I'd say the Ottawa scene is not as bad as people believe. Much like the complaints about the city not having a nightlife, etc., you just have go and find it here, it doesn't introduce itself on its own.
Disagree. You had me until you said night life. I'm sorry, but I can say the samething about a small town like Guelph "its fun if you look for it".
Fact is, you rarely hear the same complaints about Toronto or other big cities.
You can go anywhere in downtown Toronto (which I might add is more than a handful of neighborhood) and have something to do.
I'm not saying every Barrhaven needs to be fun. But downtown outside the market and Elgin is virtually dead outside business hours
.
In most real cities, every new neighborhood I visit (I'd say close to 2 dozen in Toronto) has something to do within eye sight, or a very short walk.
Things don't close at 6 everywhere. Also there are places in Toronto that have great night life that most locals haven't even been to, cause there's so much to do in there own neighborhood alone.
Ottawa doesn't have that. Also, u needs to consider that people new to the city may not have a car. So sure u might find a great gem in Ottawa in the evening like that great restaurant in Renfrew county, but that's not part of Ottawa.
This is a city, if you can't walk or take a short metro ride to majority of great neighbors, it doesn't really count. Cause if it does count then Belleville has a great night life due to its close drive to Prince Edward County and Toronto.
Plenty of great places around Guelph, but the bar for guekph is set lower cause its a small town
Ottawa has got to compare itself to the big boys. Its the capital city for god sakes
The only capital city in the G8 not to have a full fledges Metro system I might add.