Ottawa ( or sometimes /ˈɒtəwɑː/) is the capital of Canada. The city has a population of 812,000, making it the fourth largest municipality in the country and second largest in Ontario. The cities of Ottawa-Gatineau have a population of 1,168,788, the country's fourth largest metropolitan area. (The National Capital Region which encompasses Ottawa-Gatineau and surroundings has a population of 1,451,415) Ottawa is located in the Ottawa Valley in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario. The city lies on the banks of the Ottawa River, a major waterway that forms the boundary between Ontario and Quebec.

There is no federal capital district in Canada. Ottawa is a municipality within the Province of Ontario. Although it does not constitute a separate administrative district, Ottawa is part of the federally designated National Capital Region, which includes the neighbouring Quebec municipality of Gatineau. The population of the National Capital Region was estimated by Statistics Canada to be 1,168,800 in 2007. As with other national capitals, the word "Ottawa" is also used to refer by metonymy to the country's federal government, especially as opposed to provincial or municipal authorities.

Ottawa is governed by a 24-member city council. The members of this council are elected by the residents of Ottawa. Each councillor represents one ward within Ottawa. The mayor however represents Ottawa as a whole. City council responsibilities include the maintenance and efficacy of the following services: fire department, paramedics, police department, water, transit, recycling, garbage, and sewage. The current mayor of Ottawa is Larry O'Brien.

History

File:View at the West end of Wellington Street, Upper Bytown, looking East, 1845.jpg|thumb|left|1845 painting of Wellington Street looking east, by Thomas Burrowes, one of the street's first residents The Ottawa region was long home to the Odawa or Odaawaa First Nations people. The Odawa are an Algonquin people who called the river the Kichi Sibi or Kichissippi, unrelated to Mississippi, meaning "Great River".

The Algonquin people never relinquished any land claims to the Government of Canada. In 2008 the Algonquins made a land claim to the federal government asserting that they have ownership to the Ottawa River watershed in Ontario and its natural resources.

The first European settlement in the region was that of Philemon Wright who started a community on the Quebec side of the river in 1800. Wright discovered that transporting timber by river from the Ottawa Valley to Montreal was possible, and the area was soon booming based almost exclusively upon the timber trade. Liked by many European nations for its extremely straight and strong trunk, the White Pine was found throughout the valley.

In the years following the War of 1812, in addition to settling some military regiment families, the government began sponsored immigration schemes which brought over Irish Catholics and Protestants to settle the Ottawa area, which began a steady stream of Irish immigration there in the next few decades. Along with French Canadians who crossed over from Quebec, these two groups provided the bulk of workers involved in the Rideau Canal project and the booming timber trade, both instrumental in putting Ottawa on the map.