Ottawa

Ottawa, officially the Ottawa Capital District Municipality (Ottawa CDM; French: Municipalité du district capital d'Ottawa, MDC d'Ottawa), is the capital and fourth-most populous city of the Canadian Republic, with a population estimated at 2.45 million in December 2020. It is governed as a single municipality composed of 16 boroughs under the jurisdiction of a municipal corporation with devolved authority from the Canadian federal government, and is the only locality in Canada not part of any province or territory. As Canada is officially a bilingual country at the federal level, so too is the federal capital of Ottawa an officially bilingual city, with all municipal and public communications, street signs, advertisements, etc. being bilingual; approximately 55% of residents of Ottawa speak English at home, 25% French, and the remaining 20% various other languages spoken by the city's many large immigrant communities. A 2016 survey found that at least 90% of Ottawa residents are either fluent or semi-fluent in both English and French, the remaining 10% accounting mostly for monolingual English speakers as well as some immigrants who never learned English nor French.

Ottawa is designated by the Senator of Ottawa and President of Canada as a ceremonial county, and as such is the only Canadian county (ceremonial or otherwise) located outside of any province or territory, the devolved local government existing via statute of the Parliament of Canada (like the five territorial governments). Functionally, Ottawa resembles a territory, especially in its relationship with the federal government via devolution. As it consists, however, of a single county–municipality rather than multiple counties and municipalities as in the territories, Ottawa is typically considered a distinct political entity within the federation. The Executive Council of Ottawa is the cabinet of the Mayor of Ottawa using the mayor–council system of local government. The Executive Council and subordinate municipal government agencies double as the county-level administration of Ottawa, as the county and municipal levels have been merged to form a single level, like Toronto.

In December 2020, Ottawa (the Ottawa Capital District Municipality) had an estimated population of 1.338 million; this does not include the surrounding metropolitan area (Greater Ottawa), which consists of neighbouring counties and municipalities in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec: together with Ottawa proper, Greater Ottawa is home to about 3.45 million people. In addition to Ottawa proper, Greater Ottawa consists of 33 other incorporated municipalities located in seven counties (four in Ontario and three in Quebec). Ottawa is the only municipality in Canada to be policed at the local level by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), which otherwise serves as Canada's largest federal law enforcement agency as well as the main police body within its five territories.

History
From Canadian Confederation in 1867 until 1922, Ottawa served as the federal capital but was a municipality within the Province of Ontario. In September 1922, a nationwide plebiscite was held to determine the status of the federal capital, with 77% of respondents voting in favour of making Ottawa a federal district separate from any province or territory, which it has remained ever since. Unlike many other federal districts around the world, however, Ottawa has representation in both chambers of the Parliament of Canada: one seat in the Senate and 19 in the House of Commons.

Cityscape
As the seat of the federal government, Ottawa is home to the headquarters of all federal government ministries and the great majority of subordinate and independent federal agencies. The central, most populous, and most densely populated borough is Centretown, also known as Bytown (the historical name for Ottawa), which includes Downtown Ottawa and the CBD, Parliament Hill, Chinatown, Lowertown, Little Italy, Sandy Hill and Carleton University. The ten other boroughs consist primarily of semi-urban and suburban neighbourhoods, featuring low-rise condos and apartments, large malls, industrial zones, some neighbourhoods of single-family homes, parks, and even some farmland.