It’s a sunny Thursday noon hour on Ottawa’s Rideau Canal skateway, and nine-month-old Daisy Labelle is bundled in a neon pink snowsuit. Too young for her own skates, she is being pushed in a stroller by her mother, Courtney Merchand.
The two are among the dozens of people out enjoying the frozen canal. The skaters range in age from babies to retirees, and from beginners to experts.
The 7.8-kilometre skateway perhaps perfectly encapsulates Canada’s capital: It’s a family-friendly outdoor activity run by a government entity known as the National Capital Commission.
Many skaters told The Globe and Mail that easy access to the outdoors is one of the best parts of Ottawa. With just over a million people, it has been named this year’s most livable major city in Canada.
Ms. Marchand said she is excited to show Daisy “all of the things that I love in the city,” including hiking trails and national museums.
Her home is surrounded by schools and parks, she added, and Ottawa is a great place to raise a family.
Lili El-Tawil – who was out skating with co-workers – agreed, but noted it is not as lively for young people as Toronto or Montreal.
Her children are now young adults, “so, they like to go party in Gatineau and in Montreal and so on,” she said.
While many people consider the city “slept-on” and want to move elsewhere, Rebecca Leslie disagrees. The Ottawa native now plays for its Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) team, the Charge.
“I think that the best part about Ottawa is how there [are] things to do, you just have to search for them,” Ms. Leslie said.
Ottawa ranked as Canada’s fourth most livable city in 2025, making it the top major city on the list of the 454 examined. Despite low rankings in areas such as safety (296), housing (387) and climate (408), Ottawa’s overall distribution across all categories propelled it to the top. It ranked 12th for education, 18th for amenities, 27th for demographics, 35th for health care and 48th for transportation.
Ottawa’s large geographic size means that your experience of it largely depends on where you live. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said that size gives residents choice on whether they want an urban, suburban or rural lifestyle. “We’re not too big and we’re not too small,” he said, noting Ottawa comes with many of the amenities but not the challenges of a major metropolis.
Beyond the canal, Ottawa boasts plenty of outdoor activities that add to residents’ quality of life, including Gatineau Park and an extensive multiuse trail system.
The National Capital Commission is also looking to introduce a sauna and cold plunge on the Ottawa River. In the meantime, people can access them at one of the other spas in the city, or swim laps at the ice swimming lane at a local beach.
Indoor enthusiasts can catch a show at the National Arts Centre, or a new film at the ByTowne or Mayfair movie theatres. There are also plenty of smaller venues that host local music, as well as thriving burlesque and drag scenes.
The city also ranked highly on the connection its residents feel with their community – something Rideau Canal skater Sonia Desharnais appreciates. She said she met a lot of people in her neighbourhood thanks to a buy-nothing group on Facebook.
The Kìchì Sìbì Winter Trail winds along an existing part of Ottawa's LRT system, now notorious for service outages that plagued it in its early years. OC Transpo is expanding the network while trying to make it more reliable.
Though there are many positives of living here, residents don’t shy away from complaints. OC Transpo, the city’s beleaguered transit system, continues to frustrate commuters. Other people, meanwhile, voice concerns about the downtown because of issues related to drug use and homelessness. Housing affordability is also an issue.
Mr. Sutcliffe, who intends to seek re-election in the fall, acknowledges the complaints. He said that public transit is a work in progress.
The O-Train LRT is expected to open further extensions and the Progressive Conservatives promised to upload it to be their responsibility in the last provincial election. “We’ve increased the public transit budget by almost 50 per cent in the last four years, and we still have a lot of work to do,” Mr. Sutcliffe said.
On safety concerns, he said the city has hired more paramedics and police officers. And it recently opened a police operations centre to serve the ByWard Market neighbourhood. “There’s also a lot of work being done to support the vulnerable population in the ByWard Market and in downtown Ottawa,” he said. He noted the city is taking steps to increase the housing supply as well.
Overall though, residents – including Ms. Leslie – say they love living in Canada’s capital. She says the community takes care of each other. “You can do a bunch of different things in the city, but it still feels like you have your tight-knit community,” she said.
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