Archive of Our Own ^beta

Hello! 

Long time Canadian, and additionally, long time Ottawa resident here. I’ve now obsessively read a lot of Heated Rivalry fic, and thought I could give back to the fandom by providing you with both some basics –and some hyper local Ottawa facts! 

First point of order: my friends have done some sleuthing, and figured that the ONLY neighbourhood that makes sense for Ilya’s Ottawa home, based on the book description and distance from the Canadian Tire Centre (ie, the Ottawa Centaurs home rink), is Crystal Bay.

When Troy is living out of a hotel, his two options are the Microtel Inn and Suites or the Wingate by Wyndham, both of which are walking distance to both the Canadian Tire Centre and a strip mall Starbucks. Troy has the misfortune of living in one of them.

I’ve separated the rest out into little sections. I’m also happy to answer questions in the comments (and add onto this if people would like!). 

As a note, I also mention the National Capital Commission (NCC) a decent amount throughout the points. The NCC is a Crown Corporation, whose mission is to make the capital region pretty (essentially). They do a lot of work to beautify the city, and a lot of our recent major wins have come from the NCC. Some of the things they’ve done are adding bistros across the cities, closing roads for biking days in the summer, doing construction projects for new swim spots, and a ton more. They’re often doing the work that in a regular city, the city itself would do and fund. This has made for a weird dynamic between the city and NCC. 

Rideau canal 

1. Ottawa is sliced cleanly down the middle by the UNESCO Rideau Canal. Swimmable in the summer, it’s famous in the winter as the world’s largest skating rink! It’s INCREDIBLY popular, it’s a pretty major tourist attraction. More than a million people skate it annually. For the longest time, it was touted as the longest outdoor skating rink, but we lost that title to Winnipeg. Now we’re the largest skateway (or as my friend said, the girthiest. The jokes write themselves). 
   • After Christmas every year, people dump their used Christmas trees in the designated tree graveyard. The trees find a new home embedded in the ice of the skateway as ornaments.
2. We have a festival in February to celebrate winter, creatively named Winterlude (bal de neige, or snowball in French. Ottawa is bilingual).  Winterlude has giant snow slides, ice carving competitions, snowmobile acrobatics, and a pile of other winter-themed activities. The Rideau Canal skateway is a huge draw, there’s ice sculpture competitions, and a giant snow slide in Gatineau.
3. People use the canal to commute to work. You need to check the ice conditions pretty regularly though, and the best time to go is when it’s FREEZING. We had a couple of -35C days out, and the canal was in perfect condition (if you could bring yourself to get there). The skate stops to get onto the canal in the Glebe are at Fifth street, Monkland, Pretoria, Lansdowne, Bank street, and at Patterson.
   • Harris Drover lives in the Glebe, Troy Barrett lives in Centretown, and both would definitely have easy access to the canal.
4. It’s a classic activity to get a Beavertail (a kind of pastry) while skating on the canal. There are different kinds of tail based upon the toppings you get. Shane would 100% have opinions on the best one to get, I don’t think you can live here without an opinion on the best beavertail option (killaloe sunrise is supreme, everyone else is wrong). 
5. As of summer of 2025, the NCC has added a swim dock at Dow’s lake. Dow’s Lake is essentially the southernmost end of the skateway. It's surrounded by quite a beautiful park, but most Ottawans are horrified at the prospect of swimming in the canal (we’ve all seen it drained in the fall and spring). The NCC has done a ton of water testing though, and it’s cleaner than a lot of our other swim spots around the city. (Try to convince Shane of this though, after a lifetime of not swimming in the canal, I think he’d be a tough nut to crack). 
6. I cannot believe there hasn’t been more fics (any fics?? - Corrected, I’ve now read one. Bless.) about these hockey boys skating on the canal!!! It’s right there!!! Please have them obsessively checking the ice conditions, and racing along the canal. Good practice for dodging people on ice, and competing for fastest skater ;)
   • They will be swarmed by minor hockey teams full of excited 11 year olds

Ottawa facts

1. Ottawa residents call ourselves Ottawans. Hilarious to say out loud.
2. Ottawa is an amalgamation of townships. What this means is that it’s SPRAWLING. When you’re driving into Ottawa, you hit the sign welcoming you to Ottawa (population 1 million), surrounded by farmlands. It will take you another 30ish minutes to get downtown (if traffic is good). We are Canada's largest municipality (by land area).
3. Neighbourhoods of note, listed from West to East. (Note: the downtown<->south keys bit is like that due to them being all down bank street. I listed those in north to south order): 
1. Kanata -> Barrhaven -> Nepean -> Westboro -> Hintonburg -> Downtown/Glebe/Alta Vista/South Keys -> Vanier -> Gloucester -> Blackburn hamlet -> Orleans  
4. Ottawa is right along the Quebec border. When you’re at Parliament, you can look across the river to the Quebec side (Gatineau is the city directly opposite). It’s very common for Quebec residents to commute to Ottawa for work. It is very common for Ottawa residents to make semi-snide comments about not living in Gatineau.
5. We have a night mayor. He lives in Gatineau. His job is to help with Ottawa nightlife, but his address really tells a story on how we’re doing. He specifically doesn’t want to be called the night mayor, as it sounds too much like “nightmare,” he prefers to go by nightlife commissioner (no one calls him this) 
6. Ottawa is very bilingual. You have a LOT of people fluent in both French and English, and signage is in both official languages, as well as public transit announcing stops in both languages. This is not the case in most other Canadian cities.
7. Ottawa has INCREDIBLE biking options. We have extensive bike paths along the Ottawa and Rideau River, as well as the canal. There’s bike paths that go all the way to Gatineau park. One of my favourite recent things is they converted an old train track that spans the Ottawa River into a walking and cycling path. Very cool to go across it! 
8. Inner city biking is a little less nice, as we have less dedicated bike paths (and Doug Ford (derogatory), our Premier (the leader of our provincial parliament) is making it harder to put bike lanes in). 

Tourist destinations/activities 

1. A major destination people recommend going to is Gatineau park. Which to be fair is gorgeous, and has beautiful fall colours. Great hiking trails, but hilarious to say as a thing to do in Ottawa, as it's not in Ottawa… it's not even in the same province (it's in Quebec). Real Ottawans know about the Greenbelt trails. These are managed by the NCC (whose mission is to make the Capital pretty), and they’re way less busy than Gatineau park (Gatineau park is HELL to get to during fall colours)
2. Also in Chelsea (which is where Gatineau park is located), is Spa Nordik! This is where Troy and Harris go on their date. It’s on a granite clifftop overlooking Gatineau Park and the views are stunning.
3. There are a lot of museums to go see! The Nature Museum is by far my favourite. Other highlighted ones are the Art Gallery of Canada, and the Science and Tech museum. Plus the Ottawa Art Gallery has to have a shoutout! I think all of our museums participate in the free museum nights on Thursday nights, and most people will have gone at least once. It’s chaos. 
4. Our National Art Museum has a GIANT spider sculpture out front, called Maman. Children (and adults too to be fair), find themselves running between her legs. 
5. Our Nature Museum is in a big castle! And it has a giant moon that you can see from outside of it. Both of these museums are in quite beautiful buildings.  
6. The Nature museum hosts an event called Nature Nocturne monthly (?). A big dance event that also gives you access to the museum exhibits, drinks, demos, and various dance floors. Very popular.
7. The Byward Market is a pretty popular tourist destination. (You generally hear it referred to as “the market”). The market part of it is dying out, but there’s still a lot of cute shops there, and it’s right near the Rideau Center (one of our shopping malls), a bunch of bus stops, and the light rail train (LRT). In recent years, it’s definitely gotten a little less popular, with more crime and homelessness in the area making it feel more unsafe (normally moreso at night). 
8. In the spring, we have the tulip festival. This happens over 3 weekends in May, and the main viewing location is at Dow’s lake. The Dutch send us hundreds of thousands of tulips each year as a thank you for sheltering their royal family during World War II. The NCC plants several hundred thousand more along the canal, at Dow’s, at Major Hill’s Park, and elsewhere across the city. This is a big draw for Mother’s Day (as it overlaps). You can’t convince me that Shane and his dad didn’t bring Yuna here growing up for Mother’s day. I love to think that Ilya brings Yuna to the tulip festival when he’s living in Ottawa. 

Hockey in the city 

1. The Canadian Tire Centre (CTC) is where our NHL team plays. In a hilarious nod to Heated Rivalry, it’s informally known as the Sensplex (sounds the same as Censplex). The CTC is in the middle of nowhere, with nothing around it but a big parking lot. (I’m biased, there is stuff around it, but it feels pretty empty). It’s about a 20 min drive from downtown, and much longer to get to on game days. Ottawa does have buses that go there, but our bus infrastructure is such a mess (literally SUCH a mess. Really embarrassing for a capital city), that it’s likely also difficult to get there via bus. Parking is madness, especially when leaving the CTC. We had an incident one time where a backup goalie was seen running along the side of the highway to get to the game in time. 
• For nearly 20 years, people have been talking about building a new arena right downtown in a neighbourhood called LeBreton Flats. Finally, it seems like this might actually happen. The Centaurs would move from their far-flung suburban hell into the shadow of Parliament Hill. 
2. We have a professional women’s hockey league (PWHL) team here. They're called the Ottawa Charge. They play at a smaller but better-located arena called Lansdowne, which is right in the Glebe. Troy and Harris could walk to the games in under 15 minutes! 
• There’s controversy over the PWHL playing at Lansdowne because the city is embarking on a controversial new project called Lansdowne 2.0, in which they will be tearing down the current arena to build a smaller, less good arena. Everyone expects the Ottawa Charge to move the team to Lebreton Flats when the new NHL arena is built. 
3. But anyways, our PWHL team. The Ottawa Charges! They’re so fun to go see, and we have fans that bring kazoos to the games, and use the kazoos to do “ba da ba daa da daaaaaa” and then we all yell CHARGE!!! Not Ilya going to a PWHL game, seeing that, and immediately buying a kazoo. I dare you to tell me otherwise. Ilya #1 Ottawa Charge fan

Cute date spots 

1. Mooshu ice cream: one of the best ice cream spots in the city! They do really fun flavours, and they change their flavours monthly!! They used to be in Centretown, in a tiny little standing-room only shop. Now they’ve moved to Hintonburg, and they have seating! Their new place is quite beautiful, and they’ve also expanded their menu to include drinks!
2. Closer to Ilya’s house would be Beachconer’s ice cream. It’s right near Britannia beach, so a cute little beach day with ice cream. Britannia also has a huge beach and huge park space with outdoor grills. Great place for a picnic date, and right along the bike path. 
3. Art house cafe in Centretown: very artsy, all the art on the walls is by local artists, and for sale 
4. The Mud Oven in Old Ottawa South: you choose a piece of pre-made pottery and paint it! 
5. Haus of Chaa in Centretown: very good lavender latte 
6. Happy Goat: local coffee chain. There’s a couple spots around town! 
7. Little Victories: local coffee shop. They’ve got two locations, one in the Glebe and one Downtown. Pricey but fancier. They also sell their coffee beans! 
8. The Arboretum: a beautiful little area by Dow’s lake, tons of trees and connected to the bike path! A cute little spot to walk around. Especially nice in the spring when the cherry blossom trees are in bloom 
9. Level One board game cafe in the Byward Market. Lots of board games to choose from, and food and drinks available! 
10. Tartelette in Old Ottawa East: French bakery! Has won some awards for their pastries. Very good almond croissant 
11. Any of our local movie theatres: the Mayfair, the Bytown. They show a combination of new movies and oldies! The Mayfair in particular is very fun, their seating is nice and cozy!! 
12. Seeing a local theatre performance. We have a good amount of local theatre at the National Arts Centre, The Gladstone, Centrepointe Theatre, and the Great Canadian Theatre Company. (There are likely some I’m missing as well!!).
13. Going to a farmers market on the weekend! We have a good amount of them now, but the one at Lansdowne is probably one of our biggest. It runs indoors at the Aberdeen Pavilion (at Lansdowne) in the winter, and outside in the summer. Often paired with 613 Flea (which runs monthly, not weekly). 613 Flea is a massive market (not really a flea market) with local artisans, food vendors, and second hand clothing. Very popular, and dogs are allowed! 
14. In the winter, we have the Christmas Market at Lansdowne. It runs at night, so it's very atmospheric. Similar in concept to what you’d see at a Christmas market in Germany, with cute outdoor stalls, hot cider, local vendors, and crafts galore to peruse! Dogs allowed
15. The NCC has bistros across the city in the summer. Very cute, and in scenic areas. My favourites are the one at Patterson Creek, and the one at Remic Rapids 
16. River House!!! This is a restored house along the Ottawa River. It used to be used as a canoe club, and the NCC renovated it a couple summers ago and made it into a beautiful swim spot (while keeping the canoe club). With deep water swimming, a cafe, and a beautiful view over the Ottawa River. You can also take the water taxi to get to it from downtown. (Yes, this is exactly as it sounds. It’s a boat!). Or take a ride there along the bike path!
17. The Great Glebe Garage Sale! This event happens once a year in the Glebe and draws crowds from across the city. Everyone hosts their garage sale at the same time, and since the Glebe is a fancy neighbourhood, you can find some amazing stuff. Sailboats, snowboards, antiques, clothes –you name it, someone’s trying to get rid of it. Troy and Harris could go! Harris could sell some of his old lamps!

Student life 

1. We have two big universities: Carleton University, and OttawaU. Carleton has its own self-contained campus nestled in the fork of the Ottawa River and the Rideau Canal. In the winter you can skate to school when the canal is frozen! OttawaU is a sprawling campus, but most of its buildings are in the downtown core. It’s also along the canal! We also have Saint-Paul University in Old Ottawa East, which is a bilingual Catholic University. 
2. As for colleges, we have Algonquin College (in Nepean). 
3. Because of this, we have a pretty large student population during the school year. Lots of moving out May 1st, and lots of move in Sept 1st. Frosh week is fun, as the engineers dye themselves purple 
4. Carleton and OttawaU have a rivalry, and our biggest school event is called the Panda Game. This is a football game that both schools play in! Presumably both schools have chants, but the Carleton one I’m familiar with has such lines as “fuck you, Ottawa U!” And “what the fuck’s a Gee-Gee” (OttawaUs mascot). I have never attended a Panda Game, so can’t confirm if those chants are actually yelled at the game :p 
5. Ottawa Tourism put out a 15 min Christmas Romcom to promote Ottawa. The woman’s walking path is absolutely chaotic and covers close to 10 kilometers in an unhinged zig-zag. Worth the watch!

Ottawa Airport

1. We have the Ottawa airport (YOW). This airport is not the smallest I’ve ever been in, but it’s pretty small! We have two lines you can go through for security: 1 for getting to the US, 1 for going anywhere else in the world. The US security line will actually take you some time to go through, whereas if you’re travelling anywhere else and only have carry on, you could easily show up 30 minutes before your flight and get through no problem. I’m nervous, so I’ll aim to show up an hour before my flight. Security normally takes 5 minutes, but on rare occasions I’ve had it take 15. 
2. The departures at the airport are on the top floor, baggage is on the bottom floor. To get from your flight to baggage, you go down 1 escalator. Your friends/family can meet you at the bottom of the escalator! There’s just a big room with a couple baggage claims there, open to anyone. 
3. There are some Timmies (Tim Hortons) locations in the airport, but more importantly (and with shorter lines) there is a smoothie place called Booster Juice! 

Music in the city

1. We have a great amount of music options! From our big venues like the Canadian Tire Centre (where bigger names will go), to the National Arts Centre, and Lansdowne arena. In terms of smaller venues, we have the Bronson Centre (in centretown). 
2. There’s a number of more local venues that host live music events from local artists, as well as our thriving improv scene. These are venues such as Live! On Elgin, Irene’s Pub, Red Bird Live, Bar Robo, and Jazz@248.
3. We have a number of music festivals in the city throughout the year. Some of the big ones we have are Jazz fest, Bluesfest, Folk fest, and Escapade (EDM). 
4. People will also travel outside of Ottawa to Montreal and Toronto. A lot of bigger acts will often skip Ottawa, and do Toronto and/or Montreal. Montreal is only a 2 hour drive from Ottawa, with buses, trains, and carpooling options, so it’s a pretty popular option among locals if the artist you’re hoping to see is skipping Ottawa. 

General advice from inaccuracies I’ve seen in fics: 

1. Canada has free health care. There’s an increase in people CHOOSING private care options due to our healthcare system being overburdened, but for my mpreg writers, the boys would not go into medical debt for giving birth. That’s just not a thing that would happen here! Medical debt in general is just not a huge thing here. You might wait years to see a specialist though. And you will certainly wait hours at emerg. 
2. Especially in an AU setting where Shane doesn’t travel regularly to the US, he would not have venmo or any other cash app. That’s not a thing in Canada. We have Interac e-transfers (or just e-transfers as we call them). It’s money sent from bank to bank. 
3. Canada has 10 provinces and 3 territories. Ottawa is in the province of Ontario, and Montreal is in the province of Quebec. Ottawa is Canada’s capital.
• We are a parliamentary democracy! We have a prime minister, not a president. Our current prime minister is a Heated Rivalry fan and he was given a Shane Hollander fleece to wear!
4. University is expensive, but not as expensive as US universities. To give a range, one year in the humanities is around $6K for Canadian residents, and one year in engineering is about $8K. These costs go up for international students, but it’s also worth noting these are in CAD. Our currency is worth 30% less than USD right now.
5. We also distinguish between university and college (versus the American “college” for everything).
6. Same sex marriage was legalized in Canada in 2005. Shane would have been 14 when this occurred.
7. Finances: In Ontario, it doesn't matter if you’re married or not. If you’ve been living together romantically for 2+ years, you’re common law by default. Which means you have to divide your assets when you split up.
8. Canada has postal codes, not zip codes. Postal codes are composed of 6 characters: a letter, followed by a number, followed by a letter and so on. This is why when you write to Santa Claus, you can post a letter to H0H 0H0 and that’s a valid postal code. You wouldn’t really say that you don’t live in the same postal code as someone, typically you would reference not living in the same city, or the same neighbourhood. 
9. Splitting a cheque at a restaurant is the default. The waiter will just ask how you’d like the bill split at the end of the meal. Easy, no hassle.

Finally, this is a personal request. Me and my friends have discussed a heated rivalry x Naruto government AU crossover in depth. As my dear friend @suspiciousflashlight pointed out…. Naruto and co. work at the Treasury Board of Canada. Shane’s dad works at the treasury board too. I am BEGGING you all for the greatest Canadian crossover fic…! Please spread the word. (My pipe dream is for this to be mentioned in passing in S2). 

I honestly think as couples, they would get on like a house on fire. Naruto/Ilya are both really outgoing and ready to have a fun time. I think they’d egg each other on and get themselves into shenanigans. I think Naruto and Shane would also have a tentative friendship, and especially with Naruto speaking French they’d have their little French convos together (maybe even double date where they agree to only speak French, to help their partners get better. Sasuke’s after that gov French level, and Ilya just wants to learn too!). 

Sasuke and Ilya would simp over their partners together, and Shane and Sasuke would hang out quietly together as their partners blow things up in the background. They’re both like it’s fine, it’s enrichment. I think there’s so much potential here y’all….. !!! 

Thank you for reading, and I hope this can be of some help to you all!!! I am so happy to answer any questions or comments, so please feel free to leave them :D