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History Ottawa music venue will put the beat back in downtown
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The new History Ottawa music venue will be a high note for downtown. Music has always been an important part of this city. In earlier times, the Civic Centre, Le Hibou Coffee House, the Capital Theatre, Barrymore’s and small clubs in the Market brought many popular musical acts, particularly rock and roll acts, to Ottawa, but many of those institutions have fallen aside.
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There still are music festivals, such as Bluesfest and country festivals, but those are outside, and seasonal. The Canadian Tire Centre features world artists, but Kanata is not downtown. The Arts Centre is still here, but it normally caters to a classical music crowd, or mainstream broadway musicals or theatre, as does the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre.
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The downtown needs to rock, needs to rap, needs to boogie, needs to twang. This new centre will bring new life and vibrancy to the downtown core, which will have a ripple effect on nearby businesses.
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Probably the next stage for Ottawa down the road would be an Opera House in Ottawa to rival the great European Opera Houses.
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Music brings everyone together. Play it again, Sam, and they will come.
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Douglas Cornish, Ottawa
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We needed years of reliable transit — not bus pass promise before election
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Some will say Mark Sutcliffe’s proposed $95 transit pass is “too little, too late.” But the more important question is: Why is affordability becoming a priority six weeks before an election, rather than during four years of transit decisions?
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Ottawa didn’t need a cheaper pass announced before an election. It needed four years of reliable transit.
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Sutcliffe says, “Look at how far we’ve come in four years.” Transit users can judge that record for themselves: OC Transpo deficits, service reductions and the auditor general’s criticism of the system’s changes tell a different story.
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