Catherine Clark, Journalist and host at Cable Public Affairs Channel

I’ve lived here my whole life. I think Ottawa has done an increasingly good job of being a city that does reflect the whole world. We’re not a Toronto. We’re frankly not even a Montréal, in terms of the diversity of our population. But, we are a very diverse population here in Ottawa, and I think that’s fairly evident to people visiting the city. We work hard on proving and showing that we are a bilingual city, and that sets us apart.

It’s not a very vibrant place right now. Our whole downtown core is lacking, as many downtown cores are. I think that, in the next 50 years, it would really be great if we could do more with our architecture — with making Ottawa an extremely walkable city, from just past the Mint to just past the Supreme Court, or just past the War Museum, frankly.

Catherine Clark, Journalist and host at Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC)

Some 20 great Canadians from various backgrounds shared their vision for the capital of their country. Read them online and in the January/February 2012 issue of Canadian Geographic. Others are forthcoming, including Alison Loat and George Stroumboulopoulos’s testimonials to be published online on January 24, 2012.