper then.