if you’re in Ottawa, and a politics junkie, two things I would recommend are Laurier House and the restored rooms in the West Block.
Laurier House, as the name suggests, is Laurier’s old house. It’s been turned into a shrine to Liberal P.M.s. Ground floor is Laurier, second and third floors Mackenzie King, and a room for Pearson.
The West Block of the Parliament Buildings has the restored offices of Macdonald and Cartier, and also the Cabinet room as it looked in 1867. (Doesn’t have the original Confederation table - when the Cabinet got too big, they sent it out to the new North-West Territories, so the Confederation table is now in the Legislative Library in Regina.)
You could also check out the Supreme Court, just down Wellington Street from Parliament. The Court doesn’t sit in the summer, unless for an emergency case of some sort, but last time I was there in the summer they had some bright young law students doing guided tours.
recommend Crescent Street for outdoor cafes and people-watching. It’s a three or so block long section of converted rowhouses with the gamut from coffee shops and ethnic restaurants(Troika my favourite) to HardRock Cafe.
For smoked beef sandwiches, try Dunn’s (open 24hrs last time I was there) on St. Catharines St.
They also pack for shipping.
Cheers Mike
…if you like baseball, you can watch the game from inside the Hard Rock, and reserve a table against the glass. Fine view from RF.
Hockey Hall of Fame is walking distance, and has nice interactive exhibits (shoot the puck, make a save…)
So I have no culture. It was a road trip seeing baseball games in other parks. Drove 3000 miles in 8 days. On the ninth day we would’ve killed each other…
another Ottawa thing is the Gatineau hills, on the Quebec side of the river - hiking, biking, Kingsmere (MacKenzie King’s estate, complete with fake ruins, including some bits and pieces of the British House of Commons, after it was bombed in WWII)