Happy 200th birthday Ottawa. Now where's the party?

A man relaxes in the Ottawa sign in the Market in Ottawa. Photo by Tony Caldwell /POSTMEDIA/FILES

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Happy birthday Ottawa! 200 years ago on Sept. 26, 1826, Ottawa was founded as Bytown. It’s a big day for the capital, and residents are slowly trickling downtown to celebrate the city’s 200th birthday and envision the next 200. Expect a full day’s worth of programming at a block party that the City of Ottawa is hosting for most of Saturday (from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.). Ottawa Citizen reporter Abyssinia Abebe is roaming downtown to find the best party. Follow along the reporter’s log. 

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11:20 a.m. EST

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“We’re going to start on the main stage,” Daniel Richer dit Laflèche cried out, at approximately 10:45 a.m.

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Ottawa’s official town crier since 1981, who is also known for being a fully bilingual and First Nations public announcer in North America), had handbells helping propel his message.

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Ottawans abided.

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Dozens were fixed in front of the main stage at the Marion Dewar Plaza when host of Ottawa 200 celebrations Jonathan Dion – also an Ottawa-based comedian – took stage officially opening the event.

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Land acknowledgements and speeches from Lt. Gov. Ontario Edith Dumont would follow.

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Dion introduced an Indigenous sibling artist duo from the Abitibiwinni First Nation Makhena Rankin Guerin and DJ Mkwa and invited them to take stage. The siblings had viewers synchronically clapping to the beat of their dancing.

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The party is just starting to get an injection of energy shortly after 11 a.m.

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Note: OC Transpo is free today and tomorrow and celebrations are expected to continue well past sundown.

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10:30 a.m. EST

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Ottawa City Hall’s sidewalks have never been more colourful. Children of various ages were crouched and kneeling with remarkably thick crayons, as they gradually filled the sidewalks with drawings of their names, colourings and markings of “Ottawa” written almost half a dozen times with heart-shapes around it.

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They slowly filled the sidewalks with drawings of their names, hearts and various combinations of colours.

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Lucas Jackson, a volunteer for the block party, was party of the team at the Ottawa 200 block party team providing those crayons.

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“This is honestly a great way to help the community,” Jackson, who is graduating from high school this year, said Saturday morning.

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The group of volunteers also provided children with various informative Ottawa-themed drawing sketches.

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Just a few feet down, I met Ottawa-based mural artist Ryan Smeeton, one of the many live local arts performers at Ottawa’s 200th birthday. The mural artist was stationed near the sidewalks where he was live-painting a small mural in front of City Hall.

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“It’s gonna be a fun colourful piece, full of different silhouette imagery,” Smeeton said about his work. The painting had some local landmarks, including a nod to the canal, recreation in Ottawa.

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The mural was a relatively small piece but Smeeton says he’ll be spacing out the pace of his work throughout the day so Ottawans can see the painting process live. “The goal is to be done by five or six,” he said.

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