The west end
From Hintonburg out past the Greenbelt to Kanata and Stittsville. The restaurant strips at one end, the country's densest technology cluster at the other, and the Queensway holding the two together.
Photograph: Westminster Presbyterian Church - Ottawa, ON · JFVoll · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
7 neighbourhoods running from the edge of downtown to the county line. Hintonburg and Wellington West turned from a working-class west end into the city's restaurant district inside twenty years, with Preston Street and Little Italy on the canal side of it. Westboro did the same thing a decade earlier and is now mid-rise. Then the Greenbelt, and beyond it Kanata (a planned town of about 59,700 when the 2001 amalgamation absorbed it, 76,284 now, holding the densest technology cluster in Canada) and Stittsville, a village on the Carp Road that has become one of the fastest-growing places in Ontario.
The dividing line is the Greenbelt, and the practical question it poses is the commute. Inside it, Westboro and Hintonburg are a bus ride or a bike path from Parliament Hill, and both will be on Line 1 when the west extension opens. Currently expected in 2027, which is a date that has moved before. Outside it, Kanata and Stittsville are Highway 417 or nothing: there is no rail in the plan for either, and the Queensway between Eagleson and Moodie is the most reliably congested stretch of road in the region. What you buy with that drive is space, newness and the province's best-rated school catchments.
7 communities, guide by guide
Bayshore
The west end's densest rental district, wrapped around a shopping centre and a transitway station, and the western terminus of the light rail line until it goes further.
- 9,313
- Residents of the Bayshore – Belltown ONS Gen 2 neighbourhood, on the 2021 census base
- 1963
- Year the Bayshore estate was first built, by the Minto Group
Bells Corners
A crossroads settlement from 1834 that became a Nepean suburb and kept its own main street, sitting inside the Greenbelt with Kanata on the far side of it.
- 8,887
- Residents of Bells Corners East (6) and Bells Corners West (7) together (ONS Gen 2, 2021 census base)
- 1834
- Year Hugh Bell opened the tavern that named the place, on the site of the present Bells Corners Public School
Hintonburg and Wellington West
Wellington West and Preston Street: the strip that turned from working-class west end into Ottawa's restaurant district inside twenty years, with the housing stock still catching up.
- 14,707
- Residents of the Hintonburg – Mechanicsville and Island Park – Wellington Village ONS neighbourhoods
- 1890
- Year Capuchin friars fleeing French conscription founded the Saint-François d'Assise parish here
Kanata
A planned town of about 59,700 when Ottawa absorbed it in 2001, 76,284 across its six neighbourhoods now, with the country's densest technology cluster inside it and a commute that lives or dies on the Queensway.
- 76,284
- Residents of the six Kanata ONS neighbourhoods covered here
- 1,200 ha
- Farmland Bill Teron assembled in the 1960s to build a planned community on
Queensway Terrace
Two post-war subdivisions built for civil servants on either side of the Queensway, with Lincoln Fields between them and three new stations opening around the edges.
- 17,438
- Residents of the two ONS Gen 2 neighbourhoods this guide covers, on the 2021 census base
- 4,800
- Combined 2021 census count for Queensway Terrace North (3,160) and Queensway Terrace South (1,640), roughly a quarter of the ONS figure
Stittsville
A village on the Carp Road that became one of the fastest-growing places in Ontario. New subdivisions, a real main street, and the longest drive downtown on this list.
- 26,674
- Residents of the Stittsville ONS neighbourhood; the ward held 40,889 in 2021
- 1854
- Year the village was founded, when Jackson Stitt became its first postmaster
Westboro
Richmond Road, the river beaches and the mid-rises replacing the bungalows. The west end's answer to the Glebe, and the first Ottawa suburb to be gentrified twice.
- 10,558
- Residents of the Westboro ONS neighbourhood
- 1903–1949
- Years Westboro was a police village, before Ottawa annexed it
Photographs: Bayshore Shopping Centre on Remembrance Day by Ross Dunn - Thanks for 13 million + views, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons · A building in Bells Corners by Gardias, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons · Autumn at the Parkdale Market in Ottawa by Ross Dunn, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons · Pond in Kanata by Ross Dunn, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons · St-Remi Parish, Ottawa by Earl Andrew, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons · Stittsville, Ontario by Dave Doe from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons.
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