Population (2006): 1,620,693 (city); 3,535,571 (region) Climate: Average Average
Temperature (Low/High) (F) Precipitation
Jan 6/22 2.8 in March 21/34 2.8 in May 37/65 2.7 in July 62/78 3.4 in Sept 52/67 3.3 in Nov 29/40 3.5 in
Queen of the World, the center of the Roman Catholic Church); Olympic Stadium; Pepsi Forum (once the Montreal Forum, home of the Montreal Canadiens before they moved to the Bell Center);
Place des Arts (host for many of Montreal’s ballet
and orchestral events); the Queen Elizabeth Hotel; Montreal’s Botanical Garden (with the largest col- lection of bonsai trees outside Japan and classes in the Japanese tea ceremony); Mont Royal (Mon- treal’s most prominent natural landmark).
Festivals
Annual events in Montreal include: Fete
National (St. Jean Baptiste’s Day, the Quebec
National Holiday that’s celebrated on June 24, the city’s biggest celebration); Montréal en lumiPre (“the Montreal High Lights” festival, February); the Montreal Grand Prix (the third most watched sporting event in the world in 2005, held in June); the Montreal International Jazz Festival (late June-early July); Montreal Fireworks Festival (June-July); Juste Pour Rire (the “Just For Laughs” comedy festival, held in July); Festival du Nouveau Cinéma (October).
Sports Teams
Montreal’s sports franchises include: Les Canadiens (NHL); Alouettes (CFL). Grand Prix racing, while not technically a team sport, is a huge part of Montreal’s sports scene.
Major Newspapers
Montreal’s main papers are the Montreal
Gazette (English), La Presse, Le Journal de Mon- treal (tabloid), and Le Devoir.
Local Superheroes
The chief superheroes of Montreal are Les
Esprits Guardiens (pae 26). Additionally, there
are a number of vigilantes and stranger folk who protect the city: Le Meutrier (“The Mur- derer”) is Montreal’s answer to the Harbinger of Justice, though he prefers to arrange cruelly ironic deaths for his victims. Le Astrologue is a reformed supervillain who can predict the future by making someone’s horoscope; Dame
de Fer (“the Iron Lady”) is a large steel statue
who appears when someone is threatening a Roman Catholic Church and frightens the would-be vandal away.
Crime
Montreal has been associated for a long time with organized crime, specifically the Bonanno family of La Cosa Nostra. From the late Fifties to the late Seventies, the city’s kingpin was Vic “The Egg” Cotroni, whose “man of respect” image was almost the epitome of the Mafia stereotype. Alas, things are now less colorful; Vic passed away in 1984, the power of the mobs dwindled after a bloody civil war. Now biker gangs and petty crimi- nals hold sway (though VIPER has done a lot to unify them in recent years).
OTTAWA
The capital of Canada is located on the Ontario-Quebec border along the Ottawa River. The Ottawa-Gatineau area is the fourth largest metropolitan region in the country. Ottawa is a workaholic city, a place of mandarins calmly going about their business — the only thing that gets them really excited is an Ottawa Senators playoff run.
Ottawa was originally a lumber center called Bytown. Founded after the War of 1812, it grew over the decades until the 1850s, when Queen Victoria chose it as Canada’s capital. Folk tales claim she liked the sound of the name, chose it by sticking a hatpin in a map of Canada, or the like; the real reasons seem to have more to do with compromising between English and French Canada. Since that time Ottawa gas grown from its humble origins into a major metropolis, a city of commerce, government, and beauty.
Major Districts
Most of the attractions in Ottawa are centered in the downtown area. Wellington Street is the main thoroughfare; it intersects with Parliament Hill.
The East End is a blend of wealthy Anglo- phone areas like Rockcliffe Park (Ottawa’s wealthi- est neighborhood) and New Edinburgh (where the Prime Minister and the Governor-General reside) with neighborhoods like Vanier, a more rough- and-tumble Francophone area.
The West and South ends are largely residen- tial. Heron Gate, Rideau View, Lincoln Heights, and Michelle Heights (all in the South end) have some of the highest crime rate in the city, and the Wellington strip of Hintonburg (also on the South side) is known for prostitution, but there are very few “seedy districts” (in the Dark Champions sense) within the metro area.
The city is surrounded by a Greenbelt that was created in the Fifties to prevent urban sprawl. Beyond the Greenbelt, the suburb of Kanata is known for its high-tech industry.
Across the Ottawa River is the Quebec town of Gatineau (formerly Hull), which provides a sec- ondary administrative center for the country. The Rideau canal, completed in 1832, connects Ottawa by water to Kingston on Lake Ontario.
Landmarks
Ottawa is the center of Canada’s government and renowned for its political buildings and pres- tigious cultural institutions. Examples include Par- liament Hill (with its Peace Tower), the National Gallery, the Canada Museum of Civilization, the Canada War Museum, the Canada Museum of Science and Technology, the Supreme Court, the National Library, 24 Sussex Drive (the Prime Min- ister’s residence), the Canada Aviation Museum, Rideau Hall (the Governor-General’s residence), the American Embassy (opposite Parliament Hill), and Chateau Laurier (one of the most famous hotels in the country).
Festivals
Noted events during the Ottawa year include the Ottawa International Hockey Festi- val (January), Winterlude (February), the Tulip Festival (May), Canada Day (July 1), and Otta- waSuperEx (August).
Sports Teams
Ottawa’s sports franchises include: the Sena- tors (NHL); the Lynx (AAA baseball); the Ottawa 67s (OHL), and the Ottawa Harlequins (Rugby). The most popular of these tends to be the Sena- tors, a successor team to the original franchise which was one of the first five in the NHL and won four Stanley Cups in the 1917-1934 period.
Major Newspapers
Ottawans get their print news from Le Droit (French), the Ottawa Citizen, and the Ottawa Sun (a tabloid).
Local Superheroes
The main superhero team of Ottawa is COMET (five college students given superpowers by a mys- terious alien object), though Ottawans tend to get nervous about costumed crimefighters. Thundrax (Craig Carson, MP-NDP Vancouver East) is often on the Hill and is considered the superhuman protec- tor of Parliament when it’s attacked. On occasion he fights supervillainy elsewhere in Ottawa, though he’s generally retired. Ravenspeaker (see Chapter Four) sometimes appears here; possibly he comes to town to study the exhibits at the Museum of Civilization and simply responds to incidents that occur while he’s around.
Crime
Ottawa is plagued with the same type of crime as any other metropolises, though locals boast that the crime rate is low compared to cities of a similar size. Among organized gangs, the Hell’s Angels (and their Montreal-based VIPER allies) are the most notable, but small-time gangs like the Crack Down Posse (CDP) can be extremely dangerous.