Quel Visage Pour Ottawa

THE CANADIAN ATLAS ONLINEQUÉBEC – SECONDARY 1 or 2

Tourism in Canada’s Capital

Lesson Overview

In this lesson, students will imagine that the National Capital Commission has asked them to choose a slogan that best promotes Canada’s Capital Region to potential tourists. They will gather facts about each of the five slogans and then design an advertisement to attract tourists to Canada’s Capital Region.

Grade Level

Secondary 1 or 2 (1st cycle)

Lesson Timing

One or two lessons depending on how thoroughly the teacher wants to cover data collection.

Curriculum Connection (course and province or territory)

Québec / Social Sciences: Geography

Additional Resources, Materials and Equipment Required

Map of Canada

Student Activity Sheet (attached)

Fact Sheet - Ottawa, the blue capital (attached)

Computer connected to the internet for research

Web Sites

Map of the national capital

Ottawa, the green capital

Ottawa, the heritage capital

Ottawa, the cycling capital

Main Objective

Enable students to identify the various aspects of tourism in Canada’s Capital Region.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

locate the national capital region;
identify features of Canada’s Capital Region;
better understand the dynamicsof tourism in a region;
demonstrate their understanding of tourism in Canada’s Capital Region by creating an effective advertisement.

Lesson

Introduction

/ If possible, show students video clips of various advertisements for provinces and territories across Canada. Ask them about the effectiveness of these advertisements. What images are used, what features of the region are being promoted? What makes an advertisement effective?
Inform students that they will examine various features of Canada’s Capital Region and then design an advertisement to attract tourists to our Capital.

Lesson Development

/ Distribute the Activity Sheet to the students and tell them about the five slogans for Canada’s Capital Region.
International Capital: reputation, international events hosted, seat of government,
Green capital: parks, greenbelt, agriculture, silviculture, Gatineau Park.
Blue capital: Ottawa, Rideau and Gatineau Rivers.
Heritage capital: Rideau Canal (UNESCO), Confederation Boulevard.
Cycling capital: Bixi, 236 km of bicycle paths, Sunday cycling.
Instruct the students to complete the table for question 1. Review the
answers and discuss the ideas as necessary to ensure that students have a good understanding of the content before starting the next section of the activity.
Assist students as they work through the remainder of the activity and provide guidance as they design their advertisements.

Conclusion

/ Ask students to present their advertisements to the class (perhaps as a multimedia presentation).

Lesson Extension

Send the advertising ideas to the NCC. You can write to them at:

Evaluation

Evaluate the advertisements for content and for visual appeal/effectiveness as a promotional tool.

Student Activity Sheet

Name: ______Group: ______

Imagine that the NCC has asked you to decide which slogan would best promote Canada’s Capital Region in an advertisement to attract tourists. Four slogans have been developed and the NCC wants your opinion on which should be used. Gather facts about each of the slogans and then create your own advertisement using the slogan that you feel best promotes Canada’s Capital Region to potential tourists.

Complete the table below to learn about each of the slogans used to promote Canada’s Capital Region. For inspiration, you can consult the site mentioned for each slogan. The first slogan has been completed as an example.

Slogan / Ottawa’s characteristics in relation to this slogan
The international capital! / There are 117 embassies or consulates in Ottawa.
This is where the Parliament and official residences of Canadian politicians are located.
The Rideau Canal is the largest skating rink in the world.
The green capital!

The heritage capital

The cycling capital

2. Select the slogan that you feel best promotes Canada’s Capitalto tourists and explain your choice.

Slogan Choice: ______

Why: ______

Design an advertisement that promotes Canada’s Capital Region, based on the slogan that you have chosen. The advertisement can be in the form of a poster, a commercial or a multimedia presentation.

Fact Sheet: Ottawa, the blue capital

The waterways are the most important natural features of the Capital region, and they have shaped both the landscape and human settlement over time. Long ago, the rivers served as Aboriginal highways and gateways into nomadic hunting territories. Settlers used them as routes into the wilderness, and later, as a source of power for fledgling industries. Today, the rivers of the Capital region continue to provide hydro-electric power and to shape human activity, with a new emphasis on their scenic and recreational value.

The Ottawa River

The Ottawa River forms the axis of the Capital region. The most important tributary of the St. Lawrence River to the southeast, this river has its source 150 kilometres due north of the Capital region, in the highlands of north-western Quebec. For much of its length, it forms the boundary of Quebec and Ontario and of two important land forms (the Canadian Shield to the northeast and the St. Lawrence Lowlands to the southwest). An Aboriginal transportation route 6,000 years ago, the river was also the shortest route to the west for fur traders paddling from Montreal to the Great Lakes from the 17th to the 19th centuries. In 1832, the completion of the Rideau Canal linked the Ottawa River directly to the Great Lakes (Lake Ontario). The river is 1,126 kilometres long, drops 300 metres in elevation from its source to the junction with the St. Lawrence, and at its widest point on the lower part of the river, is 7.4 kilometres across. It drains 14,761 square kilometres of land and has a flow of 1,982 cubic metres per second (more than all the rivers of England and Wales combined).

The Rideau River

A tributary of the Ottawa, the Rideau River joins the main river just east of downtown Ottawa. The confluence is marked by a fine set of double waterfalls (11 metres high), which gave the river its name (“rideau” means “curtain” in French). In the 19th century, industrialists used the falls to power their mills. From 1826 to 1832, British military engineers built channels, dams and locks to link navigable stretches of the Rideau River and lakes along its course and joined it to the Cataraqui River (near Kingston on Lake Ontario) to create the 202-kilometre Rideau Canal. The Long Cut — a 7.8-kilometre stretch of man-made channel — runs through the heart of downtown Ottawa and drops steeply into the Ottawa River over a flight of eight locks. In winter, the canal becomes the Rideau Canal Skateway.

The Gatineau River

From the north, out of the vast rocky highlands known as the Canadian Shield, flows the Gatineau River. The Gatineau was transformed into a logging river in the 19th century. Every year until well into the second half of the 20th century, lumberjacks rolled cut timber into the river every spring and sent it down the spring floods to mills at the confluence of the Gatineau and Ottawa rivers. The Gatineau River also gives access to an area that is rich in mineral resources and mining.