Are We Hypocrites For Abandoning Ottawa? 

Y’all have become the most reasonable voices in the urbanism movement. You’re greatly appreciated!

As an Ottawa resident, I know many people who have been introduced to new ideas through your videos. Your channel has had an important impact on many Ottawa residents (such as myself)! I'm seeing Toronto and MTL move in the right direction, and I hope we'll evolve in the same direction through some type of regional osmosis process lol. Thanks!

Living in a city is so much more than appreciating the built environment (although it is important), factors around health, safety, community and finances have a major impact on why you'd move somewhere else. I'm a planner for the City of Ottawa in the Long Range Planning division and we constantly discuss your videos and the points that you raise. I hope you know that there are many of us who are trying our hardest to implement ideals around sustainable mobility, health resilience and housing affordability for Ottawa. I still have plenty of hope. Cities are constantly evolving, though at a much slower pace than we'd like. The cities we plan for today are the cities that will be built in 2040-2050. The cities we live in today are the ones that were planned for in 1990-2000.

Great message again! Rational, kind, and optimistic - that's very rare these days!

Im glad that the urbanist conversation on RU-vid has become so active, but there are a fair amount of people who consume too much online content instead of actually being in tune with the cities they're discussing

Like usual: balanced, sensible and logical advice. Keep up the great work!

That’s silly. You’re not individually responsible for Ottawas choices. Plus you make videos that reach and educate thousands of people….

I live in Halifax, so I am a little sad you didn't end up here this time, but I did live in Montréal for the six months before the pandemic (had that not intervened, I might still be there today!) I've lived in Ottawa, too, and I think all three have big strengths, and also things they could learn from each other. Mostly, I'm glad that you've found a spot that fits. Keep your chins up, and keep up the great work-

Your message to stay where you're at was well received. I live in a downtown area, and your videos provide great ideas and ways to advocate for better public transit and people centered infrastructure. A majority of our city council will be new next year, so us urbanists are working hard to lift up these issues through candidate forums and endorsements. I really like your videos, keep up the great work!

As someone who's still holding it down in Ottawa, I respect the move. I see what's going on in Montreal, and hope to see that happen here in Ottawa. It'll be a tougher hill to climb here though I fear. When the province amalgamated the city of Ottawa, it was basically a form of gerrymandering. Saddling us with enough selfish suburbanite voters, that it's very difficult to ever get things like an improved bike network as a priority.

So, what I'm getting out of this video is that you guys are responsible for Ottawa's O-train demise? :)

I've always associated your channel more with Montreal, because that's where you lived when I first started watching your videos a couple of years ago, and the parasocial feeling I get is that it's the city y'all love the most. Can't believe anybody was picking on you for leaving Ottawa!

You guys are easily my favorite urbanist channel. Thanks for the optimistic and reasonable takes!

I'd definitely like to see more small-city urbanism in North America explored positively like this. Places like Kelowna, Timmins, Thunder Bay, or Winnipeg. Places you wouldn't think of as new urbanism utopias.

I love how hyperspecific these videos have gotten, genuinely. I get tired of urbanist uhh “content” that is so broad in scope. Your stuff feels personal and meaningful

If your last video focussed on bashing Ottawa and hyping up Montreal then It’s fair to say you abandoned Ottawa. Instead, you two offer constructive ideas on how North American cities can improve their urbanity. Keep up the great work!

Good urbanism in the US tends to be either too expensive (SF, Seattle, NYC), or in cities with a lot fewer opportunities (Baltimore, Philly, Pittsburg).

That anti-jaywalking ad at 6:28 is horrifying

It's really about solving a problem for yourself by checking out vs. solving it collectively. Instead of moving to Leipzig or Groningen, I moved to a flat 10mins from downtown Belo Horizonte, paying 1/10 of the rent I would there. Our bike infrastructure is not good but I can bike nearby. The public transportation and 15-minute city concepts are widespread through the metropolitan area, even in distant suburbs and metropolitan towns. I use the bike infrastructure to show there's demand for it and for the city to finally implement and deliver the planned network . I'm also organizing myself politically to (hopefully) make it happen.

I dont think anyone is a hypocrite or a coward for trying to find a style of life that suits them not every person is the same

I love how you swap the VO back and forth. You’re so right that the differences between neighbourhoods in the same city are usually bigger than the average between cities.

Toronto here. I appreciate your videos and can relate to them. I have biked 30 states 8 provinces and 10 counties. No place is perfect but some are more perfect than others.

I visited Ottawa this weekend and it hurts how bad the urbanism is. It’s improving, but it still has a long long way to go. The O-train in particular was a massive disappointment.

Next time you’re in Halifax let me know! I’m a BCD Student studying Urban Planning at Dalhousie and would love to have a conversation with you!

Thank you for this video and the last one. Our family has been tireless fighters in our rural community for a long time but are looking to move soon for a place with better health care for our kid & a better career opportunity too. For us It's been hard to explain and let others know that it isn't giving up. This video really helped. So glad you know your subject & audience so well.

I am happy y'all have found a place where you can thrive 😊 As someone that has moved 7 times because of better opportunities and migrated to a different country as well, feeling guilt for moving is such a foreign concept. Pardon the pun :) We all have "seasons" of life and making sure our physical environment matches that season is important. Kudos to you for making such informative videos about urbanism and city living ❤

While I don't think you really needed to respond to those criticisms, I'm glad you did because this was an interesting video to see how your thought process on choosing where to move worked in more detail.

The problem in North America is, you can not rely on even the most basic sidewalk or a bus every few hours - so when you can't drive, you are confined to "islands or walkability", which may be nice and large, but they are still islands. In Europe and especially the Netherlands this problem doesn't exist; there is always at least some basic infrastructure. Not just in every town or city, but in every tiny village.

Short answer: Yes Long answer: Yeeeeeeeees

Love this content. I am fascinated with how you move from city to city and find these nice urban areas to live in. I want to know more about the process of how to find good urban places to live in.

Halifax shout out! We would have been glad to have you! 😊 Honestly we fell in love with Montréal ever since visiting there a decade ago next year. We've gone nearly every year since. Hubby's more than decade long job (pension) and needing to be more bilingual are the primary barriers. And we bought a home here in late 2021... honestly I would be fine with a $200K one room condo in Lasalle/Angrignon area... but that looks like a retirement dream now. Time will tell. The English phone tech support remote job I saw now is night shift only... and my job is getting more challenging soon, he's going on strike soon... ish... so much to think about.

I was born in Halifax, moved to Montreal, draged to Thunder Bay, moved to Toronto, then Kitchener, then to West Galt, part of Cambridge. We have lived there for 26 years. In all the places we've lived, we have sought out communities that are walkable, Your channel and Not Just Bikes, speak to my interest in urgan planning, and cities in general. Thank you both for your rational view of the urban scene!

Halifax has come leaps and bounds in the last ten years! Our transit needs a huge overhaul but we’re finally trying new things and implementing better transit and bicycle infrastructure. We need more pedestrianized streets in Halifax and Dartmouth though.

I had to laugh a little when you called Halifax Transit functional. It is improving, but functional still seems a little generous. Maybe on the peninsula. The problem is that there are only 5 routes on to the peninsula and the buses don't have much priority on those routes.

Hi, I'm from Hamilton, I've spent 20 years waiting for LRT and urbanism. It isn't happening in my mobile and young lifetime and the affordability sucks. So I'm leaving. Queer people should also not hesitate to leave unwelcoming places. Hit bad cities where it hurts, the tax base.

This is probably the least hypocritical channel on the internet.

Why are great urbanist places expensive? Because they are extremely popular for many reasons, driving demand, and begs the need for more such spaces.

nice to see a nuanced take to combat the not-just-amsterdam flee at all costs approach

Trains, trains, trains. I approve of your prescribed solution. :)

I like how you ended the video with Montreal's answer to the Skytrain in Vancouver.

You guys are great.

I think one of the messages I liked so much from your previous video that I felt was only grazed by this video should be touched on again: Your town/city is capable of change and it requires a concentration of voices to do so. While it's fine to move from place to place in order to find what it is works best for you, it's also important to try to be a voice for responsible, accessible change. In our polarized world, people seem to have a black-and-white view of the way that places operate, when in reality, they're more malleable than people might think. It's worthwhile to put in that effort.

Very reasonable. Thanks Urbanity

All I see from those comments is CONTENT Great stuff, always glad to have y'all's thorough analysis

Some days I walk around Ottawa, listless, wondering how Oh The Urbanity could have abandoned us.

There is an arrogance associated with some Montrealers, different from that of Torontonians, but both are liable to elicit a knee-jerk reaction from residents of less august conurbations. ;)

The thing with good urbanism on this continent is that its basically across the board expensive, because it is fundamentally desirable, and scarce, any place that gets it right gets swamped with demand of people moving there.

I live in Toronto and wouldn't want to live anywhere else within Canada. I've been to Ottawa once, and yeah, it's really boring, same with Calgary & Edmonton . Montreal is a great city, same with Vancouver!

Actually America has less than 9 times Canada’s population. Good opinion video and nice to have you as fellow Montrealers.

If I wasn't from Ottawa and had family and friends here as well as a golden handcuffs, I would be in Montréal too.

You should come visit Atlanta! (It isn't nearly as bad as you might think)

Good for you. The balance was needed.

I love your channel.

4 years ago I moved from a colonial suburb of Boston (fantastic for rearing kids, but a car was essential) to a very urbanist neighborhood in Minneapolis. The urbanist factor was only a very small part of why I moved. Most important was housing costs, second were some personal issues I'm not comfortable sharing. Since this is my "age in place" home, I wanted to be able to manage without the need to drive, but that was maybe #3 on my list. [I am lucky that my job moved with me.] Is urbanism important? Yes. Is it the most important factor? Almost never.

Great video! I liked the previous one but I can see why somebody might take the message of "North America isn't hopeless, come to Montreal!" from the last one, at least if they stopped watching part way through.

Grew up in ottawa and moved to toronto then back to ottawa during 2020. It's a city that basically offers you nothing, so unless your own personal life is deeply fulfilling in a way that doesn't require strong culture or events (nerd), or you're rich enough to travel often, it kinda sucks. Especially depending on where you live - if you're within distance of the bike paths and especially the river it's a much different city than if you're locked out in south keys or blackburn hamlet or something. It's like a giant small town instead of a small big city.

I was shocked when you mentioned my city(Indianapolis).Usually people dont really think about it as a decent and liveable city and it is really car centric.But I also want to leave because of lifestyle choices and to live in a new environment but I want to hope my city does better.

I am commenting before watching ( I usually don't do this ) Leaving Ottawa was the best chose of my life period! Ottawa is like super conservative boring primary school. Montréal is like being stuck in Neverland art high-school for ever. ( but your body still gets older) After Montréal the next adult step is the rest of the world! ❤

As a native Louisville resident, what did yall find?

Once again you both hit the nail on the head about good urban cities being expensive. A lot of urbanists presently neglect the fact that while places such as Toronto, Vancouver, NYC, etc., have good public transit and/or good urbanism, they are incredibly expensive and inaccessible to many people. Montreal used to be an answer for Canadians, but in recent years has also become quite expensive. Then again, much of Canada is, now.

America has so much more problems than just bad city layout. It also has really bad health care that costs twice as much as anywhere else, unions and work life Ballance are seen as evil or not financially possible, even companies are allowed to make toxic stuff and can just change it to make it worse because the laws are made for freedom rather than people's safety, and a political system that is in a deadlock and prevents the changes we want. I don't like the idea of moving to a completely different country because I might not fit in, but with everything so messed up in America I plan on saving up for a few years and if nothing has improved moving to somewhere like the Netherlands or Sweden or something like that.

AMAZING

Thanks for the video and sorry you even had to make it. The online-urbanist community has gotten way too distracted with this petty stuff.

If you have the chance, please do a video on Paris and the new bike paths there. Last April I was there for the first time in four years and I was flabbergasted by the changes in streets and bike paths around the city. More particularly stunning is the Rue de Rivoli. Thanks

Always vote with your feet.

I'm wondering what you two think of Montreal planning to close Camillien-Houde way ?

Louisville is amazing but the weather can be tough.

For any US watchers, many towns and cities in New England have pretty good urbanism although for a good chuck of them you will only be able to live car light. CT: New Haven, Stamford, New London, Norwich, Torrington (kind-of), Stafford (specifically Stafford Springs, the town is extremely rural though so the best you'll be able to do is car light). And before anyone says "Hartford" of "Bridgeport", trust me you do not want to live in either of those cities. Mass: Boston (obviously) Worcester, Northampton/Amherst, Salem, New Bedford, (probably more I'm forgetting) Rhode Island: Providence and it's metro. Vermont: Bellows Falls (has a train station despite being very rural), Brattelboro, Bennington, St Albans, Montpelier, Rutland, Waterbury, and of course Burlington and it's surrounding towns (with a passable bus network to boot) New Hampshire: Concord, Manchester, Dover (kind-of). Maine: Portland, Lewiston, Bangor, Augusta, Norway, Westbrook. One caveat that I will mention is that the farther north in New England you go, the worst the opioid epidemic gets so if you are not comfortable with that stay to the southern half of the region.

ok but the weirdest thing about the criticism...Montreal is in North America

We have to experience good urbanism if we ever want to make good change happen. Transformation must be embodied-more than an idea from a book or a video.

Personally, I don't think North America is doomed per se, but it's hard to find good urbanism in smaller cities than it is in other places. Outside the bigger metros, you are really looking at older towns (mostly in the Northeast) without the public transportation/infrastructure to make it practical.

Ok, how about you actually come clean and confess that you moved back to Montreal because you have a lot of Monteral footage? 😁 That B roll ain't gonna shoot itself for a new city all over again! Seriously though, absolutely love your content and the data and science-driven approach you are taking. With so many urbanist youtubers going off "feels" and "vibes" it is soooooooo nice to have someone who's actually trying to sort this stuff out for us! You rock! Keep doing what you're doing! You're doing amazing things! I am convinced that you're destined for greatness!

Why are you Canadian?

Still forgot to shoutout StL in your rundown of overlooked havens of good urbanism 😢

Always the voices of reason! Random thought but ever notice how Not Just Bikes just doesn't talk about Montréal?

Being able to take criticism and learn from it serves as a great filter for knowing who to listen to. Saying people disagreeing with you because that's "how the internet is", is quite the disingenous way of dealing with critique. Why not simply acknowledge the inherent irony that comes with living in one of the few cities in the U.S. and Canada with good urban design while telling other people they can be happy without good urban design? Living in Montreal and knowing you have the option of moving to Vancouver or Toronto is a different life situation than that of most people who grew up in anglophone North America. Also, just like a single bike lane is much different than a bike network, a couple neighborhoods with good urban design is quite different from good urban design across an entire town/city. Even more problematic is the continued reduction of urbanism to little more than aesthetics and statistics. The field of urbanism encompasses more than just bike lanes, trains, and residents per square meter. It deals with housing affordability, job markets and ethno-linguistic diversity among residents. Good "urbanism" goes much deeper than subway system with nice headways. To be fair, however, I agree with the conclusion of the video. Moving is almost always a very personal decision with many determining factors and pockets of good spatial planning exist all over the world.

Of course you’re not hypocrites for leaving. And though I’m a bit sad we’re losing you (I liked seeing your local footage and hearing your nuanced takes on our city) where you live is entirely up to you. Is this even up for debate? I’m actually commenting more to address the intense Ottawa-bashing I’m seeing in the comments section. I know I’m not going to change the minds of the haters (some people are being extremely offensive!) But for more reasonable people I will say there’s a lot to be said for this city. Ottawa has a decent number of older, more established neighbourhoods that were built with walkability at their core. There are always things to do, like festivals, markets, concerts and art exhibitions. There’s a burgeoning restaurant scene, coffee roasters, craft breweries and distilleries. It’s generally more affordable to live here than Canada’s largest cities. And unlike some of the larger cities in North America, it’s easy to access numerous green spaces, hiking trails and waterways just outside the city. Sure, Ottawa is far from perfect. The LRT and its many problems have left the city in a bit of a bad mood. And the city can be a focal point for things like the trucker convoy, which was just a terrible, tense time for our city. Our current mayor (I.e. Motorist in Chief) isn’t doing us any favours in the urbanism department. And it will never be as lively and exciting as Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver, which are all incredible cities. I see people in Ottawa every day enjoying what the city has to offer, but I never see us in the comments!

I do love D.C. and its surrounds. And it's getting better season by season on the walkability, bikability, and transit side of things. But jeez, is it expensive. We're stuck out in the suburbs, and the only reason we can afford to live even this close is that I struck gold on a below market value apartment 15 years ago with a landlord who isn't a garbage person. If we're ever going to move or try to *gasp* own a home, it's going to be tough. We'd love to move into DC proper, but that's not in our reach. At this point, Philly is looking like a possibility. Relatively inexpensive, good bones, and still part of the Northeast Corridor. So long as we live in the US, I can't imagine living outside of the Northeast Corridor.

I was born and raised in Toronto, and spent the fisrt 47 years of my life living there. I knew the good parts, and the bad parts. I left, or rather was forced out, several years ago. My income was simply not keeping up with the rising cost of living in Toronto. There is no benefit to living in a big city with cultural and uraban amenities (which Toronto has plenty of) when year after year more of my income was gobbled up by just paying the rent. At some point in the mid-2000s I realized I would never be able to afford to own a home. Not even a condo. Then I experienced renoviction, not once, but twice. I moved to more affordable accomodations in a less dsirable part of the city in the 2010s. I could still walk to 24-hour transit but there were fewer "nice" stores or restaurants. There was a bakery, a butcher shop and a decent grocery store minutes from my front door. Then my building was sold out from under me a third time in 2016, and the new owners were renovating the building and installing marble countertops and stainless steel fridges and stoves in the vacant units. Renoviction for a third time was just a matter of time. Not "if" but "when." I left Toronto and moved to Northern Ontario, where I have family. I landed a two-bedroom apartment for the rent one would pay in the mid-1990s in Toronto for a similar sized unit. The spare room is filled with books and hosts the computer I am typing this on. I got a family doctor within two years. The town is small enough that I can still walk to 75% of everything needed for daily life. But there are no art galleries, museums, movie theatres or any major cultural attractions. But I had an increasingly hard time affording those things in Toronto anyway. Having fewer money problems compensates.

I had a bad experience in Ottawa on my first day ...i did not know Ottawa had so many Criminalities ... all my university books got stolen at the main bus terminal just behind me while i was on my cell phone ... i have never felt in a safe city in Ottawa...

Although I do believe in changing places for the better, that timeline may be infeasible for some people. It would take generations to change the physical environment considering how hard we've made the process to do it. If you want your kids to experience a certain childhood or don't have a lot of years left, you're probably better off moving to where you really want to be before it's too late. I believe activism is worth it but I also don't think getting involved guarantees anything. Up to you individually if you want to accept that. Hopefully, each activist builds off each other in an ideal scenario. But if there's one criticism I'd level at urbanists, it's that they think we all have the same values and motivations in the end. The auto mechanics, car dealership, auto workers, etc. all have a vested economic interest in continuing car dependency. Suburbia depends on the car. Saying we're going to end car dependency puts up their defenses. They'd lose their source of livelihood and privilege in society. That's not happening without an ugly fight along the way. Current day NA is much more dependent on the car than 1970s Amsterdam was so that was never an even comparison. Sure, there's lots of places in a big country like America. But I don't think it's going to be a linear path to end car dependency here. We're very divided right now and this is an easy issue to turn into another culture war. If Republicans take back the White House, wouldn't you think they would kill the IRA (at least the liberal parts of it)? And since we keep ping-ponging between administrations that want very different things for the country, is there an actual unified vision for better urbanism that has continuity? Will "national interests" take over and we aim for EVs and AVs instead for technological advantage and keep building highways the same way we always have? I can't know the future. I don't think anyone does.

It's not hypocritical. Walking away is the best kind of leverage you have in anything.

Ottawa is boring and ugly and has a very cringey small town yokel feel to it. When I lived there it shocked me how unimpressive it truly was given it's our capital. Montreal is much more vibrant and beautiful and has its shit together when it comes to transit, bikes, pedestrian-only streets, etc. Not sure how it's considered "hypocrisy" to point out pros and cons and have a preference based on your wants and needs but this is the internet so everybody needs to weigh in with their dumb opinions, myself included! Love your channel.

philly mentioned. yall should come down to philly its super dense and making big progress on biking. 99.99% of the city is walk able minus a few areas around our highways, and we have huge variation in the neighborhood fell with a pretty good transit system.

In Ottawa, despite all its infrastructure problems, businesses generally try to accommodate bicycles, and there is no social stigma against bicycle commuting. I lived there from 2012-2019 and saw the incremental progress the city was making, to the point that finally the majority was okay with retrofitting in the infrastructure. Of all the Canadian cities I have lived in, I would say that Moncton, New Brunswick is one of the worst when it comes to urbanism and traffic planning. The vast majority of the city's leisure services budget was spent on indoor ice rinks (1 for every 10,000 citizens!). Geographically speaking, it has the potential to be a good cycling city: it is largely flat and most everyday distances travelled are 5 km or less. But the problems are at the top with council and executives sending a social message that active transportation is a childrens' activity and should be avoided: A 15 km/h speed limit was imposed for bicycles, and all other active transportation besides walking and cycling was legally banned city-wide. The craziest thing is that (while I was not living there at the time), city council actually considered eliminating public transit entirely to cut the property tax rate, but backtracked due to protests.

The funny thing is the Netherlands is so hyped up on urbanist youtube that the king of actual urbanism is not the Netherlands but Japan. The entire country has the lowest car commuting rates in the developed world, Tokyo and Osaka have the #1 and #2 largest urban rail networks in the world and they are extremely walkable. Sure they may not have cool bike lanes everywhere but that's just one small aspect of urbanism. And ironically Osaka has the same/similar bicycle commuter share as Amsterdam....but it also has subways, monorails, S-bahn/RER trains, trams etc.

I like urbanism, but I have developed a an attachment to the State of Alabama, to the point where I might not want to leave. I just want to make my town and my State a little easier to live in.

Canadian who lives in United States here. Sorry how does Canada do better? At what exactly? I am not aware of any city that does anything "better", quite the opposite. I lived in Toronto btw.

No. Get out if you can!

A video in response to my comment! I love your channel. I just had to call you guys out trying to shade @Notjustbikes for his comment about leaving North America. It was especially bizarre to make a whole video criticizing his comment, while citing urbanism as one of the reasons for your move. I'm happy for your new life in Montreal! And happy to see you've come around to understanding that people can and should move for all kinds of reasons. Including good urbanism (if that makes them happy).

Fix crime, education, move towards a bit more walk ability and then Minneapolis is very possibly the best city in the world, I will also ad that homes under 300k still exist in Minneapolis so it’s a great inexpensive place for a family home as long as you bet on the schools improving and crime going down which I expect those problems solved in the next decade as a Minnesotan. Also, the schools aren’t horrible to world or American standards, they’re just not great to Minnesota standards.

Autowa has a long way to go (But there are some very nicce Neighbourhoods pocketed throughout)

7:48 - 8:00 then why even make that last video? i agreed with the last one but i think you kinda misstept here a bit. even if it might have been a little hypocritical, dont think its that bad. but in this video, in my opinion, your not really saying anything. you can defend your own reasons, but that really isnt the problem. if you wanna move, you wanna move, for whatever the reasons might be. telling people to work on a better future where you live i agree with but this idk.

Retelling the internet the obvious.

Hope you have a lovely time where you live now. Truth is that decisions about life are never entirely ideological and while I've not yet seen "You Don't Need to Move to Amsterdam to be Happy" I imagine its more making the case that "Your City's Not Lost Yet" (Sorry to any Ukrainians who noticed the similarity with the Ukrainian National Anthem) than any kind of "You must stay where you were born if you want any change." I get that, I voted to remain in the European Union and while I could in theory get an Irish Passport (and yes I deliberately chose the flag from before the Union with Ireland) the question would be what would I do with it, since my disabilities mean a lot of the opportunities available to others with EU access were not lost to me but rather not available anyway. So I work to make the best of things where I am and provide some joy and happiness along the way. But that's how I live, I cannot say this is what anyone else should or should not do since I don't know you, I can only see what the camera shows me and so I just hope you have a happy life.

Thank you for this necessary video! I've felt the urge to move to the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, or Japan because I don't like car dependency. However, at the end of the day, my family is in the US, mostly in the eastern half, save for one guy in Ulaanbaatar. My best friend's family lives abroad, but I'm not moving to Dhaka. America also has high-paying jobs, stunning nature, cultural pluralism, solid human rights (even today, relatively speaking), and much more. I also speak English and a significant amount of Spanish. My Japanese is barely conversational, and I'm pretty stereotypically American, so it may be hard to permanently integrate into many foreign societies. International moving is a hassle, so unless any place in Southeastern Canada proved to be way more appealing than a place like Pittsburgh, it wouldn't be worth it. Besides, my company is headquartered there, so my career prospects could bring me there. Leaving the country is a sacrifice that I won't be able to make for a long time, even though I'm always open to it. I'm 23 and have only been working my first professional job for 3 months. I also have a partner with her own expectations. I feel like you have to be a pretty unserious person with little life experience to ask people to move to their ideal city on a whim. Life doesn't work like that unless you're financially privileged and socially isolated.

Yes...

As someone whos from Ottawa and has lived all over other parts of Canada (Montreal, Toronto, small BC towns, Vancouver, Halifax and Toronto) I'd easily say Ottawa has been the worst city. Calgary and Montreal have been my favourites because of the diversity and public transport, i feel like Ottawa is just a forgotten city let alone the capital of one of the best countries in the world. I find another big problem topic that doesnt come up a lot is the HUGE wealth devide in Ottawa, i grew up in Uplands where my side was very poor and a "hood" where if u just cross the street and go one block up your looking at million dollar mansions. The south of Ottawa isnt even the only place like this in the city, its the same deal in vanier looking into the super ultra wealthy manor park. Ottawa has just been in a giant downwards spiral for a long time to the point where i even doubt they could fix it to be as great as Montreal or any other decent Canadian city. Maybe you guys havent given up on Ottawa but i and a lot of other Ottawans have.

This is wild people really can be insufferable

It doesn't what city you live in in North America. If you still in North America, then you can still vote for urbanist policies in your elections.