Ottawa - capital of Canada and seat of Carleton County, southeastern Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa, Gatineau, and Rideau rivers. Its metropolitan area lies astride the Ontario-Quebec border. The first descriptions of Ottawa's future site were written by the founder of New France, Samuel de Champlain, in 1613. The rivers served as passageways for explorers and traders over the following two centuries. The Napoleonic Wars increased Britain's need for shipbuilding timber, an...