This is Ottawa

Keith Egli was at a dinner party complaining about a transit strike, when the person at the end of the table told him to stop whining and run for city council. So he did. And he was the councillor for Knoxdale-Merivale ward for 12 years. In the first of our four-part series “In Hindsight,” leading up to the municipal election, we explore the ups and downs of being an Ottawa city councillor – and the one thing Keith Egli wished he knew before becoming one.

Le Hibou is a place of near mythical status in the Ottawa music community. A tiny coffee house on Sussex Drive where the likes of Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen played. In this encore episode, Robyn Bresnahan hears memories from those who were there in its heyday and explores whether Le Hibou could ever rise again.

It’s like eBay - but run by the Canadian government. The GC Surplus site sells everything from ATVs used by the military to Air Jordan sneakers confiscated at the border. In this encore episode, Robyn Bresnahan gets a tour of the Ottawa warehouse - where she discovers the most gobsmacking item of all.

You can learn a lot about Ottawa through its street art - from protest movements to the histories of neighbourhoods. But graffiti and murals are often temporary. So  a local software developer created a digital map - to archive the art. Robyn Bresnahan bikes the city with him, meeting street artists along the way. 

Now that it’s been decided that 24 Sussex Drive will be restored rather than torn down - what else should change in the area? The authors of a new book on the Prime Minister’s official residence say this is a golden opportunity to not just reno the house - but the entire area around it.

Street racing is dangerous and illegal. Yet the roar of revving engines and screeching tires can be heard across the city all summer. In this encore episode, Robyn Bresnahan speaks to a former street racer who drove “without any concerns or worries of others” - and to a police officer who explains why these speedsters are so hard to nab.

Remember the time an MP was hit by a bag of flying feces in the House of Commons? Or the day a man accidentally blew himself up in a Parliamentary bathroom stall? What about the Playboy magazines you could sign out from the Library of Parliament? Robyn Bresnahan gets a history on Parliament from the author of a new book about hijinx on The Hill.

Why can you get a residential street parking permit on some Ottawa streets, but not others? That’s the question a couple living near Mooney’s Bay had after being denied a parking permit for their second vehicle. Now they have to move their car every three hours. Robyn Bresnahan hears from them and their city councillor who argues ‘street parking is not a right.’

Estate sales used to be the domain of the boomer generation. But if you’ve been to one lately you’ll notice a shift in who’s there to shop. Robyn Bresnahan joins a long queue of Gen Z treasure hunters to find out why estate sales are having a moment.

What happens if you accidentally throw dog poop in the blue bin? Do our plastics get shipped overseas? Why can you throw things in the blue bin that weren’t previously allowed? Kids have a LOT of questions around recycling. We put them to the CEO of Circular Materials, Allen Langdon.