National Capital Region (Canada) 3.71

The National Capital Region, also referred to as Canada's Capital Region and Ottawa–Gatineau, is an official federal designation for the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Ontario, the neighbouring city of Gatineau, Quebec, and surrounding urban and rural communities. The term National Capital Region is often used to describe the Ottawa–Gatineau metropolitan area, although the official boundaries of the NCR do not precisely correspond to the statistical metropolitan area.Unlike capital districts in some other federal countries, such as the District of Columbia in the United States or the Australian Capital Territory in Australia, the National Capital Region is not a separate political or administrative entity. Its component parts are within the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.Defined by the National Capital Act, the National Capital Region consists of an area of 4715km2 that straddles the Ottawa River, which serves as the boundary between the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. This area is smaller than that of the Ottawa–Gatineau census metropolitan area, which is 6287km2 in size. Ottawa–Gatineau is the only CMA in the nation to fall within two provinces.HistoryThe European first settlement in the region was led by Philemon Wright, a New Englander from Woburn, Massachusetts who, on March 7, 1800, arrived with his own and five other families along with twenty-five labourers to start an agricultural community on the north bank of the Ottawa River (Hull, Quebec) at the portage to the Chaudière Falls.