Proudly Canadian: Ottawa and eastern Ontario’s success stories

A Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) SkyHawks member comes into landing over Parliament Hill during Canada Day celebrations in Ottawa, on Monday, July 1, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

We are “Proudly Canadian” and we want you to be too ahead of Canada’s 158 birthday. In the lead up to Canada Day, CTV News Ottawa and CTV Morning Live are showcasing and celebrating local success stories that have became big names in music, entertainment, sports, business and more.

CTV News Ottawa looks at how Ottawa and eastern Ontario have made a mark on Canada and the world. Test your knowledge at the end of the story in the Proudly Canadian pop quiz.

Rideau Canal

The Rideau Canal is one of Canada’s 20 World Heritage Sites, and one of two in Ontario.

UNESCO named the Rideau Canal a World Heritage Site in 2007.

“The Rideau Canal is North America’s best-preserved ‘slackwater’ canal, and the only canal from the great 19th-century canal-building era that still operates along its original route and with most of its original structures intact,” the federal government says on its website. “This engineering marvel and the fortifications built at Kingston to protect it were constructed at a time when Great Britain and the United States vied for control.”

The Rideau Canal was built between 1826 and 1832 by Colonel John By of the British Royal Engineers. It connects Kingston and Ottawa.

Parliament Hill

Ottawa was officially declared the capital of the United Province of Canada on Feb. 17, 1858. A 25-acre piece of land atop a gently sloping limestone cliff was chosen as the site of the legislature.

Construction began on the new Parliament Buildings on Dec. 20, 1859. In 1876, the buildings on Parliament Hill were completed, including the Library of Canada.

On Feb. 3, 1916, a fire started in the Centre Block of the Parliament Buildings while the House of Commons was sitting. Shortly before midnight, the Centre Block’s Victoria Tower Bell crashed to the ground and a strong wind spread the fire towards the Senate.

Construction on the new Parliament buildings began in 1916, and on Feb. 6, 1920, the new but unfinished building opened.

The Peace Tower

The Peace Tower is one of the most recognized symbols of Canada.

Standing at a height of 92.2 metres, the Peace Tower was dedicated on July 1, 1927. Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King decided that the Peace Tower would be a monument to Canada’s war dead.

In 1927, the Peace Tower clock was given to Canada by the United Kingdom to mark the 60th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. The Peace Tower houses a 53-bell Carillion.

The Peace Tower flag is changed every day from Monday to Friday and on days when the flag is flown at half mast.

Canadian Flag

The Canadian flag was designed by George Stanley of Kingston, Ont.

Stanley, who was the Dean of Arts at the Royal Military College, was inspired by RMC’s own flag when he recommended a concept featuring a single, stylized red maple leaf on a white background with two red borders.

On Oct. 22, 1964, the flag committee voted in favour of Stanley’s single-leaf design. The new Maple Leaf flag was made official by a proclamation from Queen Elizabeth II on Jan. 28, 1965, and it was inaugurated in a public ceremony on Parliament Hill on Feb. 15, 1965.

Eastern Ontario man invents basketball

A man from Almonte, Ont. invented a game that has become one of the most popular sports in the world.

James Naismith, a physical education instructor from the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, invited the indoor game of basketball in 1891. Naismith introduced the game to a class.

Naismith wrote the original basketball rulebook and founded the University of Kansas basketball program.

First NHL game

Ottawa was the site of one of the first two NHL games played on Dec. 19, 1917.

The Montreal Canadiens beat the Ottawa Senators 7-4. The game was played at Dey’s Arena, close to Parliament Hill.

The Senators and Canadiens were founding franchises in the NHL. The Senators stopped playing in 1934.

The Senators returned to the NHL in the 1992-93 season.

Alanis Morissette

Ottawa’s Alanis Morissette has become one of the most successful and influential singers, songwriters and musicians in the world.

She attended Holy Family Catholic School. Immaculata High School and Glebe Collegiate Institute. Morissette appeared on the children’s television series You Can’t Do That on Television.

Morissette released two dance-pop albums in the early 1990s, “Alanis” and “Now is the Time.” Her international breakthrough came in 1995, when she released “Jagged Little Pill.” The album features the hit singles “You Oughta Know,” “Hand in my Pocket” and “Ironic.”

Morissette has won seven Grammy Awards and 14 Juno Awards.

Les Emmerson

Ottawa’s Les Emmerson was the lead vocalist and guitarist for the Five Man Electric Band.

The group’s best-known song was “Signs,” with the concept for the song originating as Emmerson was driving down Route 66 in California. The song was released in 1970.

“Signs” is one of the few songs to have reached the Top 10 on the charts three times, while being performed by three different artists. Tesla recorded Signs in 1990, and Fat Boy Slim samples a portion of “Signs” in the song “Don’t Let the Man Get You Down.”

“Signs” was not the only hit for Emmerson and the Five Man Electric Band, with “Absolutely Right” and “I’m a Stranger Here” becoming top 10 hits in Canada.

Emmerson was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008.

Paul Anka

Singer, songwriter and actor Paul Anka was born in Ottawa.

According to his website, Anka convinced his parents to let him travel to Los Angeles in 1956, where he called every record company in the phone book looking for an addition. A meeting with Modern Records led to the release of his first single – “Blau-Wile Deveest Fontaine.”

Anka’s 1957 song “Diana” reached number one for two weeks on the Billboard R&B Best Sellers in Stores and climbed to number two on Billboard’s composite Top 100 chart. According to the book “Ottawa Made” by Sam Laprade and Caroline Phillips, “Diana” was the first song by an Ottawa artist to top the charts.

Anka’s album Rock Swing went Top 10 in the United Kingdom, and was certified gold in the UK, France, and Canada.

Anka has a street named after him in Ottawa, and he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2004.

Sandra Oh

Sandra Oh’s journey to stardom started in Ottawa.

The actress grew up in Nepean and attended Knoxdale Public School and Sir Robert Borden High School.

Oh won two Golden Globe awards for her role on Grey’s Anatomy and the television series Killing Eve. She also won a Primetime Emmy Award and four Screen Actors Guild Awards.

In 2013, Oh received a Key to the City of Ottawa.

Matthew Perry

Before he was sitting on the couch in Central Perk with the “Friends” cast, Matthew Perry was growing up in Ottawa.

The actor was born in Massachusetts but was raised in Ottawa and attended Rockcliffe Park Public School and Ashbury College. Perry moved to the United States at age 15.

Perry starred on the hit TV show “Friends.” Perry also appeared in Silver Spoons, Growing Pains, Sydney, Home Free, The Odd Couple and the Good Fight.

Perry died in October 2023.

Bruce Cockburn

Bruce Cockburn is considered one of Canada’s finest artists.

Cockburn grew up in Ottawa and has written more than 100 songs and one film score. His self-titled debut came in 1970, and he won three consecutive Folk Singer of the Year Junos from 1971 to 73. In 1981, Cockburn won the Juno Male Vocalist of the Year award.

He was named to the Order of Canada in 1982 and named to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1981.

Dan Aykroyd

Actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer Dan Aykroyd was born in Ottawa.

Aykroyd attended Carleton University. He was a writer and an original member of the “Not Ready for Prime Time Players” cast on Saturday Night Live between 1975 and 1979. Aykroyd’s most famous roles include The Blues Brothers, Ghostbusters, Coneheads, Noting Bus Trouble, Workin’ Moms and Driving Miss Daisy.

Tom Green

Tom Green’s rise to Canadian and international fame started on Rogers Television in Ottawa. The Tom Green Show debuted on Rogers TV before moving to MTV.

Green has appeared in several films, including Road Trip, Charlie’s Angels, Stealing Harvard and Shred. He also briefly hosted the MTV show titled “The New Tom Green Show,” and later hosted Tom Green’s House Tonight.

Green was born in Pembroke and grew up in Petawawa and then Gloucester.

He will soon release a new Crave Original series called “Tom Green’s Funny Farm,” where he will engage guests in interviews from his farm in Ontario.

Team Homan

The Ottawa-based women’s curling team skipped by Rachel Homan has been dominant on the national and international curling scene.

Homan is a five-time Canadian national champion, a three-time world champion and competed at the Olympics.

Homan also competed in mixed doubles curling at the 2022 Olympics.

Team member Emma Miskew, also from Ottawa, is a three-time world champion and five-time Scottie’s tournament champion.

Brooke Henderson

Brooke Henderson is Canada’s most successful golfer, with 20 professional wins, including 13 wins on the LPGA Tour.

Raised in Smiths Falls, Henderson started golfing at the Rideau Lakes Golf and Country Club.

Henderson has won two LPGA major championships – the 2016 Women’s PGA Championship and the 2022 Evian Championship.

Hunger/La Faim

One of the world’s first computer animation films was produced by the National Film Board of Canada.

The 1974 film Hunger/La Faim was directed by Peter Foldes.

The 11-minute short film won an Oscar for its work in computer animation, the first computer-animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award.

Instant Pot

One of the most well-known kitchen appliances of the past 15 years was invented by an Ottawa man.

Robert Wang, a one-time chief scientist at Nortel, created the “Instant Pot.”

According to the book “Ottawa Made” by Sam Laprade and Caroline Phillps, Wang began working on the Instant Pot as he and his wife tried to balance work with the needs of their young children. The Instant Pot was launched on Amazon in 2010.

The Instant Post is a smart cooker that functions as a rice cooker, sauté pan, pressure cooker, slow cooker and a steamer.

Thomas Ahearn

Thomas Ahern grew up in LeBreton Flats and left his mark on Ottawa and the world.

In 1881, he founded the firm Ahearn and Soper. In 1892, he filed a patent for the “electric cooking range,” and he was the first person to prepare a meal on an electric stove that he delivered to the Windsor Hotel. The invention was introduced at the 1893 World Fair in Chicago.

In 1887, Ahearn and Soper established the Chaudiere Electric Light and Power Company, which brought electric power to the national capital. In 1891, Ahern also established the Ottawa Electric Railway Company, which electrified the city’s streetcar system.

The Spectra-1 Hovercraft

In 1970, the Modern Hoovers Vehicles company embarked on the creation of hovercraft vehicles just south of Ottawa.

“Among its most notable innovation was the ‘Spectra,’ a vehicle seemingly plucked from the silver screen of a James bond film of that era,” says the book “Ottawa Made.”

According to “Ottawa Made,” the Spectra had an air-cooled 18.5 HP single-cylinder hover engine, accompanied by a similar propulsion engine.

The Spectra was described as the “the in thing for the in people.”

The Spectra-2 was unveiled in 1973.

Walkie-Talkie

The walkie-talkie has an Ottawa connection.

The portable, two-way radio transceiver was developed during the Second World War. It was first invented in 1937 by Canadian Donald Lewes Hings and it was patented in 1939.

According to “Ottawa Made,” an Ottawa journalist gave it the name “walkie-talkie” because it allowed you to walk and talk.

Pokey Whiskey

The Pokey Moonshine Distillery was in full operation during prohibition, operating in a shack in the woods near the Prescott-Bytown railway.

In the first edition of “Ottawa Rewind,” published by Ottawa Press and Publishing, Andrew King said, “With alcohol banned in Ontario, its manufacture, unless for medicinal purposes, was illegal. That is why some entrepreneurs south of Ottawa created their own secret whiskey distillery, a hidden shack in the woods near a railway line to the United States that produced what was to become a favourite in the Roaring Twenties of New York…a product called ‘Pokey Moonshine.’”

King said it brought notoriety to Ottawa and even J. Edgar Hoover visited.

It’s believed to have been the inspiration for the “Hokey Pokey” song and dance.

Shopify

Shopify, the commerce platform that helps businesses sell online and in person, was founded in Ottawa by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake.

According to Shopify’s website, the first Shopify store was its own in 2004. Lütke and his co-founders started Snow Devil, an online store that sold Snowboards. They launched Shopify in 2006.

In May 2015, Shopify became a public company via an initial public offering.

Shopify now has millions of merchants in 175 countries.

Giant Tiger

Gordon Reid opened the very first Giant Tiger store in Ottawa’s ByWard Market on May 3, 1961.

Now, there are more than 250 Giant Tiger stores across Canada.

“Mr. Reid’s vision was beautifully simple yet profound; keep our costs low and offer a vast array of quality merchandise at the lowest possible price,” Giant Tiger says on its website. “It was a vision rooted in the belief that shopping should be affordable for everyone, a place where customers could find essentials and special treasures without breaking the bank.”

Farm Boy

Farm Boy started in a 300-square-foot space in Cornwall, Ont. before expanding across Ontario.

Jean-Louis and Colette Bellemare opened the doors to their first store in 1981. There are now 51 stores across Ontario.

The first store in Ottawa opened on Merivale Road in February 1996.

BeaverTails

The uniquely Canadian pastries known as the BeaverTail started in eastern Ontario.

Grant and Pam Hooker served Grant’s grandmother’s handcrafted “BeaverTails” for the first time at the Killaloe Craft and Community Fair.

The first permanent store opened in Ottawa and it’s now a staple on the Rideau Canal Skateway each winter.

The Shawarma Capital of Canada

Ottawa is not only Canada’s capital, but also the self-proclaimed Shawarma Capital of Canada.

In April 2024, council approved a motion to declare Ottawa the capital of shawarma.

Ottawa is home to nearly 200 Shawarma restaurants, serving up the Middle Eastern meal featuring marinated meat, garlic sauce and other toppings.

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Toula Mazloum