Ottawa

Ottawa, officially the Ottawa Capital District Municipality (Ottawa, CDM), is the capital and fourth most populous city of the Canadian Republic. It is governed as a single municipality under the direct jurisdiction of the Canadian federal government, and is thus the only municipality in Canada not located within a particular province or territory. In December 2019, Ottawa had an estimated population of 2.43 million; this does not include the federal capital's surrounding metropolitan area within the neighbouring provinces of Ontario and Quebec, which together with Ottawa proper is home to just under 4 million people.

From Canadian Confederation in 1867 until the establishment of the Canadian Republic in 1967, Ottawa served as the federal capital but was a municipality of the Province of Ontario. In September 1967, a nationwide plebiscite was held to determine the status of the federal capital, with 79% 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. Despite being directly under the jurisdiction of the federal government, Ottawa has a municipal government with an executive branch headed by a popularly elected mayor and an also popularly elected legislative branch (the District Council of Ottawa, which consists of 15 seats each representing one of Ottawa's 15 boroughs); Ottawa's municipal government exists via devolution, akin to the devolved governments of Canada's territories.