Do Canadian downtowns follow a template?

[hipster duck]

While Canadian cities are varied, given our large geography and the large difference in eras in which cities were constructed, I think that many Canadian downtowns of cities >200,000 (at least the ones I've visited) share some commonalities.

Here are a few:

1. Does your downtown have a brutalist Delta or Sheraton hotel?
2. Do you have a former Eatons hulking up your best downtown corner?
3. Does your downtown have a strip for tourists with the obligatory store that sells "Moose droppings" and has a giant stuffed bear wearing a mountie costume?
4. Do you have at least one highrise for each of the 5 major banks?
5. Do you have an old commercial strip that used to be the place to go in the 1960s but is now full of Donair shops, head shops, sex stores, strip clubs, dance clubs and loitering underclass youth?
6. Do you have streets with any of the following names: King, Queen, Princess, Wellington, Victoria, Prince/King Edward, Peel, Elgin, Dundas, Cartier, Laurier, MacDonald?
7. Do you have an underground mall or downtown mall that was built in the 1970s?
8. Was that mall built because of an Eatons?
9. Is the building that houses the Bay invariably older and more architecturally distinguished than the building that housed the Eatons?
10. Do you have a pre-war Dominion Public Building?
11. Do you have at least 1 grand Victorian commercial block that has a large-format English or Irish pub in it?
12. Do the waitresses there have to wear kilts?
13. Do you have an adjacent neighbourhood of postwar apartment blocks mostly populated by singles, seniors and gays?
14. Do you have a cenotaph or war memorial?
15. Do you have at least one brutalist courthouse, government building or hospital? If not brutalist, is it something built in 1982 exclusively out of red brick?


Anyway, please feel free to add other ones. These stereotypes seem to apply to some degree to most of the medium-major Canadian cities I've visited.

[JHikka]

Saint John, New Brunswick:
Yes
Kind of
No

1. Does your downtown have a brutalist Delta or Sheraton hotel?
2. Do you have a former Eatons hulking up your best downtown corner?
3. Does your downtown have a strip for tourists with the obligatory store that sells "Moose droppings" and has a giant stuffed bear wearing a mountie costume?
4. Do you have at least one highrise for each of the 5 major banks?
5. Do you have an old commercial strip that used to be the place to go in the 1960s but is now full of Donair shops, head shops, sex stores, strip clubs, dance clubs and loitering underclass youth?
6. Do you have streets with any of the following names: King, Queen, Princess, Wellington, Victoria, Prince/King Edward, Peel, Elgin, Dundas, Cartier, Laurier, MacDonald?
7. Do you have an underground mall or downtown mall that was built in the 1970s?
8. Was that mall built because of an Eatons?
9. Is the building that houses the Bay invariably older and more architecturally distinguished than the building that housed the Eatons?
10. Do you have a pre-war Dominion Public Building?
11. Do you have at least 1 grand Victorian commercial block that has a large-format English or Irish pub in it?
12. Do the waitresses there have to wear kilts?
13. Do you have an adjacent neighbourhood of postwar apartment blocks mostly populated by singles, seniors and gays?
14. Do you have a cenotaph or war memorial?
15. Do you have at least one brutalist courthouse, government building or hospital? If not brutalist, is it something built in 1982 exclusively out of red brick?

Not bad for a sub-200K downtown. Maybe i'm out of the know but i'm fairly certain there wasn't an Eatons in SJ, hence some of your questions having no impact.

[Beedok]

Answering for Hamilton:

1. Does your downtown have a brutalist Delta or Sheraton hotel?
Somewhat? It is a Sheraton, but I'm not sure if it's properly brutalist.
2. Do you have a former Eatons hulking up your best downtown corner?
Nope. It is attached to the mall that reaches the main corner, but it's not on the corner.
3. Does your downtown have a strip for tourists with the obligatory store that sells "Moose droppings" and has a giant stuffed bear wearing a mountie costume?
I don't know if Hamilton has any tourist shops.
4. Do you have at least one highrise for each of the 5 major banks?
I don't think so. There's BDC, I think CIBC, and one other. No TD that I know of though.
5. Do you have an old commercial strip that used to be the place to go in the 1960s but is now full of Donair shops, head shops, sex stores, strip clubs, dance clubs and loitering underclass youth?
From what I've heard a fair number were full of everything but Donair shops in the 60s.
6. Do you have streets with any of the following names: King, Queen, Princess, Wellington, Victoria, Prince/King Edward, Peel, Elgin, Dundas, Cartier, Laurier, MacDonald?
Yes. King is very important.
7. Do you have an underground mall or downtown mall that was built in the 1970s?
Downtown mall yes. Sadly no underground one.
8. Was that mall built because of an Eatons?
No, the 'Hamilton City Centre' was tacked on later as far as I know.
9. Is the building that houses the Bay invariably older and more architecturally distinguished than the building that housed the Eatons?
As far as I know there was never a Bay downtown Hamilton. Not sure about that though.
10. Do you have a pre-war Dominion Public Building?
Yes
11. Do you have at least 1 grand Victorian commercial block that has a large-format English or Irish pub in it?
Probably a few.
12. Do the waitresses there have to wear kilts?
Never seen that, but I don't go to many pubs.
13. Do you have an adjacent neighbourhood of postwar apartment blocks mostly populated by singles, seniors and gays?
Not sure of the demographics.
14. Do you have a cenotaph or war memorial?
Yes. I think it's being remodeled.
15. Do you have at least one brutalist courthouse, government building or hospital? If not brutalist, is it something built in 1982 exclusively out of red brick?
Does City Hall count? If not the main library for sure.

[MonctonRad]

Moncton, New Brunswick.

1. Does your downtown have a brutalist Delta or Sheraton hotel? - YES
2. Do you have a former Eatons hulking up your best downtown corner? - YES - but it was just torn down
3. Does your downtown have a strip for tourists with the obligatory store that sells "Moose droppings" and has a giant stuffed bear wearing a mountie costume? - NO
4. Do you have at least one highrise for each of the 5 major banks? - NO
5. Do you have an old commercial strip that used to be the place to go in the 1960s but is now full of Donair shops, head shops, sex stores, strip clubs, dance clubs and loitering underclass youth? - NO
6. Do you have streets with any of the following names: King, Queen, Princess, Wellington, Victoria, Prince/King Edward, Peel, Elgin, Dundas, Cartier, Laurier, MacDonald? - YES
7. Do you have an underground mall or downtown mall that was built in the 1970s? - YES
8. Was that mall built because of an Eatons? - YES
9. Is the building that houses the Bay invariably older and more architecturally distinguished than the building that housed the Eatons? - NA - The Eaton's became the Bay after the Eaton's bankruptcy
10. Do you have a pre-war Dominion Public Building? - YES
11. Do you have at least 1 grand Victorian commercial block that has a large-format English or Irish pub in it? - NO
12. Do the waitresses there have to wear kilts? - NA
13. Do you have an adjacent neighbourhood of postwar apartment blocks mostly populated by singles, seniors and gays? - NO
14. Do you have a cenotaph or war memorial? - YES
15. Do you have at least one brutalist courthouse, government building or hospital? If not brutalist, is it something built in 1982 exclusively out of red brick? - YES, modern but definitely brutalist.

Score - 8/15

[Mrs Sauga]

Each downtown also has a grand pre war hotel.

[WhipperSnapper]

I assume each downtown has a City Hall or Municipal Building.

[1ajs]

winnipeg

1. Does your downtown have a brutalist Delta or Sheraton hotel? [COLOR="green)"]yes most of our major downtown hotels are actualy[/COLOR]
2. Do you have a former Eatons hulking up your best downtown corner? nope its a hockey arena now ranked 3rd in the nhl
3. Does your downtown have a strip for tourists with the obligatory store that sells "Moose droppings" and has a giant stuffed bear wearing a mountie costume? hell no!
4. Do you have at least one highrise for each of the 5 major banks? rbc seems to have 2 with heir name on them at p&m. then theres cibc scotia bank and bmo sold their tower to mts
5. Do you have an old commercial strip that used to be the place to go in the 1960s but is now full of Donair shops, head shops, sex stores, strip clubs, dance clubs and loitering underclass youth? they tore that down in the 80's for a mall now a place for imigrants to go have coffee and where to get kush last i checked
6. Do you have streets with any of the following names: King, Queen, Princess, Wellington, Victoria, Prince/King Edward, Peel, Elgin, Dundas, Cartier, Laurier, MacDonald? king and princess elgin dead ends into downtown
7. Do you have an underground mall or downtown mall that was built in the 1970s? [COLOR="green)"]yep even has a tower pad on it [/COLOR]
8. Was that mall built because of an Eatons? nope
9. Is the building that houses the Bay invariably older and more architecturally distinguished than the building that housed the Eatons? eatons was older then the bay and they were very different even then eatons was a red brick monster while the bay is this 20's stone monster
10. Do you have a pre-war Dominion Public Building? yes the federal building witch was renamed the vicotory building in 2006. theres also a dance hall built at the same time now the manitoba and the hudsons bay archives
11. Do you have at least 1 grand Victorian commercial block that has a large-format English or Irish pub in it? umm no
12. Do the waitresses there have to wear kilts? [COLOR="rgb(46, 139, 87)"]no dont think ive seen that here[/COLOR]
13. Do you have an adjacent neighbourhood of postwar apartment blocks mostly populated by singles, seniors and gays? sorta
14. Do you have a cenotaph or war memorial? yes
15. Do you have at least one brutalist courthouse, government building or hospital? If not brutalist, is it something built in 1982 exclusively out of red brick? the old police station?


16. prefab mail box tower? yep

[ue]

For Edmonton, Alberta

1. Does your downtown have a brutalist Delta or Sheraton hotel? - YES
2. Do you have a former Eatons hulking up your best downtown corner? - YES
3. Does your downtown have a strip for tourists with the obligatory store that sells "Moose droppings" and has a giant stuffed bear wearing a mountie costume? - YES
4. Do you have at least one highrise for each of the 5 major banks? - YES
5. Do you have an old commercial strip that used to be the place to go in the 1960s but is now full of Donair shops, head shops, sex stores, strip clubs, dance clubs and loitering underclass youth? - SORT OF
6. Do you have streets with any of the following names: King, Queen, Princess, Wellington, Victoria, Prince/King Edward, Peel, Elgin, Dundas, Cartier, Laurier, MacDonald? - NO
7. Do you have an underground mall or downtown mall that was built in the 1970s? - YES
8. Was that mall built because of an Eatons? - YES
9. Is the building that houses the Bay invariably older and more architecturally distinguished than the building that housed the Eatons? - SORT OF *
10. Do you have a pre-war Dominion Public Building? - NO
11. Do you have at least 1 grand Victorian commercial block that has a large-format English or Irish pub in it? - NO
12. Do the waitresses there have to wear kilts? - N/A
13. Do you have an adjacent neighbourhood of postwar apartment blocks mostly populated by singles, seniors and gays? - YES
14. Do you have a cenotaph or war memorial? - YES
15. Do you have at least one brutalist courthouse, government building or hospital? If not brutalist, is it something built in 1982 exclusively out of red brick? - YES

* Our downtown Bay store moved into City Centre when Eatons vacated in 1999, but the original Bay store lives on a block south as the UofA's Enterprise Square.

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

Here are a few:

3. Does your downtown have a strip for tourists with the obligatory store that sells "Moose droppings" and has a giant stuffed bear wearing a mountie costume?

6. Do you have streets with any of the following names: King, Queen, Princess, Wellington, Victoria, Prince/King Edward, Peel, Elgin, Dundas, Cartier, Laurier, MacDonald?

Anyway, please feel free to add other ones. These stereotypes seem to apply to some degree to most of the medium-major Canadian cities I've visited.

on ne fait pas ça en quebec.

but we do...

- name things after saints who were really old bourgeoises (sainte-catherine does not refer to the mystic from siena).
- place strip bars incongruously.
- pretend bonhomme isn't an eldritch horror
- build things out of ice and drink near/on/in them

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

While Canadian cities are varied, given our large geography and the large difference in eras in which cities were constructed, I think that many Canadian downtowns of cities >200,000 (at least the ones I've visited) share some commonalities.

Here are a few:

1. Does your downtown have a brutalist Delta or Sheraton hotel?
2. Do you have a former Eatons hulking up your best downtown corner?
3. Does your downtown have a strip for tourists with the obligatory store that sells "Moose droppings" and has a giant stuffed bear wearing a mountie costume?
4. Do you have at least one highrise for each of the 5 major banks?
5. Do you have an old commercial strip that used to be the place to go in the 1960s but is now full of Donair shops, head shops, sex stores, strip clubs, dance clubs and loitering underclass youth?
6. Do you have streets with any of the following names: King, Queen, Princess, Wellington, Victoria, Prince/King Edward, Peel, Elgin, Dundas, Cartier, Laurier, MacDonald?
7. Do you have an underground mall or downtown mall that was built in the 1970s?
8. Was that mall built because of an Eatons?
9. Is the building that houses the Bay invariably older and more architecturally distinguished than the building that housed the Eatons?
10. Do you have a pre-war Dominion Public Building?
11. Do you have at least 1 grand Victorian commercial block that has a large-format English or Irish pub in it?
12. Do the waitresses there have to wear kilts?
13. Do you have an adjacent neighbourhood of postwar apartment blocks mostly populated by singles, seniors and gays?
14. Do you have a cenotaph or war memorial?
15. Do you have at least one brutalist courthouse, government building or hospital? If not brutalist, is it something built in 1982 exclusively out of red brick?


Anyway, please feel free to add other ones. These stereotypes seem to apply to some degree to most of the medium-major Canadian cities I've visited.

Ottawa is mostly like this.

[SignalHillHiker]

Uggh...

1. Does your downtown have a brutalist Delta or Sheraton hotel?

Not quite brutalist, but certainly close enough to answer yes to both.

2. Do you have a former Eatons hulking up your best downtown corner?

No.

3. Does your downtown have a strip for tourists with the obligatory store that sells "Moose droppings" and has a giant stuffed bear wearing a mountie costume?

No - but lots of folk crafts and puffin/mermaid equivalents. There are SO many of these stores. They're probably the single most numerous type in the city.

4. Do you have at least one highrise for each of the 5 major banks?

No, but that's more a function of size. We have, by our standards, a tower for TD and Scotiabank. We have a gorgeous heritage building for RBC. And the bank of Montreal has a (relatively) modern building of the same scale and proportions as the heritage building it replaced. That's the big five, right? No, that's only four... CIBC I guess? Not sure where that is in town, but I'm sure we have it. HSBC has a gorgeous downtown heritage building as well. The former Newfoundland banks are now mostly office buildings.

5. Do you have an old commercial strip that used to be the place to go in the 1960s but is now full of Donair shops, head shops, sex stores, strip clubs, dance clubs and loitering underclass youth?

No. Donairs are generally served at most pizza places. The head shop is in a pretty prestigious stretch of Water Street. The vape shops are all out of people's living rooms. Sex stores, too, are mixed in among classy establishments on Water Street. Strip clubs are generally in the suburbs and there's one at the far end of George Street. Dance clubs are mostly along George Street. Skeets are absolutely everywhere.

6. Do you have streets with any of the following names: King, Queen, Princess, Wellington, Victoria, Prince/King Edward, Peel, Elgin, Dundas, Cartier, Laurier, MacDonald?

King, Queen (and Queen's), Victoria. None of the others. We do have a Little Canada neighbourhood with Toronto, Quebec, Edmonton, Yellowknife, everything you can think of. (EDIT: There's a MacDonald out there too). And a shitload of more British ones - Prince of Wales, Military, Cochrane, Churchill, etc.

Obviously, none of the Canadian ones are old street names here. The City maintains a list of when streets were named and why:

MacDonald Drive
Named by Council: April 17, 1968
Named for or location: The first Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A. MacDonald.
Located between Logy Bay Road and Portugal Cove Road.
Classification: Street

Toronto Street
Named by Council: July 16, 1969
Named for or location: The capital of the province of Ontario.
Located between MacDonald Drive and Jasper Street within the North East Land Assembly.
Classification: Street

Etc.

7. Do you have an underground mall or downtown mall that was built in the 1970s?

No.

8. Was that mall built because of an Eatons?

N/A.

9. Is the building that houses the Bay invariably older and more architecturally distinguished than the building that housed the Eatons?

No Bay either.

10. Do you have a pre-war Dominion Public Building?

No.

11. Do you have at least 1 grand Victorian commercial block that has a large-format English or Irish pub in it?

More than one. Shamrock City is probably the best example of this.

12. Do the waitresses there have to wear kilts?

No. That's Scottish.

13. Do you have an adjacent neighbourhood of postwar apartment blocks mostly populated by singles, seniors and gays?

No, but we have rowhouse equivalents.

14. Do you have a cenotaph or war memorial?

We have a National War Memorial and more cenotaphs than I can remember.

15. Do you have at least one brutalist courthouse, government building or hospital? If not brutalist, is it something built in 1982 exclusively out of red brick?

We have a handful of "Canadian red brick" government buildings (the TD Place I mentioned above used to be one), only one of which remains to be reclad. Some of these red brick buildings were reclads themselves and were formerly plain stone. We have a brutalist and post-Confederation City Hall.

[Acajack]

The central district of most any city (and even some larger towns) in Quebec will have at least a few streets lined with large and ornate century-old (or more) brick or stone houses. The names of the streets will be Prince, King, Queen, Victoria, etc. Or sometimes Oak, Maple, Poplar, Ash, etc.

Usually not too far away will be a much larger area filled with equally old but very modest clapboard or siding clad housing with a rather erratic style, often cheek-by-jowl. The streets in this area will generally have names like Jacques-Cartier, Champlain, St-Jean-Baptiste, Notre-Dame, Papineau, etc.

The modern-day linguistic and cultural demographic of the two areas will usually be identical, although obviously socio-economically they will be very different.

[Symz]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

While Canadian cities are varied, given our large geography and the large difference in eras in which cities were constructed, I think that many Canadian downtowns of cities >200,000 (at least the ones I've visited) share some commonalities.

Here are a few:

1. Does your downtown have a brutalist Delta or Sheraton hotel?
2. Do you have a former Eatons hulking up your best downtown corner?
3. Does your downtown have a strip for tourists with the obligatory store that sells "Moose droppings" and has a giant stuffed bear wearing a mountie costume?
4. Do you have at least one highrise for each of the 5 major banks?
5. Do you have an old commercial strip that used to be the place to go in the 1960s but is now full of Donair shops, head shops, sex stores, strip clubs, dance clubs and loitering underclass youth?
6. Do you have streets with any of the following names: King, Queen, Princess, Wellington, Victoria, Prince/King Edward, Peel, Elgin, Dundas, Cartier, Laurier, MacDonald?
7. Do you have an underground mall or downtown mall that was built in the 1970s?
8. Was that mall built because of an Eatons?
9. Is the building that houses the Bay invariably older and more architecturally distinguished than the building that housed the Eatons?
10. Do you have a pre-war Dominion Public Building?
11. Do you have at least 1 grand Victorian commercial block that has a large-format English or Irish pub in it?
12. Do the waitresses there have to wear kilts?
13. Do you have an adjacent neighbourhood of postwar apartment blocks mostly populated by singles, seniors and gays?
14. Do you have a cenotaph or war memorial?
15. Do you have at least one brutalist courthouse, government building or hospital? If not brutalist, is it something built in 1982 exclusively out of red brick?


Anyway, please feel free to add other ones. These stereotypes seem to apply to some degree to most of the medium-major Canadian cities I've visited.

I don't think Windsor fits any of your criteria.

We have a street named Victoria, that's about it. :\

[kool maudit]

in montreal, a lot of the old anglo names can be found in griffintown. king, queen, prince, william, ann... all here.

[lio45]

Sherbrooke ranks super low on that list (mostly 'no's to the answers) but has nearly all of those street names (King, Queen, Princess, Wellington, Victoria, Prince/King Edward, Peel, Elgin, Dundas, Cartier, Laurier) in the core.

... except it's King George instead of Edward, no Dundas, and Cartier as Jacques-Cartier of course (nothing for Sir George-Étienne Cartier).

Nowadays there's Queen St, Victoria St. and Queen Victoria boulevard too. Queen St. was Lennoxville's main street (Route 143) and that name was also worn by another important Sherbrooke street so after the merger Sherb's Queen boulevard was slightly changed during the street name normalization so that we wouldn't have two streets with the same name in the new city.

(There were a lot of clones that had to be changed that way after the mergers. Sherbrooke's Peel street stayed Peel, Lennoxville's Peel street was changed to Robert-Peel street, etc.)

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

in montreal, a lot of the old anglo names can be found in griffintown. king, queen, prince, william, ann... all here.

Yeah, that's interesting. Although there are also a lot of them in the Golden Square Mile and Westmount, which are bit more "tony"!

[hipster duck]

Interesting responses. This thread sort of confirms what I thought: that the parts of Canada that have the least of these stereotypes would be Quebec, Newfoundland and Windsor, ON.

I'll do Vancouver, adding on the questions that others have mentioned:

1. Does your downtown have a brutalist Delta or Sheraton hotel? Yes, but it's now the Empire Landmark.
2. Do you have a former Eatons hulking up your best downtown corner? Yes, it is thankfully being renovated from a windowless box into a Nordstroms.
3. Does your downtown have a strip for tourists with the obligatory store that sells "Moose droppings" and has a giant stuffed bear wearing a mountie costume? Yes, there is a strip in Gastown and there is a bunch of stores on Robson.
4. Do you have at least one highrise for each of the 5 major banks? Yes.
5. Do you have an old commercial strip that used to be the place to go in the 1960s but is now full of Donair shops, head shops, sex stores, strip clubs, dance clubs and loitering underclass youth? Yes. Granville Street has all of these except the strip clubs.
6. Do you have streets with any of the following names: King, Queen, Princess, Wellington, Victoria, Prince/King Edward, Peel, Elgin, Dundas, Cartier, Laurier, MacDonald?
7. Do you have an underground mall or downtown mall that was built in the 1970s? Yes.
8. Was that mall built because of an Eatons? Maybe? Older Vancouverites may be able to confirm this.
9. Is the building that houses the Bay invariably older and more architecturally distinguished than the building that housed the Eatons? Yes.
10. Do you have a pre-war Dominion Public Building? Yes, now called the Sinclair Centre
11. Do you have at least 1 grand Victorian commercial block that has a large-format English or Irish pub in it? Not that I can think of. This is more of an Ontario thing, but they have stuff like this in Victoria too.
12. Do the waitresses there have to wear kilts? N/A
13. Do you have an adjacent neighbourhood of postwar apartment blocks mostly populated by singles, seniors and gays? Yes.
14. Do you have a cenotaph or war memorial? Yes.
15. Do you have at least one brutalist courthouse, government building or hospital? If not brutalist, is it something built in 1982 exclusively out of red brick? Yes.

16. Do you have a grand pre-war hotel? Yes. We have the grand, CP hotel (the Hotel Vancouver), and its smaller competitor (The Hotel Georgia). The Hotel Georgia has become more boutiquey; in other cities, these competitor hotels have usually become more obscure
17. Prefab mailbox tower? We probably do, but I'm not sure what this means.

[J.OT13]

Ottawa

Originally Posted by hipster duck

While Canadian cities are varied, given our large geography and the large difference in eras in which cities were constructed, I think that many Canadian downtowns of cities >200,000 (at least the ones I've visited) share some commonalities.

Here are a few:

1. Does your downtown have a brutalist Delta or Sheraton hotel?
Had a brown brick semi-brutalist Delta, but it was moved a few years back. Sheraton is also semi-brutalist, but it was originally opened as a Four-Seasons in 72'.
2. Do you have a former Eatons hulking up your best downtown corner?
We have a nice former Eaton's (not purposely built, and no where near as grand as other former Eaton's) and 80s Eaton (Nordstrom in 2.5 months) attached to our downtown mall.
3. Does your downtown have a strip for tourists with the obligatory store that sells "Moose droppings" and has a giant stuffed bear wearing a mountie costume?
Sparks Street
4. Do you have at least one highrise for each of the 5 major banks?
No. Only TD, RBC and BMO. CIBC does not have one clear HQ other then their original 20s landmark building and Scotiabank is in a 5 storey former department store building.
5. Do you have an old commercial strip that used to be the place to go in the 1960s but is now full of Donair shops, head shops, sex stores, strip clubs, dance clubs and loitering underclass youth?
Rideau Street/Montreal Road
6. Do you have streets with any of the following names: King, Queen, Princess, Wellington, Victoria, Prince/King Edward, Peel, Elgin, Dundas, Cartier, Laurier, MacDonald?
Do you have streets with any of the following names: Kingno, Queenyes, CBD with subway u/c underneath, Princessno, Wellingtonyes, in front of Parliament, first street in Ottawa, Victoriasurprisingly no, Prince/King Edwardyes, main route to Québec, proposed truck tunnel to ease traffic/safety reasons, Peelno, Elginyes, sort of our N/S grand boulevard with Federal buildings and War Memorial, Dundasnot downtown, but in the "city", CartierGeorge Étienne Cartier Parkway named last year, plenty of infrastructure named MacDonald-Cartier throughout Ottawa, Laurieryes, one of our main CBD streets, City Hall, uOttawa, MacDonaldSir John A. Parkway, named a few years ago and plenty of infrastructure named MacDonald-Cartier throughout Ottawa?
7. Do you have an underground mall or downtown mall that was built in the 1970s?Place de Ville, to be connected to subway
8. Was that mall built because of an Eatons?No
9. Is the building that houses the Bay invariably older and more architecturally distinguished than the building that housed the Eatons?Yes, but it was originally an built by an Ottawa chain named "A.J. Freiman's"
10. Do you have a pre-war Dominion Public Building?
It's Ottawa, half the city is a pre-war dominion public building
11. Do you have at least 1 grand Victorian commercial block that has a large-format English or Irish pub in it?A few grand Victorian blocks, and a few of them have pubs
12. Do the waitresses there have to wear kilts?
yes
13. Do you have an adjacent neighbourhood of postwar apartment blocks mostly populated by singles, seniors and gays?yes
14. Do you have a cenotaph or war memorial?National War Memorial on Elgin, completed in 39'
15. Do you have at least one brutalist courthouse, government building or hospital? If not brutalist, is it something built in 1982 exclusively out of red brick?Again, it's Ottawa. Half the city is brutalist and/or red brick public buildings

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

11. Do you have at least 1 grand Victorian commercial block that has a large-format English or Irish pub in it?

More than one. Shamrock City is probably the best example of this.

12. Do the waitresses there have to wear kilts?

No. That's Scottish.

Ha! I figured a Newfoundlander would know the difference. These pubs exist mostly in Ontario cities for the after-work crowd, and they're usually quite large and often part of a chain (e.g. Firkin, Honest Lawyer, etc.). I suppose the kilt policy is put in place, regardless of whether the pub claims to be Irish, English or Scottish (although there are few to no Scottish-themed pubs) to titillate the customers.

[connect2source]

This thread is brilliant!!

Since Vancouver has already been done, let me draw some parallels.

Not only do most Canadian cities have a former Eaton's at a prime corner, most were attached to malls partially developed for Eaton's and had Eaton's in the name.
-Eaton Centre Victoria
-Eaton Centre Calgary
-Eaton Centre Montreal
-Eaton Centre Toronto
-Eaton Place Winnipeg
( I may be missing some )

Most had the 5 major bank towers but many had a similar theme.
-the TD Towers in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton were all dark glass to mimic the Toronto Mies van der Rohe look
-the BMO Towers in Vancouver and Winnipeg were similar
-Scotiabank Towers in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal had a similar appearance

The architectural style of the Hudson's Bay stores in Vancouver, Victoria and Calgary are almost identical.

Eaton's was also an intrinsic part of many suburban malls in the 1970's which always seemed to be clad in brown brick.

I think this is all very unique to Canada, it seems the banks, Eaton's and Cadillac Fairview were a major force in the 1970's and shaped many of our downtowns.