Ottawa, Ontario

Ottawa is a city in eastern Ontario, Canada.

About Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada and the country's fourth largest municipality, as well as the second largest city in the province of Ontario. It is located in the Ottawa Valley on the eastern edge of the province of Ontario. Ottawa lies on the banks of the Ottawa River, a major waterway that forms the boundary between Ontario and Quebec.

Ottawa is situated on the south bank of the Ottawa River, and contains the mouths of the Rideau River and Rideau Canal. The oldest part of the city (including what remains of Bytown) is known as Lower Town and occupies an area between the canal and the rivers. Across the canal to the west lies Centretown (often just called "downtown"), which is the city's financial and commercial hub. Between here and the Ottawa River, the slight elevation of Parliament Hill is home to many of the capital's landmark government buildings, and is the Legislative seat of Canada. As of June 29, 2007, the Rideau Canal, which stretches 202 km (126 mi) to Kingston, Fort Henry and four Martello towers in the Kingston area was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ottawa has a humid continental climate (Koppen Dfb) with a range of temperatures from a record high of 37.8 °C (100 °F) in the summers of 1986 and 2001, to a record low of -38.9 °C (-38 °F) being recorded on December 29, 1933, the third coldest temperature recorded in a capital city (after Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and Moscow, Russia). This extreme range in temperature allows Ottawa to boast a variety of annual activities - more notable events such as the Winterlude Festival on the Rideau Canal in the winter and the National Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill in July - and the requirement of a wide range of clothing. Because of its relatively warm summers, Ottawa is only the seventh coldest capital in the world by annual average temperature, however by mean January temperature, Ottawa ranks third behind Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and Astana, Kazakhstan.

Professional

 * Ottawa Swing Dance Society
 * Swing Dynamite

University

 * Carlton Swing Dance Club